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What's been going on in Unst recently? School, and therefore work, has been back for 5 weeks now, so life seems pretty normal again, as had spent the summer being my boyfriend's bidey-in in Norway.

We've had the Unst show, where they have competitions for best Lots Of Things. Like cattle, sheep, ponies, baking, arts and crafts, photography, etc. Everyone turns out in abundance, and we spend the day between the show ring, coffee stand, the hall where all the baking and crafts are, and of course the beer tent. Following this is an evening concert where we are entertained by a varied display of talent.



The Hen Race





My pal John with his friend.





My daugher Anna's winning ticket for her Queen cakes!



There have been some weekends of points and cup races for the dinghies and Shetland Maids. At least I think there were, some of them were definitely cancelled due to the weather. I meant to get out there in the safety boat for some photos, but no luck, it just didn’t happen.


These are a couple of pictures from the Uyeasound Regatta a few years ago, just to let you see what a Shetland Maid looks like. (No, they're not the rather handsome looking chaps, the maid is the BOAT!)







So, with the summer over and autumn upon us (this never lasts long, we usually skip pretty fast straight to winter) we’re now celebrating the summer’s achievements.

This Saturday we have the Unst Show Dance where trophies and cups are awarded to all the winners. The dancing is Shetland dancing, which is really a variation of Scottish dancing I suppose. It’s great fun, and all fuelled by a good dose of something from the bar, or perhaps from one of the whiskey-filled trophy cups.

Next weekend we have the sailing club doo - another night of dancing, with a meal and trophy presentation during the evening. The cups are once more passed round the company, containing whiskey, or perhaps rum, as it’s a bunch o hardened sailors filling them up!

Last weekend there was a wedding on the island. It was a fine day, the wind and rain held off, which was a mercy as the wedding party and guests walked from Kirk to Hall in the traditional Unst way. At the head of the procession were two fiddlers, followed by a man with a shotgun (don’t ask, I’m not sure of the reason!), then the bride and groom, wedding party, and all the guests. At the tail end were ‘sweepers’, two men with old-fashioned broomsticks, sweeping the road clear. I was photographer for the day, and had to climb onto a roof to get those pictures. I nearly met with disaster when the guy with the shotgun fired it off just when they were approaching, and I almost dropped the camera! However, it was my lucky day, as I managed to get a good shot of the procession with a cloud of smoke about a meter away from the gun!

Victoria the bride has kindly given her permission to use the photo here.



The weekend before that was the henny party. Well, it was a good laugh, I can tell you. The theme was the movie Hairspray, so we had a busload of ladies all decked out in 50’s style garb, being very noisy and more than a little merry. We travelled to Voe on Mainland Shetland for our meal, and went to a couple pubs in Brae before heading back to Unst via the East Yell hall. We finished the night with a bit of a disco in the Baltasound Hall.

This weekend I start my Navigation class, an RYA course which runs for 3 Saturdays in a row. I’m looking forward to that, and want to be prepared, but all we have to take with us is our lunch and a 2B pencil! Ok, and a cheque book. I guess that’s the catch!

I also started a digital photography class last night. I’ve been taking photos for years, and I sell them throughout Shetland, but I still don’t know how to work my Sony SLR properly. Well, it was well worth starting the class, even in one evening I learned more than I’d taught myself over the last 2 years. The aim is to be using my camera on the manual setting by the end of the 10 weeks.

Norwegian class only starts in the New Year. It’s just as well really, as I’d never fit everything in if it was running now. After 6 weeks of being fairly lazy this summer I came back to Unst and started going to football, netball and squash. I was hoping to lose some of the ‘love handles’ around my middle, and you’d think that after 5 weeks of effort there’d be some results, but NO. I look no different at all, and neither do my scales. However, I do feel better, so I guess I’m doing something right.

In three weeks I am off to Norge again, it’s the October break (yes already!) and I am therefore free for a fortnight. Well, free-ish, I will have my bairns for the second half of the break, so for the first week I will be going ‘home’ to Norway. For the second week the bairns and I will be joining some friends from Trondra - Diamondbigdodette and co, and I hope Scallowawife will be making an appearance too.

This weekend my boyfriend is racing in a regatta. I’m a bit miffed, as I managed to get to that particular one last year, and I loved it. But this year we have no ferry to Norway from Shetland, so going to Norway for a weekend is really slightly out of the question - plane tickets are somewhat more expensive than the ferry. However, I’m sure I can manage to enjoy myself in Unst; we seem to be quite good at entertaining ourselves here!




Last years regatta at Fedje.

So, life is busy as usual, I think Unst has a way of keeping you on your toes. Living here offers so many opportunities; often we’re spoilt for choice.