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Chrissie Mary and I have been giving a lot of thought to the embarrassing recent events at Stornoway Airport when flights were cancelled what with poorly flight controllers and their healthy colleagues having to stop for tea breaks. (None of this kind of trouble at Callanish International, we noted.)

Well we've got a Plan.

We're going to go to classes at Ness Learning Centre to get the necessary qualifications (Highers?) and we're saving up to buy the table tennis bats from JD Williams.

Then we'll open a Strubag's franchise at the airport with takeaway cups with lids and everything so that the folks can grab a quick fly-cup.



Does FC have trouble with controllers?

Here are a couple of snaps of Habost Cemetery - which don't really do it justice. You need to feel the air, see the panoramic views and sense the peace.






There's a song about another Lewis Cemetery that would work just as well if the word Habost replaced the word Aignish. It's sung to a hauntingly beautiful tune:

When day and night are over,
And the world is done with me,
Oh carry me West and lay me
In Aignish by the Sea.

And never heed me lying
Among the ancient dead,
Beside the white sea breakers
And sand-drift overhead.

The grey gulls wheeling ever,
And the wide arch of sky,
On Aignish on the Machair,
And quiet there to lie.

Over on Digital Sand's blog, Flying Cat wrote, "I too would like to meet the Mighty Godwin Himself. Anyone who reads Shetland Liff will have seen his buspass photo tho'.......it doesn't disappoint."

Well, I nearly choked on my Sunray Tips in the excitement and went straight on to Google images to type in "jeremy godwin" + shetland + life.

This is the picture that came up. FC is right. It certainly doesn't disappoint, although isn't it funny how you get a picture in your mind of how some people look only to find that you're way off beam? I hadn't imagined him to be quite so Exotic.



On the same page I was enthralled to read that, 'Jeremy Godwin becomes Dharmalata 'Firebrand of the Dharma '

What a constantly fascinating man he is!!

The Gazette has reported that Roxy, a young cocker spaniel, has been sacked as the Western Isles' first drugs sniffer dog - simply because she had no sense of smell. Tch. Has Roxy been offered retraining and redeployment as an alternative to redundancy or is her career in tatters? No she hasn’t and yes it is.


This is blatant discrimination against a young worker with a sensory impairment and should be challenged at the European Court of Canine Rights. It’s an absolute disgrace and highlights that fact that the islands are full of working animals with no organised trade union rights.


I hope that animals will unite behind their oppressed comrade.

Last week we had the excitement of the Butt to Barra 24 hour Cycle Challenge. The cyclists set off from Ness and raised funds for CHAS (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland) and the Rowan Tree Childcare Centre. Details are on http://www.butttobarracycle.com/index.htm if you’d like to support them.

Chrissie Mary and I are so impressed by the bodachs’ efforts that we’re thinking of getting a women’s team together. Here’s a snap of some of the girls at the first practice session.

Look out for major controversies on the mainland as competition heats up in the fascinating world of speciality sausage-making.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news reported today that a butcher from Buckhaven is launching the Pork Iron Brew Banger (their spelling) in Fife next week ‘following successful trials’ of sausages laced with Irn Bru. Seemingly the butcher came up with the recipe while he was in the shower. Powerful stuff that soap on a rope.

I foresee trouble brewing here though as this idea might not be entirely new.

Connoisseurs will know that Browns from Turriff in Aberdeenshire won a coveted Speciality Sausage Award for their Girders Sausage using Irn Bru – in 2004. This was the same year that Ewan Maurice also won an award for his Porky Bar Kids sausage containing white chocolate. The awards came from the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders Association so they must be the real McCoy.

Surely it’s only a matter of time before we have Dandelion & Burdock burgers or the ultimate - Cremola Marag.