Erbil is the capital of Kurdistan and Kurdistan is the new Saudi Arabia with the fourth largest oil reserves on the planet.

The Olympic Torch is coming to Shetland next June and will be paraded through Lerwick.

Do you remember the game of holding your breath in the bath when a child? The one that caused a look of horror on the face of a parent!

Well I tried something similar this week at the Offshore Training facility in Aberdeen, formerly and still known to the industry as RGIT.

This week parliament debated the economy. Or rather what any government can do about global recession, the state of Greece and the lasting impact banking is having on us all. It seems a good time not to over promise as a government. Get done the things you have respon­sibility for and do them well. Like cutting fuel prices!

Parliament is just about to resume in Edinburgh and this week I was hightailing it down the Royal Mile towards the office with half a speech in my mind.

It’s never easy to say thanks when you’re in pain. Not, I should hasten to add, that my life is filled of such moments! But on Wednesday I had the last filling. Unfortunately I doubt it will be the last visit to a dental surgery. But it was the last time Alan Owen filled a Scott molar. He’s been a very good dentist.

Just how quick are Shetland’s broad­band connections? Will the optic cable that Tulloch Develop­ments have been laying down the south road make a difference? Why could the telecom companies not provide enough capacity when Shet­land was overflowing with visitors and hamefarers in July?

The News of the World sells an enormous number of copies on an average Sunday. Its Scottish edition features a perceptive political comment piece by Euan McColm among the more stable fare of a red top tabloid.

Sport and the arts can sometimes be at odds. We give too much money to one and not to the other, depending on your point of view.

The scramble for tickets has been enormous. Countless numbers of people from across the area have been pursuing the hottest dates with the biggest events. The media has been full of it.