Keeping It Real - September 2007

If you’re reading this on the day it’s published I will be leaving Orkney tomorrow on my journey back to Sunderland to begin my second year. In am really excited and very much looking forward to getting back to my ‘other life’.

This is not to say, however, that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed being in Orkney for the summer holidays. It’s been a busy three months cramming in five weeks full time work at Radio Orkney, helping mum and dad on Auskerry with fencing, building a garden wall, general maintenance and in the last week, bringing the peat home. We have also had a lot of friends and family up to visit and I have had some of my own friends from school out to Auskerry for a camping weekend. We do this every summer as it’s a chance to have a bit of ‘lad’s time’ and get away from the town.

I have also had five friends up from university to visit Orkney, and particularly Auskerry, but unfortunately they never quite made it that far. They arrived on the Scrabster boat on the Friday night and we planned to spend the weekend on the mainland doing a bit of partying, then go to Auskerry on Monday morning and have a couple of days camping before they headed home on Wednesday. But sadly even the best laid plans can be ruined by the weather and that’s exactly what it did. On Sunday morning we had a nice day cycling out to Scapa and in the afternoon we loaded the Creole with the supplies we had bought on Saturday ready for Auskerry. By Monday morning the weather had broken and it was raining so hard that we were all soaked through by the time we got from the house to the boat. Mum and a couple her friends on holiday from Spain were on the boat too so some of the lads went below decks with the luggage as there was not space in the wheelhouse. It was a very windy day and it soon became apparent it was going to be a choppy trip, not the sort you spend sitting on the forward deck admiring the view! Anyway, we started to head up the string and my mate Mcduff and I were out on deck by the wheelhouse using our phones to film our own version of the BBC TV programme, Trawlermen. One of the videos showed Mcduff walking along the side of the wheelhouse and saying in a Peterhead accent; “It’s a pretty course day like, but err, we have to catch some fish or we can’t pay the crew.” Then he turned away from the sea, looked into the camera and said, “You can see how rough it is.” At which point a wave licked over the bow, seeing it through the camera, I ducked into the wheelhouse, and he got wet. We thought it was hilarious and I was really enjoying the trip despite being soaked from the rain.

However some of the ‘crew’ were not having such a great experience and when a wave slightly steeper than the rest knocked the boat enough for the pile of boxes in the cabin to collapse, I began to think it was time to call it off. It was perfectly safe, but it wasn’t much fun for some and it would have been a nightmare trying to get people dry and put tents up in the poor weather so when mum and Smith made the decision to turn back I was disappointed but relieved at the same time. It was a real shame for the lads who travelled miles up the UK just to get a misty glimpse of the east side of Shapinsay, but that’s just what happens sometimes.

They all enjoyed Orkney and they all agreed the trip on the Creole was a good character building experience. I’m sure I’ll not have too much trouble in persuading them to come back next year and try it again.

Meanwhile I have hardly been off the phone trying to get ‘Northern Hype’ up and running. This is the promotion company that I and five other mates at uni are setting up with the plan being to run a weekly student night in the well known Sunderland night club, Independent. I knew it would be a lot of work and we have really only just begun but were all really keen to get back and get started properly. At the moment we are working on finalizing bookings for various bands, DJ’s and venues. We also have to get posters and flyers made up and distributed around the area. Andy has completed the website and the forum has been up and running for over a month now so things are beginning to come together at last.

One of the many things that’s enthused me this summer has been talking to people I was at school with who have gone off and done interesting things, and returned with various experiences. Richard and Gary have joined shipping companies and spent the year travelling the world, visiting many famous city ports as far away as Singapore. Alex and Nick both went to America, Alex for a few weeks and Nick for a year. They have all come back with a much broader idea of life having had a chance to experience a real sense of independence.

Last week I signed up to doing the weekday 12 to 2pm slot on Utopia FM, Sunderland University’s student station. You may remember that last May I did the weekday breakfast show with Danielle. We decided that it would be good experience for us both if we did a show on our own this time and then we could perhaps team up again next may to do ‘Drivetime’. I’m really looking forward to getting back on the air again and I’ve been trying to come up with features and names for the show. Due to the time of day I’m considering giving it the tongue in cheek name: ‘Student Breakfast’.