{"id":324,"date":"2019-09-02T10:40:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T10:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/?p=324"},"modified":"2019-09-02T10:40:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T10:40:57","slug":"leaving-the-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/?p=324","title":{"rendered":"Leaving the Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is nearly 19 weeks since Bee and I arrived back in Scotland after our time \u2013 nearly 2 \u00bd years \u2013 on the island of Tristan da Cunha.\u00a0 Which means that it is 22 weeks since we left the island itself.\u00a0 How did that happen?\u00a0 Where did all that time go?<\/p>\n

Bigger questions are all to do with the impressions that we have on re-joining the developed world, which in turn is a reflection of how we had become accustomed to life on the island, and the extent to which our outlooks have changed.\u00a0 Everyone we meet back here poses the same line of questions, and it is natural that we have become reflective as a result of our experiences.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the greatest difference we have been aware of, from the time that we set foot off the boat in Cape Town to face an on-going exposure to the modern world, is to do with the rampant commercialisation that we are all faced with.\u00a0 On the island choice was limited and basics only were available, which is exactly as you would expect when the shop supplies to a population of just 246 people.\u00a0 In Cape Town we found shops and restaurants with an endless range of goods available.\u00a0 We were not used to this!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not only are the shops full of stuff that we really do not need, but also there are extraordinary numbers of on-line traders looking for payment today for delivery tomorrow. This observation is, literally, brought home now that we are back in Scotland.\u00a0 We are half way through building our house, and the range of goods available is simply overwhelming.\u00a0 On the island, there might be a possibility of a new lavatory being available from Public Works if your existing one should crack, whereas here there are literally thousands of different shapes, styles and prices.\u00a0 The same goes for kitchens, floor coverings, light fittings.\u00a0 The world has become complicated, and perhaps in the last 2\u00bd years Bee and I have become simplified.<\/p>\n

One of the things we have both noticed is variety of bird life and the amount of bird song that we have in Scotland.\u00a0 Tristan effectively has no song birds.\u00a0 Certainly the island has interesting bird life, but the birds are generally silent.\u00a0 The Northern Rockhopper Penguins come ashore to \u2018rookeries\u2019 (as if they were rooks!) but the only sound they make is a discordant screech if they are handled, as for example when the Conservation Department carries out a ringing operation in the rookeries.\u00a0 The Yellow Nosed Albatross is silent, apart from sometimes a warning bill-clicking if you approach within a few inches of them when they are on their nest.\u00a0 So naturally we are strongly aware of the birds now that we are back home.\u00a0 The leader of the orchestra is the blackbird, which starts up the dawn chorus at around 4.00 in the morning.\u00a0 We have friendly robins cheering up every corner of the garden with their song, a range of finches in the trees announcing their territory to all comers.\u00a0 We have several species of duck flying a circuit on their way to land on the river, and overhead a skein of geese will be chattering among themselves.\u00a0 Also overhead, swallows and swifts screech as they hunt insects in the evening, and oystercatchers add another dimension to the aerial sounds. \u00a0We even have a cock pheasant in the garden, strutting his stuff and calling to the world while his mate looks after her clutch of eggs somewhere in the undergrowth, ready to protect the baby chicks from neighbourhood cats. We have seductive wood pigeon calls and discordant jackdaw calls. Above all are the owls, which add night-time soul to the woodlands with their haunting calls one to another.\u00a0\u00a0 It is all so different from Tristan, and no doubt we appreciate the diversity of bird life more than before we went to the sI suppose that diversity is one of the main differences between Tristan and Scotland.\u00a0 Not diversity in the narrow social sense, but true diversity covering all subjects.\u00a0 Compared with Tristan, we have here a diversity of farming systems, of trees, of landscapes.\u00a0 There is diversity of people, and the things they get up to at work and in their leisure time.\u00a0 There is even diversity of places to go and eat or pubs in which to go and socialise!\u00a0 This is all to be expected, and after the privations of Tristan da Cunha it is only to be expected that we feel the difference.\u00a0 Indeed, there is no doubt that our time on the island has sharpened our appreciation of our own country.<\/p>\n

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A rookery of northern rockhopper penguins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Yellow nosed albatros nesting on nearby Nightingale Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As also can be expected, one of the greatest differences that we see \u2013 and appreciate \u2013 is in the everyday shopping.\u00a0 Where we live in Scotland we have a mini-supermarket just a 5 minute stroll from the door, which is open from 6 in the morning to 11 at night, seven days a week.\u00a0 What service!\u00a0 The shop on the island opened at 8 and closed at 2.30, Monday to Friday.\u00a0 Even then, as can be imagined, the range of goods was really limited.\u00a0 In particular, fruit and vegetables were often not in stock, or were in poor condition.\u00a0 This was all part of a chicken-and-egg situation in which poor availability of fresh foods (fruit and vegetables) resulted in a low interest in routinely using such foods.\u00a0 This is particularly sad when you consider that the island could become self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables, if only there was sufficient interest in each household growing their own.<\/p>\n

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No fruit and veg in the island shop (but plenty of fizzy drinks)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Island life was delightfully simple \u2013 it had to be.\u00a0 I now have to adapt to complications and regulations that would have been unthinkable on Tristan da Cunha.\u00a0 For example, we are in the middle of building our house, and it is just astonishing how many and how complex the regulations are that I have to comply with.\u00a0 For example, the Building Inspector told me that I had to lower all the light switches by 20cms, so that they are easy to reach if one is sitting in a wheelchair.\u00a0 And the water inspector told me that an outside standpipe had to be equipped with a second double-check valve, in addition to the one already fitted.\u00a0 None of this on Tristan \u2013 there you go through the simplest of procedures to get permission to build, and then you get on with it with no regulations to comply with of any sort.\u00a0 Possibly the ideal system would be somewhere between these two extremes!<\/p>\n

One question is \u2013 What Next?\u00a0 Getting the house finished is top priority.\u00a0 After that \u2013 watch this space!!\u00a0 We may well go off and do more exciting things, probably involving islands, boats and land use.\u00a0 It is perfectly possible that I will try to weave stories of our next activities into this site.\u00a0 In any case, I still have material all prepared for a number of articles on Tristan, and I hope to get these written and published before long.<\/p>\n

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It is not a busy pub – but it is a pub!\u00a0 The Albatros bar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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It is nearly 19 weeks since Bee and I arrived back in Scotland after our time \u2013 nearly 2 \u00bd years \u2013 on the island of Tristan da Cunha.\u00a0 Which means that it is 22 weeks since we left the island itself.\u00a0 How did that happen?\u00a0 Where did all that time go? Bigger questions are … Continue reading “Leaving the Island”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-farming","category-history","category-social","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.penguins-and-potatoes.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}