C.A.T.S fundraiser

Another party has been and gone, and what a party it was!!

It all began on Saturday when we went over to help Big Sis make food for the party, we arrived at lunchtime to egg buns, Tunnocks teacakes and Snabaas (that'll be Billy speak for Tunnocks Snowballs), so after the refreshments we got stuck in to making salads, coleslaw, rice, cous cous, pasta, you name it, we made it by the ton!! the day ended with Billy cooking up on his new BBQ.

Sunday arrived and we all headed off for the West side again, me and Minty greeted at the gate for an hour, with a bottle of Bubbly and two glasses (for us, not the guests) and then we headed up for Lunch on the Lawn (as the invites said), or to coin a better phrase, 'Grub on the Girs'. After lunch Gillian Isbister and David Bissett arrived to sing away the afternoon, absolutely fabulous!! they had a break which was filled by the Fair Isle Auction, hosted by the one and only, ME!!!! I even had a hammer (bid plastic toy one), the Auction raised over £1000 which was fabulous, and there was some heated bidding wars going on, but all in good fun. Gillian took her second afternonn singing session inside as it was starting to get a bit damp, although spirits were still high (that may have had something to do with the Engineers Arms bar which had been set up in Billy's shed). The day rolled on with various artist's appearing, Robbie & Danielle on fiddle, Colin and Violet on fiddle and accordian, Norman on accordian and Uncle Ian in fine voice accompanied by his own guitar. A great day was had by all and after counting the money at 10pm, we were up to £2500, but donations were still coming in. We left at about 1am, but I have heard the party slowed down for a while but revved up at around 4am and carried on till breakfast. And the best bit is that it was all in aid of a great cause, see www.catsshetland.org.uk.

Think we need to rest for a bit now, till the next time.

Busy summer - party pictures

Busy summer - Party time

We had a lovely day at Rachey & Billy's for Rachey's birthday, a 'Floppy hats and flowery dresses' party, everyone made an effort, with hats and dresses a plenty, it was just like a wedding (me man even put his kilt on), and we got a gorgeous mild day for it.

We had a lovely lunch on the lawn of all Rachey's favourite food, home made of course, nothing but the best for us!! Rachey does know how to throw a great party. We were outside all afternoon, and the bairns had a great time with all the outside games and the dogs to entertain.

To mark the occassion we had booked John Coutts to come along and take family photos as this was one time when the whole family was going to be there, and when he hadn't arrived by 4 pm we were getting worried so I phoned him and realised that we had told him the wrong date!! completely our fault, but he was kind enough to say that he would come along as he was just coming out of Mousa, he arrived about half an hour later. We got some lovely photos, and all of them outside, now there is not many days that you can do that in Shetland!!

The perfect party ended with everyone going home (only after we had tidied up, that's the law) with takeaways and happy memories. Thanks Rachey.

And here's to the next one, this coming Sunday, she is repeating the whole thing but on a massive scale, it's to raise funds for the CATS appeal (scanner that is not the 4 legged kind), invitation only, with a real live bar, live music, auction, raffle, loads and loads of food, drink and fun!! Isn't it great living in Shetland!

Busy summer - Flavour of Shetland

It's that time of year again when everything seems to happen at once. In the last few weeks we have had the Flavour of Shetland event on Victoria Pier, this year to tie in with the Johnsmas Foy, a celebration of sail which coincided with the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland race and the Shetland-Bergen races, so you can imagine the atmosphere, a harbour filled with beautiful yachts and pretty sailors!
I spent 4 enjoyable days on Victoria Pier selling Burra Bears and Mams Rowes. The Flavour of Shetland seems set to become and annual event after the big launch last year with Shetland hosting the Island Games. The event includes live local music, 24/7 food and drink and load of quality art and craft stalls. The best part of this year for me was bumping into Mark Radcliffe from Radio 2 on the Pier on the second day when the killer whales came in shore by Bressay for a look at what was going on! Oh, and by the way Mark, you never did send up your old jumper to have made into a bear!!