Frances144

You can all take the piss to your heart's content..... but at the end of the day, do you really want visitors to feel intimidated and to tell others of the way they felt about Shetland?

I thought the castle was beautiful. Of course, I have seen it from the outside everytime I pass Scalloway to take the short cut to the airport (not really a short cut, more a scenic route!). It is a very under-used and under-promoted stunning piece of history. So sad that it has to be a basketball court for gobby teenagers. What a waste.

Today I have been taking foreign visitors to Scalloway Castle to see how lovely it is. Two Scalloway lasses decided that the central hall (the big room) was obviously the best place to play netball and were throwing a large hard ball up onto the walls, hitting tourists and then standing back and looking annoyed when people were trying to photograph the place. They successfully managed to wreck the atmosphere of the place and hit a couple of folk who were trying to look at the room. Although they grudgingly apologised, they made you feel unwelcome and as if you were intruding on their space. I asked them why they were there and they said that the floor was better for ball and this was a really good place to throw it (or words of that ilk). It managed to piss me off and piss of others. I was rather ashamed of their behaviour and their attitude. PS. The ball eventually went missing when they managed to throw it over the high walls of the castle.

There are alot of dead ones on the road at the moment - I find that rather sad. Also, the best animation film in the world (IMHO) is "Hedgehog in the Fog" (Russian: ???? ? ??????, Yozhik v tumane), a 1975 Soviet animated film directed by Yuriy Norshteyn, produced by the Soyuzmultfilm studio in Moscow. (Wikipedia). I thoroughly recommend it.

The boat is full to bursting tonight. They have turned away alot of the flights north (closed for fog in Scotland). Was the P&O boat ever so full they turned folk away? F

Read on Shetland News that Atlantic Airways are considering their future with Shetland due to the all the fog. When we took some friends to catch their flight home to Manchester via Aberdeen (Loganair/BA), we were told the plane was cancelled due to the low cloud/fog. They said the airport equipment normally used for this weather situation (automatic landing) was being updated so could not be used so no flights in or out as the pilots had to land on visual info only (ie none!). I am worried that Atlantic Airways will make a decision about the viability on the Shetland route based on the fact that Sumburgh airport, for their own reasons, decided to update their fog equipment in the foggiest months of the year while having no back-up system available! Has anyone else been given this excuse by Loganair/BA? Seems utterly ridiculous to me! F

"Hans J Marter 15 July, 2006 SHETLAND Islands Council is setting up a response team to help rescue salmon processor Shetland Smokehouse, after it was put into voluntary liquidation on Thursday. Seventeen jobs are on the line at one of the few Shetland food companies with an internationally recognised brand name. Yesterday (Friday) it was announced that Michael Reid of Aberdeen legal firm Meston Reid & Co has been appointed provisional liquidator. The council's head of development Willie Shannon said: "Given the importance of secondary processing and how keen we are to promote it, it would be a great pity to let this go without doing all we can. "We are putting together a small team straight away, consisting of people with significant experience of the industry together with people with more general business experience to assess the situation over the next two to three weeks, and to come up with some options over the best way forward. "We are going to do that in co-operation with the liquidator." In January 2004, the family run Shetland Smokehouse was bought by pelagic processor Shetland Catch in a bid to gain access to a brand name and to access the company's expertise in secondary processing. Earlier this week, Shetland Catch said high salmon prices were the main reason for applying for voluntary liquidation."

Sad day for Skeld.

I am now very depressed. But thanks for confirming this for me. I missed the Radio Shetland news. I think it will be very interesting to see how the Shetland public react to this new cash injection. (Not that it will make any difference to the Council - they will do whatever they want, regardless of what anyone else thinks).

Tell me you are joking, please!

Best - Lerwick Worst - Bracknell

How much money are we talking about in this "fighting fund"? I wonder how much pressure this is putting on Sakchai? F

My partner offered them crosswords - he writes them (similar to Guardian Cryptic) and also SuDoku but they never bothered to reply. Previously he offered them to Ms Wishart who said she couldn't do the crosswords (she was more of a Times person), so no thanks. Her loss and now Mr New Editor's loss - they are fantastic to do and very clever too.

http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/film-detail.jsp?id=9621 Please go and check it out! Thanks Frances

When my broadband was playing up, I got an email from Freenentname saying sorry, it was their fault so I phoned them and said, fine, I would like a day's charges paid back to me since I could not use broadband! They duly did it! F

don't you mean "trowie"? F

"Mr Galbraith who has extensive experience of strategic and high level management in the public sector will have to find savings in Shetland's £35 million education budget. He will be paid £600 a day plus expenses." - Shetland News October 2005 That is a lot of money - he was paid from October 2005 to June 2006 = 273 days at £600 per day (plus expenses!) = £163,800 (plus expenses) in 273 days. Gee whizz!

shrimps Space dust (fizzled in your mouth - bad person to give it to dogs!) Cola cubes coke bottles fried eggs sugar mice (teeth rot and pancreas rot on a plate) F

Thanks for your comments. Yes we do offer lessons in driving Shetland pony and cart in our indoor school. The lessons are 1 hour long and you learn to harness up safely, how to drive and how to unharness. I can thoroughly recommend the experience and you will leave with a smile on your face! If you are interested, please phone me on 01595 809 799 - we are open everyday except Monday but you do need to book over the phone if you want a lesson. Alternatively, we do offer tours where someone drives you for an hour around the countryside. Cheers Frances Thordale Shetland Driving Centre www.thordale.co.uk 01595 809 799

My film! http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/film-detail.jsp?id=6101 ENjoy and please vote (favourably!). Thanks Frances

Very funny! F

Some of my posts in the technical section (RIpping DVD's) and Mac v pc have been deleted. I didn't think I was too abusive! Have I been banned? F

I seem to have been deleted! Anyway, VLC is short for VideoLan Client (I think). Just pop it in Google and you will find where to download it. I think it is freeware too! Very good at just playing anything without the fuss of regions! I too would be interested in something that overwrote the region code permanently. F

I completely disagree. I have just had a run-in with Enterprise and the Council. We shall see. F

Not anymore it isn't. You have to be a fish farm or with the right handshake. F