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As far as I am aware schools do try to encourage dialect, but sometimes it's restricted to particular 'lessons'. Primary schools have a range of resources like cds of dialect speakers reading poems and the latest idea is to have pupils sing dialect songs as this is seen as being more accessible than poetry as a starting point. In my opinion the problem of us losing our dialect started when it was considered unacceptable in schools. As a child I was told not to speak dialect in school and was corrected for the wrong use of things like 'you' and 'du'. I still speak in dialect. I can 'correct my speaking' to be understood by people with no knowledge of the dialect, but by and large people understand what I say. If they don't they ask and I give them an alternative word. Ok I get ridiculed by some teenagers for my accent, but they are very much in the minority of all the youngsters I know, and tend to be the ones who ridicule anything that moves! Can other people speak dialect? Well they can, but it sounds funny to my ears, but I suspect no funnier than my attempts at French sound to a French speaker. Whether they should use dialect or not is a decision for that person themselves. I do have friends who have resisted speaking dialect for years, but who find themselves using more and more words unwittingly due to their exposure to my language. I don't know if the dialect will die out completely, but I think we would be poorer if it did. We have the opportunity to try to make sure that it doesn't by carrying on using the dialect as much as possible.

I had a quick look in 'Cookery for Northern Wives' by Margaret Stout, but there was no mention of cockles. Charlie Simpson suggests steeping them twice (if you can wait that long), blanching them, reserving the cooking water when draining them to get rid of any grit, then lightly frying them in butter, sometimes with parsley or lemon juice and a little of the reserved water. Charlie's book 'In Da Galley' is very readable and has a lot of ideas for cooking local dishes.

And the milk in the tumblers was always horrible and loogit (lukewarm). Our teacher made the girls use pink tumblers and the boys use blue. You got yellow if there wasn't enough of 'your' colour left... I mind them knocking the house down next to Slottis to make Church Road and being fascinated by seeing half a house inside - but outside. I have vague recollections of something to do with a toilet or a bathroom which made it funnier as a small child, but I might be mixing that up with something else. How about going swimming to the dinghy in the summer? Or the swimming galas held in the small boat harbour? I used to love watching the greasy pole. My only sporting claim to fame was winning thruppence for coming second in a running race at the Cunningsburgh Show. It was the highlight of the summer as far as I was concerned.

So did I. We must have been in the same class, or then I was one class ahead. I was in 2D when we moved up to the AHS. In primary school our class kept on being shuttled back and forth between Bells Brae, the Old Infants and the Central. Thinking about it now it must have been hell for the teachers to manage.

Never mind Islesburgh - what about when it was a school? I was there for both primary and secondary school until we moved up to the AHS to the new A, B and C blocks. The open air swimming pool in Scalloway. VAT changing and crisps going down from 3p to 2 1/2p per packet. We thought we had it made that day! The Levenwick shop seemed to have the same toys on display all the time and every summer I used to stare longingly at them - but I never got anything. I can't even remember what it was that I thought was so good.

At one time they were trying to collate a list of all the gravestones in each kirkyard, complete with inscriptions. I think the idea was to produce booklets with the information.

I have to admit that on the rare occasion I do varnishing I prefer Valti to any other brands. Seems to give a good result without needing lots of coats and fine and easy to clear up after.

So far today - Aith, Happyhansel, Skeld and Sandness. THere was also something about no Leask's bus through North Nesting, though I presume that those who use it will have been informed by now? Other than that it was just wait and see what other schools said.

All open except Tingwall - at the moment. Decision is up to individual head teachers, if any more schools are going to shut the info will be posted in the media as usual. From the BBC news.

There's another good snowman (snow viking?) outside Bell's Brae School, reading a magazine - well, you know what I mean... Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to stop and take a photo, but what I saw as we drove past was pretty impressive. Spotting the snowmen is almost as much fun as 'Spotting the Christmas Lights'

Having sat in a hall watching the acts for many years I think that there are lots of factors in the choice of what a squad picks to do. Dances are good - but rely on having people who can dance and who can still remember the steps in the last halls... Slantigirt Flatley were in our hall last thing in the night, but still did the routine to the same standard seen in the youtube clip. The other dance routine I really enjoyed this year was Gaz Vader and The Bad Boy Troopers. Visual routines are good - but need a degree of originality which can be difficult to maintain. The conductor standing on a platform which was suspended from springs was good the second time I saw it, several years after the first, but I had seen it before. (The first time was over 15 yrs ago ...) The man in the balloon that burst (4yrs ago+?) was brilliant. Skits and satirical songs are fun but need good plots/words. If you're one of the people who doesn't get a copy of the songsheet to read sometimes you can't make out what they're singing. It must be really annoying for the squads who try to do a skit when the people they're trying to entertain in the hall won't stop talking to listen to them. That might be one reason for acts moving over to dances because the music can drown out the never ending conversations! I really enjoyed Up Helly Aa this year. We seemed to have a steady succession of squads all night and the standard of the acts was generally very good.

I bought a Panasonic DMC-TZ6 earlier this year - 10.1 Megapixels with a 12 x optical zoom. I've been really pleased with it - it's small, light, takes good photos (in my opinion) and can do everything I can think of so far in terms of a want list. My niece bought one after seeing my camera and has also been pleased with it. She's doing an art degree so her requirements are different from mine (snaps, people and views) but it seems to be adequate for both purposes. Hope that helps. If you want any more detail then just PM me.

It was the white fish and pelagic landings along with the grant allocations that finished me off... My apologies for missing Nesting!

Can't remember the full list, but the ones which are closed are the ones which are in either the North or west mainland as there have been a couple of inches of snow. Shetland College and learning centres is open today Eric Gtay is open, but will be assessed for individual clients. Skeld, Mossbank Whiteness North Roe Mid Yell Tingwall Brae Urafirth Happyhansel Aith Sandness Ollaberry Olnafirth Hmmm - I started to type the list, then had to wait for the list of fishing reports.... Think I got them all...

I'm delighted that the recipe is working for you all - the size of yoghurt pot I generally use is one of the small 150g ones. It just gives that touch of sourness that makes the bannocks taste good. You could use buttermilk instead of the milk/yoghurt combination if you want. It's really my Auntie Mary's recipe, but as she's no longer around I look after the recipe... She was good fun to bake with - we would try out all sorts of combinations, some better than others. If the results were inedible it went on the peat shed roof for the scories!

All the schools are closed to pupils today. Was on Radio Shetland just before 7am.

Remember to add in the thickness of snow...

Heavens that has really made me feel old... I thought the photos of the smiddy would be ones inside with it working - I can remember being in there when I was peerie, not being allowed to touch anything. It was a very exciting place to visit as was Jeemie Smiths boatshed and the cooperage at J & M Shearers.

Reading the instructions for the icecream making attachment I got for Christmas. So far so good - other than whisking the milk into the eggs rather than stirring. Waiting for the bubbles to go down while it cools...

Congratulations - better start saving pounds as well as the pennies!

christmassy Just come from a watchnight service, then heard Santa Claus leaving the house...

Listen tp SIBC and/or Radio Orkney. If the schools are going to be shut they will have the information. Radio Orkney is on at 7.30am, but I think that SIBC might even have the info at 7am.

I also saw some in the fish shop out near the Sound school this afternoon.

We used to live opposite the fire station (or at least where the fire station was...). Someone invented a game called 'drains' - I can't remember all the rules, but it was a bit like dodgeball combined with rounders. You stood in front of the middle door while someone threw a ball at your legs - if they hit you, you ran from there to each drain along the front of the concrete forecourt in turn. We also had a lot of fun swinging from the ropes the fire brigade conveniently provided from the tower thing for drying hoses on. When you were little the older children wouldn't let you run right round the station on the wall because there was a higher bit at one corner. The West Dock aka the Skibbidock was interesting, but we never went on peoples boats. There were lots of back roads and paths between garages and sheds to cycle along - and lots of puddles to splash through, much to my mothers annoyance. We did get told off one day for trying to climb up the outside of the cooling tower at the ice factory, but what we should have been told off for was finding carryoots hidden between the sheds, emptying them out, then putting them back. Somehow or other it never occured to us to try any of the contents! I've often wondered what the owners thought had happened to their drink... In the other direction the Coonty Garage provided lots of open trucks to play in and snow ploughs to slide down. When they changed the route of the north road to go through the garage grounds we lost that source of amusement, but by that time we were getting a bit bigger and were going a bit further afield to play. The thing I'm very conscious of having forgotten are all the rhymes we had for skipping, french skipping and playing with a ball. There seemed to be a natural season for each type of game, but all that seems to have disappeared now - bit of a shame really but I'm sure that bairns invent new (better?) games to supercede what I remember.

I tried this the last time I was travelling to Aberdeen with my youngest daughter who has additional support needs. Right enough they came and asked us to go through early, but wouldn't wait for her to switch from watching video to going to plane. The result was that I nearly didn't get on the plane as she went into 'I will not be moved' mode. She is nearly as big as me and doesn't have the same restraint on how hard she fights as most people. If we had been able to do things more gradually the situation wouldn't have arisen. I did try to explain, but explaining and trying to move a big child and trying to calm her down at the same time and staying calm yourself isn't easy...