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corruption of the 11 yo isn't necessary. generally whatever we're listening to is deemed 'cool', and she is well aware her mother's taste is dubious - she took them to see justin timberlake when youngest was about 6. She is still very bitter about the whole experience now. had an untimely piece of luck in the summer visit too, when her older sister managed to wipe her mp3 player, making it necessary for her to borrow my ipod for the duration. oops. gave her some radiohead to prepare for the depressing teenage years too...

atmosphere by russ abbot kindly brought back into my head by a work colleague three days ago. i am going to kill him. but only after i have come up with something worse to put into his head.

We took wir cats doon wi wis in January and pat dem in da kennels. wan thing tae watch is dat northlink book cats an dugs intae dem, so da cat could end up wi dugs aa aroond it. tink it wis aboot £7 wan wye. dir wis idder eens dat got on in orkney and joost took da cat basket tae dir cabin. likely aright providing yur no sharing wi unkin fok... watch oot fur da sedatives. wi got eens fae da vet but got telt dat some cats goes clean high whin dir geen dem. widna fancy 12 hours on a boat wi a cat climbin da waas... if du's feeling really flush, du could aye fly up wi him. dunna tink dey charge extra, joost mak sure du tells dem du's taking a cat - my pal didna when he wis flying tae bristol and him and da cat got as far as glasgow an den he hed tae drive fae dere. Wi a cat dat's violently car seek. 8 hours i tink it took, but i'm no 100% sure becis he starts twitching if you mention it (da human, no da cat...).

back on topic... there used to be a thriving metal / biker community when i were a lass, but don't know if it still exists now. I still listen to loud noxious music as much as i can. NIN, Rammstein, Green Day and, oddly enough, Iron Maiden have been kicking about the stereo of late. Amusing musical conversation of the week was with other half's youngest (She has extremely good musical taste, and isn't adverse to corruption either. We just hope she never studies German, as we've given her som Rammstein to take home...) She was up for the weekend and was reviewing our music collection, and started to tell us about a particularly crap CD her mum had in the car which was really embarrassing to be dropped off to (she's 11). She thought the name had an R in it, and after much digging, she said we didn't have it. Cue other half and I pretty much in unison 'Bay City Rollers'... We were right, that was the disturbing thing.

not exactly much to protect you from the elements on the lang khames there...

Someone I knew got asked to leave the Excelsior (Mooney's Wake to all you youngsters) after he set light to himself to prove the silver suit he was wearing was indeed flameproof. Magnificent.

i had friends up the first weekend in November last year. Hits were the craft fair in Clickamin (not sure if it's on this year or not), the fireworks, again at Clickamin, Eshaness and St Ninians Isle. Misses were pretty much every other tourist site of interest which seemed to be closed. The tourist office were useless too - so bad it was commented on. Bonhoga was ok, but we went on the Sunday and were quite unceremoniously told to go away and come back at 12 when it opened - this was at 20 to! Walking is possible, just bear in mind that it gets light late and dark early. Oilskins and probably thermals would be very good. For self catering try the Easterhoull chalets in East Voe (near Scalloway) - only slight problem is that the nearest shop is a fair walk away if it's not nice weather. if you do head north, I hope you have a great time!

the following link has copies of letters you can send, together with details of success or failure by bank. Not tried it yet, but will do once i dig out my statements... http://www.bankcharges.info/

On the day that I finally admitted that Goth black hair did not go with mySheltie white skin and got it professionally stripped out, a premium bond that my gran had bought me on the day i was born came up. Cost of hair stripping - £49.50 Premium bond win - £50.00 Net profit for day - boring brown hair again and 50p!!!

Canna believe da last bit aboot Atomic Kitten - dey wid nivvir o kent wha Led Zep wis, let alon Jimmy Page....

Good luck with the interview today. If you get fed up of the bus, it's worth trying the Terminal as a lot of people car share (actively encouraged actually) and a fair few people from Ollaberry, Hillswick, North Roe and Eshaness work there.

What annoys me about touts is that they are stopping a genuine fan of the band/performance/whatever from seeing it/them. I don't believe for a second that touts sell everything that they acquire, so there will be empty seats that could have been filled by someone to whom the event matters. Only thing more annoying that touts is people who have got tickets for nothing who try to sell them on (Live 8 for example)....

ony idea wha's gaen tae win da title? me an da boys in da office wir tinkin pedrosa might squeak it until dis week... valencia is goin tae be mad. canna wait!

brings back memories of paddlin efter an open air do in the fraser park. most hiv been a good night, fur we took aff wir docs an geed in wi sock feer an lived tae tell da tale! it's aa comin back noo - we wir drinkin some dubious concoction aquired fae da wine shop caa'd vampire wine dat tasted o walnuts... I kept dat bottle fur years efter, mainly as a warnin fae my liver...

Florida. The trick to keeping it affordable is to look and see when the English schools break up and travel out the day before, or bite the bullet and travel on Xmas Day itself. Only problem with the latter is that you can't get a flight from Aberdeen as the airport is shut. Both Disney and Universal pull out all the stops for the festive season, the weather's pretty good and the exchange rate is very promising indeed just now...

The other thing to watch with Travel Insurance, particularly when travelling from Shetland to foreign climes, is that you are covered door-to-door. We got stung a couple of years ago when we got stuck in Barcelona due to My Travel's utter incompetence. Even though we'd done the sensible Sheltie thing and allowed a day between supposed landed date and onward travel back to Shetland, we missed our connecting flight. Was NOT a happy bunny to be told by the insurance people that the policy only covered us from departure point of overseas travel to return to British soil from overseas travel. I always phone and ask now, Tescos policy seems to be pretty good at the moment.

Slightly off topic, but what exactly happens to the SNP if they achieve devolution? Do they all rejoin their 'real' parties? This one has bothered me for years, and, along with Alex Salmond, is the major reason I won't vote for them.

dunna do whit dey did at a funeral i wis at no dat lang ago... instead o a tune someen hid decided tae hae een o yun 'relaxation' type tapes playin da soond o wattir runnin as you cam intae da kirk... an nae toilets onywye close tae hand... an hour an a half o misery, an an awfil lot o folk movin very fast at da end o it...

Friends of mine wanted to buy local too, and went to Hays for the kitchen units - apparently it's not too bad compared to sooth prices. Different story with the appliances though - they found Zanussi items almost £500 cheaper on the internet than the local agent, but, being desperate to help the local economy, went in to ask if said local agent could come down in price a bit [didn't even ask them to match the internet price], only to be told that that was what the price tag said so that was what it cost. They said that what annoyed them the most was the couldn't care less attitude of the staff in the shop. So they went with the internet... If it's any help, B&Q deliver to Shetland free of charge. I think you have to order through one of the Aberdeen shops though.

Saw it this afternoon and can say it put a huge grin on my face. Yes it's cheesy, and predictable, and the title pretty much sums it up, but it worked for me... It's up there with Under Siege, can I give it any more praise than that?!

Fantastic - but I will have to explain my out loud laughing to the boss now... I'm never this happy at work!!

This might sound really obvious, but make sure you measure the couch(s) yourself before buying. It will save all kinds of hassle and window removal to get them in... We bought from the LoL shop in Aberdeen, and they were really good. Bloke was very helpful and there was no pressure to buy, unlike certain other places [DFS next door for example]. Got the couches when they said we would, all bits included. Mam bought from them when they were in Clickamin a couple of years ago. Only problem she had was that one set of feet was missed out of the packaging. One phonecall and they were express delivered to her.

We moved the other way in January and used Ian Reid. Total cost for 3 bedroom house from Hillswick to Aberdeenshire was about £1500. This was packing everything ourselves, though they did supply the boxes. They were really good too, very quick to load and unload, and even ran all the way to Lerwick for a ramp when they realised that the 'bike' they had on their list was in fact a Honda CBR 600!! I used Shetland Transport a couple of times when I lived south before and they were pretty good too. Quoted cost is probably so high because if you use a south firm they'll charge you to go up on the boat and then back down again... Good luck with the move - hope the boat trip doesn't put you off for life!

I think it should be the choice of the patient. There's too much emphasis these days on keeping people alive no matter what - I sometimes think that it's because the hospitals are afraid of being sued. I would rather die with dignity than be a drain on family / NHS for days/months/years because medicine can keep me breathing. If there's no quality of life, surely you are just existing?

unfortunately Shetland is always hidden by a raincloud on the BBC map. I don't think it exists on the Sky or main ITV forecasts either!