大象传媒

After a 24hr delay in leaving the island I finaly found myself in lerwick, dropped my bags off at the ferry terminal, went and had a good wander around the museum & while there had what has to be, the best coffee you can get in lerwick, then met with a friend for a while before i had to get on the boat.

Aberdeen was good, or rather, seeing my parents again was good, had a good few days there rummaging around in town for interesting stocking fillers, having a desperate search for white gesso and after 3 art stores, found the huge wash brush i was after & even bigger bonus, new graphite sticks.

Monday was train to Inverness, rail works on part of the line, so train from Aberdeen to Inverurie, coach from Inverurie to Keith, then a very cold & wet wait for 30 mins till the train arrived to take us to Inverness, taxi to hotel, & frantic search in hotel room to find the kettle ! why on earth the kettle was hidden in a drawer ill never understand, but it was found & coffee was had, phew !

Inverness was good, the hotel was cosy, although seriously on t he shabby side for the image & pricing they tried to project. Met over 60 other local area assessors during the training day, which was great, ive never heard so much Gaelic spoken since I was a small one, but it was a very interesting & informant day spent in a very relaxed atmosphere.

Wed, headed back to Aberdeen for the night, went out to dinner with the folks and thurs was a last min rush round the town trying to find that what i hadnt managed to get yet before heading to the boat in the eve loaded down with christmas gifts from the grandparents. Told by the boat staff that orkney may be a no call, so could be early to lerwick. Leaving Aberdeen was kinda rough (i didnt spill my pint !) but being tired, i had a 9pm bed & woke up just as we were passing Fair Isle.

There were a couple of other folks outside on the rear deck as we passed the isle, guess im not the only early upper, who were disscussing Fair Isle as we passed & had me disolved into laughter as I heard it said that "There are only arround 15 folk who stay there, they are all very anti social & most of them do nothing but drink" The shock & shame on those faces was quite a picture as I explained that we had almost 70 in our community, described local services & everything that goes on in the isle.

Got stuck over night in lerwick due to the wind being in the wrong direction for landing on the isle, & finaly arrived home on saterday.

Now to get stuck into getting the costumes for the school play finished as its on Tuesday.