Reply With QuoteI just look out of the window!
I've gotten into Shetland recently, but started with series 4. Would like to watch the others but they're not on iplayer. What's a good place to watch them? We don't have Netflix - I think they're available there.
Cheers
I just look out of the window!
There seems to be a surprising amount of unpleasantness up your way, if this programme is to be believed . Same for Oxford , but lucky they have Endeavour Morse to put stuff straight down that way.Originally Posted by Templogin
Lucky git!!!
Actually, side question - what's the best way to get to Shetland from down South if you want to bring your car over??
Via Scotland is my guess...
I think there's a ferry from Aberdeen and Scrabster (although I've no idea where that is!).
Depending on where you live in the UK (and whether bringing a specific car is part of the plan), you might find it easier (and cheaper) to fly and rent a car!
M
Bit of a random thought about somewhere to have a break and take our own car up there to enjoy. Not sure it'll be feasible. Let's see how far Aberdeen and Scrabster are from me...ok its about 650 miles or over 10 hours....Via Scotland is my guess...
I think there's a ferry from Aberdeen and Scrabster (although I've no idea where that is!).
Depending on where you live in the UK (and whether bringing a specific car is part of the plan), you might find it easier (and cheaper) to fly and rent a car!
M
I've not been to Shetland, but I have visited Orkney, which looks very similar in terms of both landscape and buildings.
Some interesting archaeology too, if you're thinking of options
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I might start a new thread about this once I have narrowed things down a bit.
A stolen mobile phone is usually top story on the news. Keys are often left in the ignition outside of Lerwick. Doors are left unlocked. Young kids wander around without worries. Biggest problem seems to be drink, as with most places. Next to no vandalism. There was some graffiti on a wall a few years back. Long dark winters and always windy. Bane of my life as someone that likes to cycle.
Drive to Aberdeen and get the Northlink ferry to Lerwick. Runs every day at either 5 or 7pm. Ferry is expensive, but so are flights, which come from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Several flights a day overall.
I have lived up here for 14 years. Moved up from Sussex when I got fed up of the rat race and traffic jams. I left with everything I owned in 2 rucksacks, five grand in my pocket and hope in my heart. People told me I was brave, as I had never been here, had no home to move into or job to go to. From my viewpoint it just had to be better. It was hard at first, but I overcame things through having to. I have cut my work down to 4 days a week, so life is a doddle, but there's not much in the bank.
Orkney is more tourist oientated, and considerably closer to the mainland. We do get tourists here, but they either come off the cruise ships or they are the hardier or wealthier sorts. We are more oil/fishing/sheep industry geared here.
The archeology is old here. You have more modern stuff like Stonehenge.
Accordion and fiddle playing is a big thing here. I can't stand it personally, but it's a small price to pay for the safety and low crime.
Lerwick has a population of about 7,000 and is our biggest town. In Sussex that would be a large village!
Last edited by Templogin; 20th March 2018 at 21:33.
Thanks for that.
That is some story and must have taken a lot of guts to do. The fact that you've been there 14 years says it all. Would love to hear more about how you found it, how you settled in etc. Are you now recognised as a local or will you always be an outsider? Very OT but much more interesting than the original question. I just love stories about people saying 'right, that's it, I'm off to...' and then actually going.
That is awesome. I’d love to do something similar and I am well placed to do it, if only I was brave enough. It’d probably be Australia and not Shetland though
Last edited by -Ally-; 20th March 2018 at 22:02.
Moving Away
I was working in IT support covering 10 offices and having to drive between them as there was little in the way of remote support. We had ISDN lines and when we eventually got email it was on dial up with 5mb mailboxes. Traffic was always a struggle. The pollution was killing me, but I was living the life of a single man and thoroughly enjoying it after years of monogamy.
One day though I looked around me and thought about what I actually had in life. I was living in what was little more than a wooden shack, paying a then ridiculous rent of £600 per month in a leafy village, so my property rich landlord could live comfortably in his large country pile. Sometimes I would find myself still at work at 4am, trying to fix a server which was only out of use for 3 hours a day, and not getting paid any extra or able to get the time back.
Everything in life seemed to be rush, rush, rush. Battling for everything down to the last parking space. There must be more to life than this, so I mulled it over for a couple of weeks before finally settling on somewhere to go. I had considered Australia, but if I had enough points I was only going to scrape in. I don't like hot weather or big spiders, and really wanted to live somewhere that I could speak English or a close approximation of it. I looked at the map and thought about where I had never been. Shetland looked promising. I read everything I could about it, and decided to give it a go.
I handed my notice in, had a house clearance sale, not that I owned much, and sold my scooter and ended up with £5,500. I got the train to Gatwick and a flight to Aberdeen, then the overnight ferry to Lerwick in Shetland. I arrived at 7am and went to the B&B where I was given a damp room in the basement for a week.
After 2 days, the only person I had spoken to was the woman at the B&B. I literally knew no-one, and not being the outgoing type, getting to know anyone was going to be difficult. I rang a friend south who told me to go into the nearest pub, buy a drink, and start chatting to someone. The pub contained one person, the barman, and he seemed to have little interest in having a chat. Never mind, I would start up a singles club, surely that would attract some 40 somethings. I bought the local newspaper and looked for details of advertising rates, and lo and behold was an advert for a singles club just starting up, so I paid my fiver and joined. I was one of the few blokes, and times were good!
Once the week was up I had managed to rent myself a place out of town, up a long hill. It was £90 a week for a two bed place. The landlord was gruff, but a nice guy underneath. I remembering him going out in his boat to catch fish and bringing me back some trout. Someone gave me an old racing bike, which had splits forming in the sidewall of the tyres. I rode it up and down the hill, went out on the hills alone and with others as much as I could. It had been the best summer for years and I was brown as a berry, slim and fit, and strangely popular!
I was applying for every job going, but was getting nowhere so I was living on the dole and a small amount of the rent was paid. I had to make up the rest put of my savings, which were dwindling fast. I took a course in Microsoft Office software that gave me more in depth knowledge of the desktop suite, and also an advanced course, then I got the 67th job I had applied for. It is a case of who you know here, rather than what you know. Before getting the job I had just about run out of money and had to give up the rented accommodation and throw myself on the mercy of the local council housing department. They put me up in a chalet as temporary accommodation for 2 years, but I ended up living there for 5 years as work was just a hop over the fence, a wander through a field with sheep in it, down a hill and along the road.
I got further training to take me to "instructor level" in all the Office software apps, however the job was only 3 days a week on a temporary contract, so I needed more work. I managed to find a couple more days a week working on a customer database booking appointments, then left that to set up reporting tools on an Access database, then worked in a personnel department. After two years the temporary contract came to an end and I was back on the dole looking for work. I worked in stores picking and packing, then an office job creating software solutions, usually in Excel, and running the simple accounts, then I moved back into IT, then out of that into another office job, then finally another job providing reporting from another SQL database. I reduced my hours down to 30 a week over 4 days. I lead a simple life, don't own a car, do own a big motorbike, but usually get the bus back and forth to work.
The locals are on the whole a friendly bunch, although there are some that don't like incomers. You will always be an outsider here, but the more you contribute the more you will be accepted. Life can be hard with the long dark winters. Many come from the mainland and only last one winter. I have had a couple of periods of depression including one period in hospital with six sessions of ECT. There are plenty of good things, safety and low crime as mentioned. Cheap travel on island. My bus is £2.05 each way for a 17 mile journey to work. Shetland is a group of islands, the inhabited ones connected by ro-ro ferries, but also an Islander aircraft. I think a car on the ferry to Islands within Shetland is a fiver each way. Travelling to the mainland is very costly.
There are some oddities up here. They still bury people as there is no crematorium. You won't find M&S, Costa Coffee, Next, Aldi, Lidl, River Island etc., etc. We do have Boots, Tesco, Co-op and Mackays, but everything else tends to be local. We have our own local radio station, which is an acquired taste, and the BBC has got a studio up here.
On the whole, do I enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again if I was in the same situation? Probably not. I would have chosen somewhere warmer, somewhere further south. This place is a long way north. I think that we are further north than Oslo in Norway.
Now THAT is a story worth telling. Fair play to you for packing it all in and not just giving it a shot, but making it work. Your honesty about the tough times is admirable and would have caused many lesser folk to go running back.
Thanks for sharing - it is very inspiring.
You really should write a book.
Yes all very nice , but any word on the other 3 series of Shetland you originally asked about ??
Perhaps ask Jimmy Perez and Tosh they may be able to find them for you
That’s exactly what I was thinking. There endeths Chapter One.
You sound like a man with gumption, determination, Sense of adventure, all the traits to make a success of anything you.
Good Luck with all your future ventures, look forward to Chaper Two, soon
Way to go,so it was worth it in the end?
Re being classed as an incomer, I worked on an inner Hebridean island years back and went into a locals house to do some work and got talking, now she was 91 and had arrived as a baby and she said she was still talked about as the incomer, she said that you had to be born their to be classed as an islander
Fascinating, we need to hear more. Let’s have letters from Shetland, surely you have the time. I do love the series and the landscape, and it’s on my list for a visit
As said it must have took a lot of guts to do what you did
Amazing story as someone who has run round the obvious hamster wheel for years, it’s really great to hear about someone who has made braver choices in life... not always easy I would imagine, but, none the less a highly rewarding life from many perspectives
The bravest I got was to get a one way ticket to Jersey with £120 in my pocket and a one man tent, when I’d just finished University... I camped, persuaded thr job centre to let me use their phone and had two job offers in the space of a week... I had a lovely 4 months working at a hotel in St Clements with full bed and board, plus £150 tax free a week... I brought a Fiat 127 with a targa top of the Chefs brother in law for £150 and dated the lovley Claudia from Funchal...
Life is defined by making brave choices, we should make them more often!
Last edited by Wolfie; 21st March 2018 at 21:17.
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