Talk:Lerwick Up Helly-Aa 2008

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Is the Jarl's name Koy, or Kol? Both Shetland News and Shetland Times have Kol. "....represent Viking builder Kol Kalison...." (Times).

Ghostrider 12:37, 29 January 2008 (MST)

Sorry about that typo,,,, ((Just realised it wasn't me who made that cock-up/typo to begin with...GRRR!!))
I was deep into region unlock codes for a dvd player at the time and didn't notice that cockup...
I think this could be a little project for Oddrun. This is her favourite subject, and considering she climbs the wall whenever anybody else writes anything wrong about old vikings, I think I'll let her have a bit of historical fun with this one.
Kol was married to Gunhild, the sister, or cousin, of Magnus, whom the St. Magnus Cathedral is named after. I think Kol was the sort of 'clerk of works' on the building project..
But I'm saying no more in case I'm wrong and Oddie gives me a lecture about Vikings... ;-) God knows why, since I'm the only true Viking in Norway,,,, Ducking for cover now before she gets home :-))))) :-)))))
I'm just hoping that Heimdal has been out with his camera today :-)
Robbie 12:47, 29 January 2008 (MST)

The Times (Shetland Today) write up describes him as "supervising the construction", which would be pretty much a clerk of works right enough. I'm afraid I know next to nothing about old Vikings, once I was old enough to catch on to the fact the Jarl hijacked the identity of one of them every year, I rather lost interest in the whole Viking scene.

There should be a lot of good pictures around of this one. The morning was near perfect for when the galley and squad would have been around, and although it's clouded over as the day has gone on and was very overcast by dayset, it's hanging on good yet, still dry and with very little wind, so the procession and burning should be in near ideal conditions as well.

I've been nowehere near it though, last one I saw was '79, and how I didn't lose numerous body appendages to frostbite I don't know, it was a hard frost, and just standing there waiting then watching you froze soild. Considering I'd been in the '78 one, when it was also a hard frost and the ground covered in snow, I vowed never again, and I don't think I'm old enough yet to reconsider that decision yet. ;-)))

Ghostrider 13:17, 29 January 2008 (MST)

I've bunged in a subject line for the Junior UHA. We should be able to build enough info to eventually make it a page of its own, but there's no use making another small page until there is enough information to warrant it.
Re. Ghostrider... Blyde ta hear dat da wadder wis fine somewye da day. Complete slester o hellery ower here :-(
Robbie 13:30, 29 January 2008 (MST)

Been out and taken a few pics today, first time I've seen the galley in 8 years. I was at the museum in the afternoon and the procession this evening, I have yet to download the card from this evening, but I don't think there will be much useable on it. They must have changed the brand of paraffin this year as I've never seen so much reek ( my hair is several shades darker) and a lot of the torches had burned out by the time they reached the burning site. I'll upload some pics later, if they seem ok.
Heimdal 14:25, 29 January 2008 (MST)

Great Heimdal,
Any pics welcome.
And, can you find out what the torch recipe was. My hair could do with being a few shades darker.. ;-)
Robbie 14:51, 29 January 2008 (MST)

I've uploaded a few and the leading number in the name indicates the time frame, if that makes sense ?
Heimdal 18:39, 29 January 2008 (MST)

I haven't been spectating at the procession for at least 25 years, but the crowd was certainly the biggest I have ever seen there, it will be interesting to see what the estimates are. The weather could hardly have been better.
Heimdal 18:48, 29 January 2008 (MST)

Great Job Heimdal :-)
Two special requests.
1) Can you do a couple of cropped versions, it's better to do the crop at higher resolution before upload. Firstly; Picture Number 20, can you make a banner picture from it, maybe half the height, cutting off the mast, as that would make a great page header. Secondly: Picture Number 9, a close-up crop of just the Jarl's head, that would be perfect for his page.
Cheers, and thanks again for a job well done. Oddrun has a morning off so she's going to get them all into the page gallery.
Robbie 21:50, 29 January 2008 (MST)

Thanks Heimdal, those cropped pics are absolutely perfect :-)
Robbie 15:27, 30 January 2008 (MST)

Thought this might interest you.
The Lerwick Up Helly-Aa 2008 page represented 12.25% of the pages viewed on the site yesterday, and Up-Helly-Aa pages in general, including pages, accounted for over 40% of page views.
Robbie 22:09, 30 January 2008 (MST)

Another statistic. DITT's hit rate went up a fair bit... Good advertising for them. :-)
Robbie 12:15, 31 January 2008 (MST)

Help Oddrun !!Ref pic 13, I have just discovered it should be Lewie, not Louis as I spelled it. I have edited the pic and made the change to the caption which shows up ok in the gallery of images, but not on the actual page. It's just the caption which needs to be changed.
Heimdal 13:00, 31 January 2008 (MST)

Another spello ! pic 14 the peerie lass is Aimee, not Amy as I wrote. Another change needed.

Why are names so complicated ? :-(

Aimee's name fixed on this one.

Ghostrider 16:52, 31 January 2008 (MST)

James.
The Squad list should stay on the same page. The basic plan here was to bring together all the information on one page. Makes better reading for viewers. We've noticed that when information gets split on to too many pages it has a negative effect on the viewing figures.
Robbie 06:36, 2 February 2008 (MST)

Sounds good! I'm just a bit worried about putting a 46 line list onto the page. JAStewart#

I think we'll bring the list back to the section of the main UHA2008 page until we see what pictures and information we get on the other squads. If we happen to get enough info then we can always move it. The main reason for keeping it all on one page is that the format can be kept the same as the older years which we're unlikely to get too much info for.
I'll shorten the list vertically by using the page width.
Robbie 10:00, 2 February 2008 (MST)

Page Format.

I think it's looking reasonable now.
There's a lot more information that can be included in the basic text of the page. I'll work on that when I get a chance.
I would suggest that once we get more text on the page then most of the pictures should be put to a separate Gallery Page. But it will be OK left as it is at the moment while it is being accessed on such a massive scale.
Robbie 10:30, 2 February 2008 (MST)

Squads

Good work Robbie! Nice table JAStewart 11:22, 2 February 2008 (MST)