The relentless Outer Hebrides heatwave continues. The thermometer in our garden at 2pm today (nb the light area is the flash from the camera, not the sun which was behind the fence post/thermometer):
…and again four hours later:
And here’s the forecast for the next five days:
What’s the gaelic for Ambre Solaire…?
One of the more frequent enquiries from people who find their way to my blog and various other websites, is what kind of employment there is in the Outer Hebrides. Some of this is pure curiosity. Amongst people thinking of moving here, it’s part of research as to how to earn a living.
Recently, a website was constructed and launched by our chums in Reefnet that provides an answer. As a resident it’s a rather addictive site, checking out each category to see what businesses there are, and where they are located in the archipelago.
It also gives a better impression of what goes on here. Cattle farming, for example, shows that contrary to some people’s perceptions, crofting land is not just populated by sheep. Yes, we have banks and supermarkets (some tourists still think we have neither, and stock up before leaving the mainland), and the database shows which chain is (currently) predominant. There’s all manner of other businesses and services, such as interior designers, opticians, and rather good dental services. And other categories, such as beauty salons, hairdressing services, health food shops, and masseuse services show that locals like to take care of themselves.
So here is the Outer Hebrides Business Directory:
It’s at:
…and it’s fun having a good explore.
There are some gaps in the data where businesses haven’t yet entered their details, for example in the vegetable growing category, or in the lack of pharmacists listed outwith of Lewis. If you run a business, want the trade and aren’t included, follow the instructions on the website to get listed.
Finally - for teccies, and those into semantic web development, David Heggie the designer introduces a few additional future-proof features:
XML - listings are available in XML format - just add a “.xml” to the url - so yours is http://www.businesshebrides.co.uk/businesses/viewById/1403.xml
hCards - all listings are marked up in the trendy hCard microformat, so that your semantic-web enabled user agent can parse the address info directly from the site and do all sorts of magic with it (have a look at the site in Firefox with the Operator toolbar installed and you’ll see what I mean).
You can get RSS feeds of categories. Put .RSS onto the url; e.g. http://www.businesshebrides.co.uk/businesses/browseCat/72.rss
…or locations; for example:
http://www.businesshebrides.co.uk/businesses/browseLocation/3.rss
Double ouch! (and I don’t drive). I blogged about this using a photo taken by Leanish of a petrol pump in Barra, further south of here. Those happy days, when petrol and diesel were significantly cheaper. Erm, three weeks ago.
Since then, Am Paipear (the monthly newspaper of the Uists) has been published, with the front page picture showing the latest price rise. The cost of fuel - for cars, fishing boats, and house heating - understandably gets a fair amount of press here.
And since then, there’s been another rise.
The prices of diesel and petrol at the pump in North Uist last friday:
That’s diesel at 136.2 per litre, and petrol at 123.8 for the same measure.
For US readers, diesel is $10.17 per US gallon and petrol is $9.25. Thus, here for diesel vehicles we’ve gone through and passed by some way the “Ten dollars per gallon” barrier.
Just how high is this going to go? We’re less than 14p off having diesel at £1.50 a litre. Surely not soon?
For those London residents who voted for Boris because “He’s a bit of a laugh”, afraid that the joke really could be on you (and that can be taken several different ways) for the next four years.
For those residents of London horrified at what may have happened yesterday, some resources you may find useful:
See you soon.
Yesterday was somewhat disrupted. The electricity people shut off the power for several hours to attach bright red discs to the mains wires about six miles away, as swans and geese had a habit of flying into them. Annoying for us, as each bird being fried results in a short power blip. But worse for the birdie, suppose. So, like several other Berneray residents, we ended up in Lochmaddy for what turned out to be an excellent lunch (which unexpectedly included caviar).
This morning, possibly due to the extroadinary amount of caffeine consumed during yesterdays lunch, I was wide awake by 5am. Which was a good opportunity to try out the new camcorder; still haven’t worked out most of the settings, options and buttons, but here’s a wonky clip of the view from my office window earlier today:
Obviously, a tripod is required. Plus a good read of the operating manual.
After said lunch yesterday, we waddled home and set up the Nintendo Wii Fitness. Hint: when you’ve had a blow-out meal is not the time to configure your character.
Need to send some work to ever-patient colleagues in Bath first, then collect thoughts on the device and game for a detailed review in about a week or so; there’s rather a lot to it.
Yay! I have lost my Guardian-published virginity at last. It’s on the use of commercial video games in schools and education:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/29/games.schools
(Thinks) Does this - getting published in The Guardian - make me a lefty-liberal? Should I write an article for The Telegraph for left-right balance?
Also in the Guardian today, there’s a better article by Richard Bartle, about how non-gamers are becoming a steadily smaller minority, both in terms of numbers and socio-political influence:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/28/games.censorship
This is a bit of a weird picture. Taken by Scotproof a few hours ago on Borve Hill, Berneray. Three moths; the female one is being harrassed, or mated, with two male ones.
Those eye-like symbols on the wings are plain weird. As are the fern-like antenna and the furry, almost Highland Cow hairy-like main bodies.
More detail visible in the larger version of the picture.
A year ago I set a fiscal limit. No electrical, or electronic goods, or household appliances e.g. fridges or washing machines, or anything like that for more than £200. Sceptics droned that this would be impossible, that my business wouldn’t survive, that I’d be forced to rely on almost caveman-like technology and living in the Outer Hebrides would be miserable.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It’s been remarkably easy. Surprisingly, living in the sea air, nothing major has gone wrong with appliances, which has helped. Though even if they had things like fridge-freezers can now be replaced for under £200. Existing PCs work fine; Windows XP has proved to be stable, and I’d like to keep these running for a few years yet. My ageing laserprinter is spluttering, but there’s many options for a replacement for under £100, let alone £200. Video game stuff? I have the Wii and DS, both good value, and some game stuff I get for free from clients (which I guess is cheating a bit).
Televisions? Two that are seven years old. Music system? One that is (thinks hard) 11 years old. The washing machine (5 years old), fridge freezer (unknown; it came with the house before last). Non of these items were vastly expensive, but they all seem to have lasted. When they break, they’ll go for recycling; when they need replacing, it’ll be on ebay or in whatever charity shop will take them.
Having this limit has some side benefits. If disaster occurs, I haven’t lost a fortune, and neither is it worth claiming on my household insurance and suffering increased premiums. I can check on eBay in a years time and not find, unlike the digital camera I bought for £650 in 2000, that several hundred pounds have already been lost in depreciation. That was a bad day. As was April 15th for many people who had just bought an iphone. Once the early adopters dry up, the price heads for the cliff edge.
And so, the latest toy within the £200 limit arrived today; a Sony DCR-DVD110E handycam. I’d been waiting out for the prices of camcorders to come down for a while, and had shortlisted three. This was the first one to fall under £200, so it was duly purchased and arrived by courier today.
After being shocked at how small and light it was (it fits in my coat pocket), a few hours were spent grappling with some of the touch screen options. From my office, I was able to zoom in on someone wandering near the youth hostel, picking their nose (that one won’t be making it onto YouTube). On top of Borve Hill, I could pick out geese flying over the sea. I can burn movies onto mini-DVDs within the camera, or download to the PC and do all manner of magical things with them.
The total cost? Handycam and a box of mini-DVDs for under £200. Just a few weeks ago, this would have cost a lot more. A few years ago, and probably the same functionality would have cost a four digit amount, or not been commercially available. Even though I think of myself as a citizen of the 21st century (last century was just a mainly dull warm-up for the technological, information and communication possibilities of this one), I’m still amazed at what this bundle of tricks can do.
Here’s pretty much the first attempt with the camcorder, of some seals on rocks close to Seal View bed and breakfast down the road. Quality mangled a bit by YouTube:
The downsides of the £200 limit. I don’t have the latest technologies. Um, that’s about it. Prices of electronic items fall so quickly now that, if you’re willing to wait six months to a year, then you’ve a fair chance of getting what you wanted. And certainly not everyone wants the “latest, now”; see for example the strong movement to hold on to Windows XP (which I like) over the newer Windows Vimto as long as possible. Okay, I’d like a Nikon D300, but I can make do with the “crappy” 6Mb camera I have at the moment. Which, three years ago, was wow-ing people.
The next items on the hit-list are a spare, light, laptop. Asus are starting to sell Linux-based ones at sub-£200. I have a multi-country trip later in the year, and don’t need a high-tec machine with me. Just something to check email, twitter, Facebook, keep in touch with the events I’m at, and upload pictures to Flickr will do, especially if delayed for several hours and when on a plane for several hours more (the boredom of the long-distance journey from Europe to California is stressful). So at under £200, if disaster strikes in some airport security clearance then it’s not a fiscal tragedy.
But it’s projectors that have got me intrigued of late. For years, the cost of projectors has remained stubbornly high, while those of other electronic items have fallen. But, no longer. Good quality home cinema projectors are coming in at less than £400 and falling rapidly in price. My TV viewing is minimal, with DVDs taking up the large bulk of screen time, so a home projector would provide a much bigger picture for the DVDs, as well as for the Wii and going online. Frans in Tampere manages this quite well, as does Doctor Kate the scrabulous fiend down South Uist way.
(Though if lots of people did this, where will the BBC get its licence fee income from a few years from now? Ditching the TV and the saving from the TV licence and subscriptions to Sky TV will quickly pay for a projector. The profit will cover extra DVDs. You’ve suddenly got a cinema screen instead of an inconvenient box that is the focal point of your living room. Nearly all of the content you’d miss out on is available online, on DVDs, or in the pub e.g. footie matches. Do the math. I wonder if BBC accountants have “done the math” and are having sleepless nights?)
But back to that £200 limit. Unfortunately it can’t be applied to all of life’s luxuries or necessities. The price of a tank of heating oil has risen by 50%, from £280 to £420, in three years. Airline tickets are expensive (please, any budget airline, start flying out of Benbecula). And every year or so I look at the cost of buying a car, keeping it on the road, and filling it with petrol, shake my head in bemusement at why the vast majority of my fellow Brits do this and stick with public transport. But for everything electronic or electrical, I’m sticking with my £200 limit for the next financial year. Hasta la cheapskate.
(Though having said all that, I’d be more than grateful for any benevolent reader buying me a present from my Amazon Wish List!)
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