Keeping It Real - July 2008

Sick of Tunnel Vision

Having had sufficient time to settle back into life in Orkney I’m feeling glad to be home. As I’ve mentioned before in this column, making the necessary adjustments needed to fit back in here after being in the city for a whole term can take me a while, but I’m glad to say I’m over that now.

Some of you may already be aware that I’m working at Radio Orkney for the summer. As usual this is proving an excellent opportunity to learn a great deal of skills, including those in journalism and presenting which will be of great benefit to me in my planned career as a radio broadcaster.

Because I’m working almost full time at the station, with the rest of my family on Auskerry, I’m living in our Kirkwall house by myself. This is actually one of the biggest adjustments I’ve had to make since coming back from University. I’m so used to the constant humour, noise and general banter in my flat that coming home to an empty house at the end of a days work is a bit of an anti climax. I suppose this is just another part of life which I’ll have to get used to, for the time being at least.

Something which I have been meaning to mention for a while are the comments often made in Orkney Today’s ‘Hoo’s hid ga’an’ feature. The particular bit I’m referring to is the question which asks what one thing would improve Orkney.

I am sick of seeing some variation of the answer; ‘A tunnel to the mainland’, ‘Towing Orkney nearer the mainland’, ‘A bridge to Scotland’ etc. Why do people feel the need to find room in their head for these ridiculous statements, let alone in the paper? I rarely get annoyed by people’s opinions as I think healthy debate is crucially important in any community. However, if you genuinely believe that a fixed link to the Scottish mainland will improve the quality of life in Orkney you must be mad.

Orkney’s remoteness is one of its greatest assets. Amongst many other things it gives us a strong sense of community, offers tourists something exciting and adventurous, and keeps us comparatively free of crime. I would be willing to bet that the same people publicly suggest Orkney would benefit from more permanent links to Scotland would be the first to complain when the roads are blocked with Sunday drivers from Caithness. My point to such people is this; if you are irritated by the lack of a B& Q – or whatever the reason - the solution is simple. Move.

Please don’t use your opportunity to tell us about yourself and offer us something entertaining, as a chance to moan about one of Orkney’s most defining qualities. As somebody wisely said to me when I was struggling with some school work; ‘Nothing easy is truly worthwhile.’

You’ll be glad to hear that’s the rant out of the way! There are a couple of other things I think are worth mentioning. Since getting home I have been asked by several people about my post university plans. I will have completed my degree by this time next year and hopefully starting my first job, ideally in radio. The most common question I’m asked concerns the level of involvement I will have with Orkney after I graduate.

I will always be drawn to the islands. They are my home and I can honestly say that I love it here. However, my long term goal is to become a full time presenter on national radio. This presents me with quite a serious logistical problem. How could anyone realistically live here and still present a daily show on Radio 2 for example? Even with the constant advance of existing technology it’s still not particularly feasible. For example, live guests such as singers and actors are usually based in London and to get the best from an interview carried out from a studio over six hundred miles away would be quite difficult. Perhaps more critically, to put myself in a position where I might have a chance of getting such a job, I will need to be based in London, or at least one of the big cities like Manchester or Bristol.

As a result of this my plan is to spend some time this coming academic year compiling my CV and writing letters to prospective employers. In an ideal world I would graduate from Sunderland University with a job lined up. However, I suspect that given the extremely competitive nature of the media industry, I’m expecting things to be a lot more difficult than that. As a back up I’m planning to move to London in a bid to increase my chances of being ‘in the right place at the right time’.

Another thing I’m regularly asked about is to do with the origins of my surname. As I’m sure most people in Orkney know, I was named after ‘Auskerry’, the two hundred and fifty acre island which lies on the East side of Orkney. After the ‘new friend’ discovers I grew up on this island inhabited only by my family, the questions usually begin to flow thick and fast.

The one which amuses me the most, and has surprisingly cropped up a lot, is whether or not the island was named after me! I can’t understand why people would immediately assume that an island would be named after anyone. My response is a variation on the following argument. Auskerry, the island has been around for tens of thousands of years. I turned 20 last week. Which do you think had the name first!?

Next month I’ll be busy preparing for Radio Orkney’s outside broadcasts at the county show and the parish cup final, and for the return visit from the five university mates who failed to reach Auskerry last year because of poor weather. We all hope we are a bit luckier this time.