Far North - January 2006

Our Christmas staff night out in December sadly never happened. It was cancelled (after the food had been cooked) because of blizzards. Joy had bravely driven up from her work in Lerwick. Never mind, the good people of Uyeasound had a slap up feed, while we had cheese and wine & an early night.
At least no hangover the next day.

Ruthodanort's right. Like many others I went down to the deep south for Christmas - the south mainland of Shetland that is.

Herman-ness came up from Orkney for Xmas and a great time was had by us. Because we'd not had the staff 'do' Joy and I decided to wear what we would've worn to that - I'd actually bought a new shirt & trousers. (Those who know me know that I can be sartorially challenged). Come time for dinner & when Joy came through Herman-ness & I could only say "Wow!!" She looked stunning! Easily outshone the Christmas lights. Dinner was great of course. But Herman-ness, being a Yorkshireman had insisted on mushy peas with his dinner. He had a bowl all to himself. He had more the next day - cold, in a sandwich. I bet his duvet was floating on a layer of methane.

I was delighted to got a bodhran from Joy & played it throughout the holidays - though it didn't quite go with the Christmas carols Joy was playing on her piano.

The weather was beautiful and still over Christmas. On Boxing Day we went for a walk along Levenwick Beach and then we up to the top of Scousburgh Hill. From there you can see from Fair Isle, to Foula and all the way out the west mainland, even as far north as Ronas Hill. That evening, I was sitting outside, on the verandah, eating trifle! That's how still it was. While others in the south of England were complaining of snow.

We also made a conscious decision NOT to watch loads of TV. In fact all we saw was the Queen's Speech. (How patriotic - though staunch republican Herman-ness kept up an alternative commentary). On the Tuesday after Christmas, Herman-ness went to Unst to visit Ruthodanort for a coupla days. He got us up out of bed when he came back though - mind you it was 12 noon.!! The whole Christmas was very laid back, very stress-free - as it should ideally be. The best one I've had for a long time.

A New Year & I must stop writing 2005 in dates.

In reply to Ruthodanort, Herman-ness did keep quiet during It's A Wonderful Life on video. Probably too much turkey, mushy peas & glasses of Bailey's.

Also ta for the congrats. Joy & I got engaged over Xmas. Haven't set date yet but it will be 2006. Someone said, it'll be 2nd marriage for both of us & we ain't getting any younger! Well speak for yourself!! We intend to grow old totally disgracefully. Now we just need to get jobs closer together. At the moment we live 75 miles & 2 ferry crossings apart, & work 56 miles apart in 2 different schools.

We had a quiet Hogmanay - Herman-ness had returned to those islands to the south. Joy got dressed up again & looked even more stunning than she did at Christmas!!! Come the bells, unable to open the bottle of Cava but still toasted the new year in with some wine. Then a flurry of phone calls to friends & relations - adding to blocking of Vodafone network - including my son & his girlfriend (very drunk) in a Lerwick pub.

New Years Day I made reestit mutton tattie soup. To the uninitiated reestit mutton is dried, salted mutton. Very, very tasty. It's often made at New Year in Shetland. BTW, son didn't remember phoning me & he was very hungover. Weather was again very still & clear. We went for a walk along nearby Spiggie beach as the sun was setting. We're spoiled by all the nearby beautiful beaches.

We went back to Unst on Thursday to celebrate Aald Yule. Yes, Unst has 2 Christmasses, 2 New Years & 2 Up-Helly-Aas. Was reminded as to why I don't normally drink whisky. But I'll cast a veil over that. (My way of saying that I can't remember much!)

Saturday was the night of the Big Raffle & Quiz Night in the Baltasound Hotel. I'd made up the quiz questions - all relating to 2005. The hotel was packed. There were 16 teams of 5 people each. Despite protestations, the team Joy was in did NOT have an unfair advantage. She had not even seen the questions beforehand!! The raflle had a HUGE amount of prizes with the star prize being a digital camcorder. I was unlucky. I didn't win that - or anything. Rumour has it that someone bought £70 worth of tickets & won a 6-pack of tins of cider!! Could have bought 10 6-packs for that.

Monday back to school (Boooo!!!!) Don't know who's more tired staff or pupils.

Back to school with 1 week of the term down - only 11 to go!! Pupils (& staff) seemed half asleep for most of the week as we all readjusted to times of the day that we thought had ceased to exist - ie back to getting up in the dark. At this time of year the sun doesn't rise until about 9am and sets again at 3.30pm. So this means we're also coming home in the blackness.

We also get lots and lots and lots of wind!! Thursday night our ferries stopped running for a few hours. This meant that 1 of our pupils was unable to get to Lerwick on time to catch the boat to Aberdeen. (She caught a plane in the morning)

However, Saturday was a beautiful, still day. In the afternoon, Joy & I went watched seals in the water at Haroldswick, visited Skaw in the far north of the island, and went for a walk along Norwick beach. On our way back to Baltasound, we saw a beautiful moon rising over Haroldswick and stopped to take some photos beside the Skibladner - a replica Viking longship.

Just returned from a wee jolly to Glasgow - courtesy of Learning & Teaching Scotland. Baltasound & Whalsay schools are piloting a project where school pupils can access the Scottish Records Office to look at censuses, birth certificates, marriages, etc. So we were away on a little course.

The hotel we were staying in was a few minutes walk from the course venue. The room I had was the size of a small house!! But Esther from Whalsay had a room with a DOUBLE JACUZZI in it - no, we did NOT share it!!!

Walking down Sauchiehall Street on Friday night and, as usually happens, we bumped into folk from Shetland. They were down at Celtic Connections courtesy of Shetland Arts Trust. We Shetlanders get everywhere. There's probably one near you as you read this. Didn't go to any of Celtic Connections but I did buy a case for my bodhran. So that's a bit musical.

But the big difference I noticed compared to life in the isles was coming in from Glasgow Airport on Thurs night. Nose to tail traffic all the way along the motorway at a virtual standstill. And people do that every day!!! I'll never compl;ain about the sheep as I drive freely through Yell again.

As puffinbillyunst has already reported, Friday was a busy day in our little school. He mentioned that our nursery department was given a glowing report by the HMI. Well done!

Our secondary department also had a visit from the Dogs against Drugs team - in a strictly non-working capacity, I must add!! The pupils were very taken by the 2 Labrador sniffer dogs. We, too, had a vist from our "high heid yins". Held my breath when pupils working in computers were asked various questions about what they were doing. Phew, when told that they seemed to know their spreadsheets and databases!!

Anyway time to let my hair (which I am not short of) down at night with our community's Burns Supper in the hotel - Joy's first ever. Cock-a-leekie soup & haggis, neeps and tatties - toasted by seemingly unlimited drams. (I declined the whisky after my experiences at Aald Yule.) Speeches and music were both entertaining and (intentionally) hilarious. One person sitting at our table literally had tears streaming down her face. Perhaps next year the musicians will have learned the words to the songs.

Not being a Burns' fan (but any excuse for a night out) I was amazed at how much I knew when it came to the quiz about the Bard. We didn't win but we did come second - with no help whatsoever from the teacher of English at our table!!

Despite what many non-Unst folk may think most of my good nights out in recent years have been on this small island. More entertainment up here than there often is in the Big Smoke - Lerwick, that is.