clanchief

I received a socio economic impact questionaire yesterday about the Viking Energy Windfarm. Among the key points highlighted is the fact that "significant engineering works will be required for over 100Km of access roads, foundations, substations, new cables & lines, demand for aggregates and and transport services during the construction phase" The hills of Shetland are certainly going to look different!

We are almost half way through October and the bulk of the leaves are still on the trees. What are the chances of us seeing some autumn colours in Shetland this year instead of the whole lot being blown off in one night of gales?

Yes they are mostly all jumping the sinking ship and taking a big pension!

What's Garry O'Conner all about? The whole country is on a high and he can't be arsed to travel with the Scottish Team. Walter should ban him from ever playing for Scotland again.

Obviously, the Shetland News partners make their money from selling the stories to the national press. Most of their stuff gets printed in the Press & Journal. I think they do a great job & I certainly don't grudge them a holiday break

We were just talking about this the other night. A friend of mine stays on Lochside & he says that when the dump was where the Clickimin playing fields now are, all the hooses in Loch side were plagued by rats & absolutely full of flies/bluebottles. Another guy said that one night he took a van load of building material to that dump & in the lights of the van the surface of the dump was a seething mass, "like a moving grey carpet" is how he described it. Apparently stuff like animal heads & offal was just dumped on the open tip which also contained household waste/food etc. How times have changed, apparently you have to wipe your feet when you go to the new "recycling" dump building at Dale! Anyone been there yet?

A commission spokeswoman for the legal unit of DG Fisheries, said she could confirm that they had received a letter of complaint and that the unit was conducting an initial assessment of a possible infringement of state aid regulations. Valerie Tankink said she could not give any further details of the complaint as these were always treated confidentially. She said the complaint had been made "some weeks ago". The legal department was now in contact with the "national authorities" in the UK to establish the facts surrounding the complaint. She added that it was far too early to say whether an investigation was to be opened, which is a decision that would be made once the initial assessment had been completed. The above quote is taken from the "Fishupdate" website dated 15th June 2006. So why are the SIC currently expressing surprise at the complaint and why are the SIC & the Shetland Times grumping about the complaint being anonymous when the EC says that these things are always treated confidentially ?

I see that Sandy Cluness & other councillors are whinging about the SIC being reported to the EC for contravening state aid regulations. The following guidelines are taken direct from the state aid web page: How do you know if aid is present? There are four tests that must be met for State aid to be present Aid is granted by a Member State or through a State resource; The aid favours certain undertakings or production of certain goods; It is aid which distorts or threatens to distort competition: and The aid affects trade between Member States. Surely, when the SIC proposed to build a new £5m pier at Sellaness solely for the use of an Icelandic Fishmeal Factory the officials should firstly have checked whether this contravened state aid regulations. The same with the investment in the Norrona. Instead of blaming the person(s) who have now reported the situation to the EC, Sandy Cluness should be pointing the finger of blame at the SIC officials who didn't first of all clear the projects with the state aid regulators.

It is strange that there are no Grouse in Northmavine/Yell/Unst, yet there are plenty in Delting. You would think that the grouse in Toft or Lunnasting would fancy a trip to Yell ! I mind reading years ago that it was known for Grouse to fly from Ayrshire(?) to Northern Ireland.

The SIC recently agreed to spend up to £12million (?) of reserve fund money in a phased programme of housing over the next 4-5 years

Does anyone know exactly where on Fetlar this is? Brian mentioned that they walked from the main road to the TV mast and they saw the site straight away

Brian Smith (Archivist) gave a talk last week about Shetland's Gallow Hills. Amazingly there are 13 such hills and as the medieval population is estimated to be only about 10,000, this is a huge. number of hanging sites. Brian explained that in Fetlar there is a 25 yard square turf enclosure on the hilltop that he reckons is the remains of an enclosure for the gallows & there is also a stone faced hole that would have held the gallows. This must be worth a look, has anyone seen this?

Did anyone watch the first in this series last night - Great acting, good script & good historical research. Some very funny bits as well. At one stage, Nero was performing a cultured dramatic play to an audience of Senators who seemed uncomfortable about the situation. The voice over explained that in its time this was an extraordinary event and its modern equivalent would be our Queen performing a pole dance before parliament! Nero then proceeded to kill his wife because she criticised his acting and later replaced her with a male look a like who he had castrated so that he could marry him. Can't wait for the second episode, much better than East Enders

"Shooting it works too, if you're a good shot. We had a minister who did that once with a 12 bore, he wasn't, he missed the mouse and made the mousehole in the manse skirting board in to a rabbit hole." Ah yes, good old Rev Fisher. To be strictly true, it wasn't a 12 bore but a 410 shotgun that he used. Still not adviseable indoors! Although we have no signs of mice at the moment, the field mice always make their way indoors at this time of year & I set one trap on Saturday in anticipation. I put lard on the trap - no success so far.

I am sorry to say that according to the regular photoes in the "Red TOp" press, he seems to be staggering in your footsteps.

A friend of mine always took his dog fishing and it went everywhere with him............Except it would not go near the north end of the island in Girlsta Loch , every time, the hairs would raise on its back & it would retreat & wait for him to fish back around to the south end.

I almost had an orgasm after reading that lot

I agree that tourism in Shetland can only ever be a seasonal industry. To put this in perspective, the west coast of Scotland is remote and has many of the attributes of Shetland. Scenery, clean air, walking etc. During the summer, Inverewe Gardens attracts 100,000 visitors, an indication of the numbers in the area. There is plenty of accomodation, Hotels, S/catering, B&B etc. Tourists can alos stay as far away as Inverness and still take day trips to the West Coast. However, it all closes down in the winter, there are no tourists, most businesses are geared up for this and during the winter live off the fat earned during a busy summer. Shetland will never get the numbers of tourists required to develop the industry much beyond the existing level.

Yes, it does sound like BGA. I fished the loch today from the boat, we had 10 trout all lovely & red fleshed, great eating. There is some signs algae in the water but its harmless & only attains the BGA status when it dies off. Just be sensible & don't drink it it get it on your skin.

i know i have! you could always try bays - they used to sell it That'l be EBays, I assume

What about the golf range at Gulberwick. I don't think there are any rules about weilding a golf club when drunk!

Quote "The fact is this – the Council’s affluence over the years has enabled it to When cuts are being discussed, its always easy to target staffing levels, ........ am seriously starting to doubt the ability of councillors to make difficult decisions about spending. Most of them now speak very sensibly about the need to make cuts but still shy away from actually doing anything to implement them. And are they truly representing the wider interests of their electorate when they vote against cuts or just siding with a very small but vocal minority?" An example of SIC rampant spending excess is the decision to create a new job for the current head of planning within the Development department, apparently because he just fancies doing something different after 30 years in planning! Get real.

How about " An muckle sphincter lek a kishie o livers" Description of a lady with large slack buttocks!

That's correct, but in the big (£40 cost) reference book about Shetland birds published last year, it says that there have been a few unconfirmed sightings of Choughs in Shetland but "surprisingly" the bird is on the coat of arms ???? No other expanation given.

As a favour , I took a box of venison on the plane to deliver to someone in Shetland. I was sh*t scared that I would be attacked by a dog at Sumburgh.