Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - August 2010

Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - August 2010


I’ve just arrive back in London after a thoroughly enjoyable ten days in Orkney. It was the first time I’ve been back since I started this job back in January and as the months passed I realized more and more how much I miss the place. It’s great being in the capital, the weather has been almost perfect for months now and I’m really starting to feel settled in my job. But as the song so rightly says, it’s great to be back home in Kirkwall bay.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, I’m trying to teach myself some basic video editing and production skills. To try and move this process on, and in an attempt to make the results of my efforts a little easier on the eye I’ve invested in a high definition camcorder. Although it’s certainly not a ‘professional’ piece of kit I’ve so far been very pleased with the results.

It arrived in Orkney in time for me to take it out to Auskerry, on route to which I gave the little camera it’s first proper outing. How lucky did I feel when two porpoises decided to play in the bow wave of the boat as we motored along! I’d seen plenty of porpoises before, but never this close; they were literally surfacing no more than ten feet from the boat.

While I was on the island the weather was lovely so I took the opportunity to film as much of the island as possible. I think It’s always nice to have pictures as a visual record of places and events, but I think high quality video’s that will remind me of my childhood home will become all the more special as life and work cause me to spend long period of time away from the place.

Now that the technology to record and edit high quality video footage is affordable and relatively simple, I would hope to see more of Orkney’s beautiful landscape being captured ‘on film’ by armature movie makers. I’m sure some nicely shot footage of wildlife and landscapes uploaded to the Internet would do no harm to the local tourism industry.

Back at work, and things there are looking good there too. In the last month or so, I’ve been given several opportunities to drive some of the longer, more complex programmes. It’s the first time I’ve had a chance to do this since we completed our initial training back in February and I was very excited to get back in the driving seat.

As I expected, The newsroom in the BBC World Service has been a very interesting place to be this summer. With the general election followed by the World Cup and Wimbledon it’s been busy and fast paced. Although arguably of less international significance than the football, the election was a highlight for me. I’ve always taken an interest in politics, but being in the centre of the action on election night itself was superb. Being in London meant I also got the chance to head down to Westminster to see where all the TV action as taking place on college green. As this months picture shows, it was a popular place with news-hounds, tourists and obviously journalists!

As I mentioned the football, I feel capello’d (see what I did there) to say that I was backing England. I would have loved Scotland to have been in South Africa as well, and to be honest they probably would have played better than the England squad. Having said that, the level of unpleasantness and vitriol I’ve seen and heard from some Scots and Orcadians is I think, at best, petty, at worst, plain unacceptable. There is no need to be making “come on’ the Nazis - beat the English” comments in any walk of life. It’s quite simply offensive to both sides.

I’m quite sure that fans of the beautiful game in Orkney will be much more civilised in their comments regarding the forthcoming Parish cup final. I’ll be home for the game, more than likely watching from Radio Orkney’s temporary pitch side studio. With a bit of luck the weather will be nice and for one can’t wait.