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It's a 70 miles round trip to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ studios in from my house, and I do it by motorcycle, car or bus, depending on the weather, my mood, or whether or not it's Wednesday.

Wednesday is when the 'shopping' bus ( which leaves Hillswick at 10.00 am) doesn't go. The occasional 'doity' (senior citizens) bus is not quite within my remit, and catching the 7.30am charabanc for 'proper' workers is a bit, well, much. Considering the programme doesn't actually start until 2.05pm. I mean, what do you want? Preparation?

Bus is cheapest, by a long shot. A diesel car will use at least £36 worth of fuel a week, a petrol one (the four wheel drive Subaru, kept for winter use, mostly) almost double that. The motorbike can only be used when the weather's fine (I'm a wimp, and anyway, it's for sale) and costs somewhere about the same as running the diesel Citroen. The bus, thanks to my special season ticket swipe card thingy, lets me travel at £2.20 per single jouney. So that's, let's see, £22 a week, if I girded up my loins and got up for the 7.30 bus on a Wednesday. Which I won't. I need to do the shopping one day a week, anyway. You just can't get those sun dried tomatoes from the local community store.

But the bus has other pleasures. All kinds of curiosities. The man last night, coming home from Lerwick, three sheets to the wind, and clutching a fish tank, complete with what looked like a baby angler (monk) fish burbling in the bottom of it. 'This'll give the goldfish a shock' he hiccupped, strapping the tank into place with a seatbelt. The 70-year old fellow talking about his youth hostelling holiday last year in Sicily. The mysterious parcels, from (dead) fish for the hotel to urgent supplies of beer for the general public. Tourists, some with bicycles, others frankly disturbed by the oil-subsidised cheapness of the tickets. The interesting...aromas, particularly when people are bringing back curry or chow mein from Lerwick takeaways. The vastly variant styles of the drivers, from full-on Dakar Rally to gentle Vicar's tea-party meander.

And the things you pass by: sheep, seals, otters. Tourists on ill-advised recumbent tricycles. The seemingly endless bog of the Lang Kames, sea and more sea, salmon farms, fishing boats, beaches, wind generators, helicopters, tankers, ferries and of course, Shetland ponies. It's an hour and a quarter trip. A the end of it there's Lerwick's cafe culture (the best home-made scones in Europe, and some of the best cakes too) and plenty of time to do research for the programme. Preparation is so much easier when you're nicely rested. Did I mention that I frequently snooze all the way into Lerwick, and back home? Only on the bus. Never on the motorbike.

Oh, and it's better for the environment, too. Probably.

Listen to Tom Morton every weekday at 1400.