Noo den... here are some pics of the wedding I was at with Claire in Aith in Shetland last Friday.This one is overlooking the main town of Lerwick from Staneyhill where Claire's parents live. In the background is the island of Bressay... and then it's Norway.
And this one is from the harbour looking back into the centre of Lerwick. See the weather - it was magic!
Claire and I in her grandparents' old house in Aith. I know I look like a bit of a gimp. But I blame it on the bloke that took the pic. And yes that is a bit of inverted orange peel in my mouth. I'm always trying to improve that smile.
I don't know if you can make out, but there's a guy called Ewan Balfour at the head of this crowd making its way from the kirk to the hall. It was his job to fire a shotgun into the air (just as Palestinians do when a child passes their 25m swimming test) to gluff the trows. That means to frighten the trolls away! (Or should that be 'old girlfriends'?!)
So, when Claire wasn't looking I copped off with one of my old Radio Shetland colleagues. This is mary Blance - a genuine legend in her own lunchtime. We didn't swap records, but she just explained the intricacies of Shetland grammar... Du ken?
Look at my chin!! ha ha. Mary had a chin magnet hidden in her mouth, I think.
After the meal and the speeches, they have a thing called the wedding march, where everyone who wants to joins in a stroll round the hall following the bridal party. Everybody watches and then joins in. It's coool, man!
Need I say more? This is 3/4 of the White clan. The boy being kissed is the groom.
That's quite enough of that thank you.
And this last photo is Claire and her pal Rhonda outside her new house in Scalloway. All houses built in Shetland now are these timber frame doo dahs, and so the whole area looks very picturesque with the colours and all that stuff. So it's all so pretty up there. The wool people in our family would dig it hugely.
Signing off now,
Naa Noo Naa Noo
Simmy
Simmy
