Whats wrong with Shetland Beef?

[XA290]

Nobody has a sense of fun these days and everything has to be taken so seriously

I remember on a certain SAR flight not too far to the south west of Sumburgh where we used to pick up the Sunday papers on the beach at Ullapool. This was in the day (early 1990s) when there were no ferries or planes onto the island on the Sabbath and the Sunday papers were delivered to the shops on Monday. The We Free’s grip has slackened a bit over the years but not by much.

We used to plan for mountain flying training on the west coast Scottish mainland and nip in for a pre-arranged pick-up at about 1230. It was not a regular thing but I must say it was quite nice to know that as you sat at home on Sunday afternoon, you were the only person with a Mail on Sunday on the Outer Hebrides.

It all stopped I gather when a BBC engineer came up to Ullapool on a Saturday evening and asked at the pub what time the ferry to Stornoway departed on Sunday. He was up to fix the main transmitter I think. He was told “no ferries till Monday but you can hitch a ride with the coastguard when they come in for the papers tomorrow lunchtime”

The engineer then called the SAR flight to arrange pick-up along with the Mirror, Record and Sunday Post etc. only to be told that such things did not take place….. ever……click….brrrrr.