Features
Are you being heard? by Rosalind Spence
12/03/2010 08:36:00
Not listening
At Advocacy Orkney, we meet many people who say this, they are trying
to get their point of view across but they feel others just aren't
listening. This could be because of disability, age (young or old),
unemployment, drug or alcohol dependency, or they may be vulnerable due
to some other circumstances such as illness, dementia or dependent on
carers.
Loose Talk by Les Cowan
12/03/2010 08:34:00
Greeks, geeks and lightbulb moments
"Eureka!" shouted Archimedes, jumping out the bath and running down the street stark naked. Or so the legend goes. Having been troubled for some time with the knotty problem of calculating the volume of irregular objects, the great Greek got out of the tub one day and noticed, as he did so, that the water level had dropped by an amount exactly equal to the volume of himself that had been under it. Had he been a Scot he would probably have shouted "Jings, crivens and help ma bob" but instead, having the good luck to be born in the land of ouzo and kebabs, he let fly with "I've found it!" - or "Eureka!" as they put it then.
Tales out of School by Anne Cormack
12/03/2010 08:22:00
Moving hoose
We were driving back to Kirkwall after an Orkney Norway Friendship Association meeting in Stromness. In the back of the car were a Norwegian visitor and a Stromness wife whom we said we'd drop off home on the way. "Me hoose is second last on the right," she told us. There was a surprised squawk from our Norwegian friend. "She said hus." "Of course she did," we replied, "house is English not Orcadian."
Womanly Wiles by I Venus
05/03/2010 08:44:00
Who's set off the fire alarm?
LAST month I was writing about tipping for service, especially in hotels. That's made me consider some rules of etiquette we could try to follow when on holiday.
Keeping it real with Rory
05/03/2010 08:43:00
A blast of Clapton and Beck, and a squash on the tube
SINCE I last wrote, I've been able to tick something very important off my 'list of things to do in life'; I went to see Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck perform, together and apart, at the O2 Arena in London. Clapton and Beck are two of my favourite guitarists ever, and to get the opportunity to see them 'live' has long been an ambition of mine.
A Now and Again Note from Andrew Appleby
26/02/2010 09:07:00
Snooze away, snooze away
WHEN I was a only wee thing, tucked up under my eider down, I would lie awake thinking of all the ghosts, ghouls and weird things that would emerge from the wardrobe. In the dark of the frosty nights, the gas lamps on the pavement would cast a yellow beam onto the crack of the slightly open door of the far too stuffed piece of ancient furniture. It stood ominously in the alcove in our bedroom, dominating my twilight vista.
Health Matters A personal view from the chair of NHS Orkney John Ross Scott
26/02/2010 08:56:00
Weathering the wind of change
IMPROVING health and health services in the county is important to me and to staff working in NHS Orkney. So when a clinician, regardless of profession or where they work, writes an open letter to me as chairman I listen. Our newly appointed chief executive Cathie Cowan also listens and in listening we invite and seek out the views of staff.
Views from the street by Alistair Macleod
19/02/2010 08:13:00
Cuts and cost increases
ALMOST every day now we hear of politicians competing on promised cuts in government spending, yet at the same time there seems to be a mismatch between the rhetoric and the reality. Expenditure is increasing in Afghanistan, more troops, more helicopters. The war is costing £43.49 billion* a year. One Chinook alone costs £55 million while a postponed new Orkney hospital would cost around £30 million. Meanwhile other capital projects like the Aberdeen bypass get the green light, there is talk of a multimillion-pound high-speed railink, and millions are being spent on the Olympic Games.
Liz Ashworth on Food
19/02/2010 08:05:00
Victoria Sponge Street
THE Kirkwall street and that famous sponge are both named in honour of Queen Victoria.
Are you being heard? by Rosalind Spence
12/02/2010 08:43:00
Coping with a child with a disability
I DON'T know what it is like to parent a child who has a disability because none of my children have a disability, but I try to empathise with parents.