CrashBox

I moved up from the Midlands five years ago and it's been the best thing I've ever done, so just do it. House prices in and around Lerwick are comparable with much of the rest of the UK but are much cheaper the further from town you go. I live up on Unst and I was in a position to buy my 3-bedroom house outright. That definitely wouldn't have been the case pretty much anywhere else in the country. Due to not having a mortgage, I find I'm much better off financially than I would be down south. Can't really advise you on the other stuff, other than agreeing with Joannie regarding NHS Shetland having difficulty with recruiting medical staff. Oh, and the ferries are generally pretty good given their extreme age and the climate they have to endure. And all the pre-2004 cars are up on Yell, Unst, and Fetlar, with no MOT.

Just watched this fairly recent upload about the Faroe Islands by the Scottish journalist Lesley Riddoch. It's quite an eye-opener and shows what can be done by a remote island community.

My concern would not be the fear of getting to work because of ferry service suspension, but the fear of not being able to get home after a shift in work

I've noticed a brand new mobile phone mast is currently under construction above Gutcher on Yell. That might help improve the patchy coverage in the North Isles. We'll have to wait and see.

Orkney produces all of its energy needs via renewables and being connected to the UK Grid is able to 'export' its excess. It currently generates something like 20% more than it consumes.

Yes. Sometime around 2025.

The main road past my house has both the original (August 2010) and most recent (Sept 2015) images available to compare.

Nothing in the pipeline for this year.....https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en-GB/streetview/understand/

I have FreeSat and also have a Roku NowTV box (Sky) and pay £6.99 for the Sky Entertainment package and £9.99 for Sky Movies a month. I also have Amazon Prime/Fire TV Stick with costs about £80 a year but I also get unlimited music streaming and downloads with that, so have lots of music on my mobile and uses the Bluetooth function in my car's infotainment system to play it through the car speakers. I also get unlimited free delivery when I buy stuff on Amazon.

I'm with EE, and living in the North Isles I get very patchy coverage. There's no 3G, just 2G, which is basically the same as dial-up internet. Remember that!?! Very poor. Last summer there were a few engineers up at the mast on the hill and they were apparently installing 4G enabled equipment. Sadly, they've been unable to get it working so we're still on 2G. Things came to a head early last year when I was expecting an important phone call and the mast lost signal (a very common occurrence here, annoyingly) for the best part of a week. I do have a BT landline but I'm ex-directory and don't give out my home number. I was on the phone to EE and got them to agree to send me a signal box for free as I'm on a contract and the many times the local network has gone down is frankly bordering on the ridiculous. Most of the isles have no coverage from my experience, but EE does seem to be the best overall.

I'm expecting the RET pricing to come into force next month with the start of the new tax year. We shall see.

And Shetland's 'Big Snow' of Christmas/New Year 1995/1996

Nah! Sutherland is still seen as far too remote. Stick 'em all in the central belt along with all the Highlands & Islands residents. Hell, if you really are wanting to save money then let's depopulate every part of the UK and put the entire population in a Greater Greater London.

A couple came up to Shetland last year to marry on Norwick Beach on Unst. Unfortunately, the weather very much put a stop to that idea and they ended up marrying at Saxa Vord. Was covered by The Shetland Times. Edit:- Here's the article if you're interested....... http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2017/07/16/metal-hunters-get-hitched-surviving-horror-crash

In my more recent experience, I find anti-virus software acts like a virus itself. It can dramatically slow down the OS and if you try to remove it to try another one, it usually acts in a not very benevolent way. I have a (now old but still used) Galaxy S5 which has had an AVS installed that stopped me from logging onto any wifi network, for 'fear' of allowing a virus or hacker access to the system. Was incredibly frustrating and whenever I tried to remove the software it would throw up copious amounts of warnings and 'threats', saying that removal of this AVS would affect the overall running of the phone. It didn't, but there is folk out there who would take that as gospel and it would stop them from going ahead and removing the anti-virus software, so continue living with a device that has the OS functions compromised. Not good in my book.

The topic heading reminded me of this......

I suppose one option is to take the existing fleet, rip out the engines and convert to battery electric propulsion. There's an energy cost saving of around 80% and it keeps the ferrymen (and women) in employment. Just don't mention the manpower costs. https://electrek.co/2018/02/03/all-electric-ferry-cuts-emission-cost/

How funny (actually, it's not) you've been talking about BT and broadband today. I turned on my computer around half five this evening and got pretty much diddly-squit broadband. I've just spent the last hour on the phone to a call centre in Dublin, of all places (since when was Dublin back in the Empire? I suppose it's better than Mumbai, but still.....). Anyway, I was told there was nothing wrong and I should be getting 8.5mbs! WTF!?! I've NEVER got anywhere near that. At best I get about 6, but more often than not I have to make do with around 3mbs. Anyway, I've completely missed the UHA live feed for the second year running. That suggests to me (now it's finish and folk are off the local network) that the live feed for UHA affects the broadband in more remote areas of Shetland that has to make do with the Victorian technology. Lets see if it happens again this time next year. That'll be 3 out of 3 then, which will certainly be enough evidence to convict in a court of law. It's really boiled my pee.

I'm hoping there's an old-school mechanic in Shetland who is happy and able to make home visits, so to speak. I have an 86-year-old that needs a bit of fettling and I'm finding it's a bit more than my skills can manage. The local garage is just way too busy and I'm wanting to get the old girl up and running for Summer. Has anyone got any recommendations? Ta.

Geira now out of service with a knackered engine. Yell-Unst-Fetlar down to a single vessel for the next two weeks, resulting in a reduced timetable.

Hi again Bluevac. Here's what I posted over on another thread back in July........ Posted 31 July 2017 - 05:52 PM Has anyone had anything weird happen on the road from Mid Yell to Aywick? Got some friends visiting this week and we were over on Yell and as I was driving south on that road a car was seen approaching us from the direction of Aywick. The road dropped a bit so we lost sight of the car. I realised I needed to get to the next passing place at the top of the small rise, but when I got there the car was nowhere in sight. No side roads anywhere near that it could have gone down, and given the lay of the land I could see for a good distance. This happened around half two this afternoon.

Bluevac, where is this haunted road in Yell? Had friends up back in the summer and we think we saw something.

Hi, this website might interest you........ https://canmore.org.uk/site/search/result?SITECOUNTRY=0&view=map I use it a lot for finding interesting locations to explore. I'm guessing you've been here long enough to hear about the Wind House on the island of Yell.

I have Michelin CrossClimates fitted to my car. They're the first summer compound tyre that works in winter conditions. They're also legal to use in winter in countries that require winter tyres to be fitted. I've had them since February and they are brilliant in all weather conditions we've had so far, including the recent snow. They're not expensive either unless you're the sort of person who fits Chinese crap to your wheels. http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/What-changed-with-the-new-Michelin-CrossClimate-Plus.htm

Yep, and that could be expanded to "Let's empty all the islands around Scotland AND the Highlands, and centralise everyone to the central belt and make Glasgow and Edinburgh contiguous because it'll save money having everybody in one place" Seriously though, when you look at Unst, all the tourists like to make a beeline for it, to visit Hermaness and see Muckle Flugga. So there needs to be a population there to provide the services that the tourists will need and expect. Nobody will go there if there are no shops, cafes, and accommodation. That would hit Shetland as a whole. It'll be a disaster to de-populate it.