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Wanting to move to Shetland


jenesequa
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G'day to everyone!

 

my name is John Coutts

 

I live further south than any of ya, in a wee group of islands called New Zealand.

 

Started reading this thread with interest, first post on the thread = "I love that place and want to move there"

 

60% of rest of thread = "you insulted me, better get ready for da naastie times hurr!"

 

For those of you who have maybe lived there your whole lives, have grown up there, spare a thought for people like myself, who used to sit with their nanna in 1988 at the tender age of 8, being told about the Shetland Bus, about Walls and the Victoria Cottage where ma grandad was born and lived, how he used to go out into 'da swells' and do his job, or allowed to play his accordian that he brought over with him, Up Helly Aa, Fiddles, having O' wee Dram o de whiskers, crofts, Simmer Dim, all these things that my grand dad used to talk about and say that he missed a lot. Or the times i would listen to my uncle Bill who went over a few times, once during the 1985 Hamefarin, and listened to his stories, or even now, remember all the tings dat my dad told me about Shetland on his visits there because he felt the same 'draw' that I do, and back then it was cheap to go for a month and stay with family in Lerwick, getting liquored up on, for all he could tell was over proof home made whisky, yet was drunk like water and he was openly harrassed because a 'Duckie can hav o Dram more"

 

I would move there in a heart beat if my family commitments would allow it, dont give two hoots about weather, about unfriendly basturds who nae say.

 

Sorry for my first post on this site being somewhat confrontational but you folk up tere have mighty thick skins so the ramblings of a disgruntled New Zealander wont hurt none.

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You should research your move fully first, try moving here for a few months first!? You should remember that the seasons are a bit longer than further south as well. Shetland is a very mixed and accepting place so you and a great place to call your home.

 

One thing for sure though - Shetlink is infamous for its negativity so speak to some real people first!

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but when tie sun is out ...the rest seems a distant memory... :D Have gone through my first winter and it was nothing like as bad as I thought It was going to be....no matter what the weather there is always something stunning to look at...

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And your point is, Zealander?

 

my point simply is that there are some people with a dream.

 

As far as winter up there goes, cant be any worse than waiouru here in central north island, I spent far too many a cold night in a bag in the middle of bloody nowhere, with a snow/ice covered active volcano 50k away flowing freezing cold air off it into the plain we were on.. so cold 3 pairs of socks a sleeping back and boots on and a tear still comes to ya eye cause ya feeties are still cold LOL. Then again, everywhere has it's 'own' kind of cold weather unique to it.

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Firstly to all the people who have given me encouragement in following through with my dream to move up to the shetland islands ,I would like tosay thamk you for your kind words of support. I have definently made up my mind to move this year for better or worse .At least I will have made the attempt and I wont be spending the rest of my life with an BIG IF . Wether or not I would actually be made welcome or treated like a leper because im not a born and bred shetlander(if thats the correct term) is a different matter . The fact is weather aside your islands are breathtaking with their scenery and for me that is enough of a reason to move away from the overcrowded and ugly cities of the Uk .So I hope that when I make the move I will be hopefully made welcome.

 

Best regards Sal

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  • 2 months later...
Dont get all in awe of the Shetland Islands brochures... trust me when you are out in the pissin rain and hurricanes.. you will wish that you had thrown the brochures in the bin and decided not to bother moving at all...

 

Dont expect trees.. there are very few... seemingly the sheep eat them... thats probably because in the winter the parks are that weet that they reach for something dry....

 

If you like driving... great.. but alas the price of fuel up here... £1.21p a litre for diesel.. well.. you wont be driving a lot!

 

Always take a change of clothes with you when you go out.. because guaranteed.. it might be sunny when you step out the door but by the time you have driven to the bottom of the road.. it will be pissin doon.

 

I could go on all night... but alas.. I wont... :?

the grass is always greener get on your horse and go :arrow:
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Why should people move to Shetland? The land where the wind is so strong that for two days we couldnt go to school as it would have blown you off the island completely, where it never stops raining, when it does, it snows, hardly any light in the winter and not much dark in the summer.

If your looking for a place where people are genuinely friendly, not frightened to enjoy themselves from time to time, have wild life coming out of your ears, beautiful Island scenery and a safe environment to grow up or have bairns in, then there is no place like Shetland.

Thankfully people do move up to Shetland from all over the place, sooth moothers they may be, but if they didnt, we wouldnt get any more Shetlanders as we would run out - like Papa Stour.

I'm a Shetlander and proud of it, but I do not live there, oh but how I enjoy my trips home, I think you need to live off of Shetland for a time to appreciate its glory. Zealander, the place is all your Granddad told you it was, jenesequa good luck, the people dont bite, not the real ones any how.

As a friend of mine said, remember Shetland Dialect is simply changing the letter D for a T = Dat = that, dis = this, dine = yours lol!

To me -Its such a wondrous place - to visit, sadly not my choice to live there anymore, but many do even if they are from elsewhere originally.

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Hi,

Always understood west coast of Scotland on average gets more rain then Shetland and the Highlands of Scotland can also be much colder.However Shetland winds can be much stronger.

 

When I lived in the Highlands yes it got very cold and wet at times and with the snow but it was nothing you couldn't cope with and I guess it what you get used to?

I used to sit and sunny myself in the garden at 14/15 degrees thinking this very warm bordering hot when down south it was too hot.I think its what you become acclimatised too over time.

 

I guess as long as your prepared to get days of wet,cold and horrizontal rain strong force gales you will be fine and the others days will more than make up for it surely?

 

Silvercloud

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  • 3 months later...

Hi all guess what im still stuck in bloody england .My plans to move kinda ended up being totally scuppered .But my spirit still hasnt been dampened.I still will hopefully make it some time this year. Oh and for ll the peole who have tried scaring me off coming (jokeing) given me sensible advice I have researched and am more interested in moving to northmavine or fetle simply because they are the least crowwded places.I am a genuine hater of towns and cities and nightclubs and all the glamorised shops.I prefer simplicity and peace .

 

So you never know yet hopefully sooner rather than later I will make the one way trek.

 

See ya all soon

Sal

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We too are looking at moving to the place as well, got to sort out some teleworking jobs first so we can bring our jobs with us!

 

Also looking to self build, so won't be outbidding anyone for a home :-)

 

 

We rarely go to the cinema these days, even though we are in London, its so expensive, full of less than pleasent people, nowhere to park nearby, the sound is always too loud, the picture sometimes out of focus. Far better to lay in bed and watch it on a widescreen TV with pause for toilet time!

 

I rarely go into bookshops nowdays, they never have what I want and I end up ordering it via the web, which pretty much goes for anything these days. There was a time when living in the city meant you could just pop around the corner to any shop you wanted. But now, we don't make anything here anymore! want a nut & bolt, if B&Q doesn't have the size you want, you may as well Ebay it from China..

 

So we stay for our jobs, for our tiny home (All 116 square feet of it for the two of us..) that costs us a fortune each month, and with never a hope of having enough to afford to buy a house. (There was a nice 3 bedroom home down the road the other week like what I used to live in as a kid, only £2.5 million..) And with crime levels so high you don't know if your going to be robbed at gunpoint again, have to step over another dead body on your way to the supermarket, or sweep the spent AK47 bullet cases from the pavement outside your house..

 

I've lived in very windy spots before, I remember one place was so windy that bits of the fire escape blew away one night!

 

And so cold, you'd wake up in the morning with your bedside cup frozen over..

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Hi all guess what im still stuck in bloody england .My plans to move kinda ended up being totally scuppered .But my spirit still hasnt been dampened.I still will hopefully make it some time this year. Oh and for ll the peole who have tried scaring me off coming (jokeing) given me sensible advice I have researched and am more interested in moving to northmavine or fetle simply because they are the least crowwded places.I am a genuine hater of towns and cities and nightclubs and all the glamorised shops.I prefer simplicity and peace .

 

So you never know yet hopefully sooner rather than later I will make the one way trek.

 

See ya all soon

Sal

Good luck with your plans to move, Sal. Hope it all goes well. :) If you need any Northmavine-related help or advice, you could try Maree at the Northmavine Community Development Company - maree@northmavine.com, 01806 544222.

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Also looking to self build, so won't be outbidding anyone for a home :-)

 

I've lived in very windy spots before, I remember one place was so windy that bits of the fire escape blew away one night!

 

And so cold, you'd wake up in the morning with your bedside cup frozen over..

 

I don't think you need worry about outbidding anyone for a home, there's more houses on the market just now than I can ever remember - not sure if that's a good or bad thing though.

 

You need to understand the type of weather in Shetland, yes it's windy, but it's windy for days/weeks on end. On the mainland UK, storms tend to pass quickly, in a matter of hours. Worst I remember in Shetland was Jan 93, 29 days of force 9 or above - that sort of weather really does get to you.

 

Likewise Shetland isn't cold in a pure temperature sense, in fact during Winter it's often the warmest place in the UK at around 12 deg C. Trouble is that it's 12 deg C all year round (most years). The coldness people refer to is really the wind effect combined with mild damp conditions. Combine this with limited daylight through the heart of Winter and you're getting close to fairly typical conditions.

 

Probably the only other area in the UK that's comparable is the Western Isles and poss NW Scotland.

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Nigel Jarman

 

have you been to fetlar. its a lovely island and the folks are nice. but i think your in for a shock when you move there. would suggest that you rent on the mainland for a few months and see if you can cope with a Shetland winter then shift up to Fetlar in spring. living in London you areoing to miss loads of things but there are big gains as well.

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