Uist - 7. Time Offline & "Stay where you are!"

Before I leave for home, it is always nice to re-connect with family and friends. This wait, I spent time with my ‘Granny Ceiteag’, Katie, on the Isle of Uist just below Lewis on the map. Much of Uist remains as constant as its floating landscape. No one would expect to find a telephone here, let alone wifi. The same family of swans are in the small sea pond across from Katie’s, the well-loved traditional homes are in the same spots with the same family lines that have been there for generations.

Even Katie’s living room, with her warm peat fire (we burn wood, Scots burn peat),

still invites guests in for a talk about local politics. In fact, who remembers those little dolls whose skirts would cover the extra toilet paper roll in the washroom? Yes, Katie still has one sitting on the back of her toilet!

Uist is one of those isolated islands in the Atlantic where the wind and rain sweep the landscape clean for ten minutes of sun each day. It’s a remarkable place full of ghost stories. Across the road from Katie’s there is a causeway, a small road bridge, which has been blocked by stones and fences on each side of the water. Five years ago, there was a terrible winter storm there. The water flowing between the road comes in from the sea, and the gales were so strong, coupled with the high sea tide, that the roads were washed up, and sea waves were pounding on the houses close-by. A new wife and mother, who was living in a house on this road, was in the house alone since her husband was at work, but was growing increasingly scared of the rushing water and gales. She was afraid the storm would sweep her house away. Despite the weather, she begged her husband to come and get her and the children and drive them inland to a relative’s. He did, and on the way, all five MacPhersons drown in their car half a mile from their home. The house, however, still stands there today. Had they stayed, they would still be living.

Walking by this peaceful road and fence, it’s difficult to believe such a quiet place holds a watery grave.

Sometimes the best places in life are just where you are.

Scotland - 6. Shopping Hunt & Where's the wifi?

Don’t you love grocery shopping? For men, I have heard this compared to ‘contemporary hunting’. In a strange city, the hunting is even more exciting because you never know what new product you will come across! There are not many major cities in the World any longer where you would not find the fundamental ingredients for what you want to cook. Most foods are quite global, and although a grocery store may not have my particular brand, they have the same basic food item. Even so, every time I come to Scotland, I am asked to fetch ’99 Scottish tea’, Galaxy bars, Penguin bars, and Breakaways. (Okay, mostly tea and chocolate cookies, but they are good and unavailable where we live.) There is also a Müller yogurt my children love: one corner of the container has a sweet (chocolate flakes (again) or fruit) that you fold over into the yogurt. different in another country.

What do they have here that we don’t have in North America? Soccer shoes, or ‘football boots’, come in a variety of sizes shapes and colours in Scotland that we would never see in stores in Canada with all of the hockey equipment crowding the aisles. And cheeky T-shirts and club wear are everywhere in Glasgow. Shopping is just

Is it just me, or should wifi be everywhere by now? My husband and I travelled to Dublin for a job interview in 1998, and at the time we were very impressed by how technologically-advanced Dubliners were. The economy was strong, and everywhere you went people were texting, or hooking into open signals. At the same time, in North America, only one in 20 people even had mobile phones.

Today, when I travel, I just expect there to be wifi. On this trip, I think this alone really illustrated the growing economic crisis for me. It was difficult, if not impossible, for me to find a café, library, or open common space with wifi. Today, I am posting three of my blogs together for that very reason. I had to plan my work day out so that when I found a signal, I could send all of my emails and communications out at the same time. This, for me, was the modern-day equivalent of handwriting all of your letters and bills, then walking them over to the postal box to mail them. That is essentially what I did. The unavailability of wifi would not be so unusual for me if I had not become accustomed to the UK being so advanced.

Not any more my friends. With cutbacks everywhere, if you travel to Europe now, you will be asking yourself, “Where’s the flipping wifi?”

Lewis - 5. The HMIe

Why do countries love standardized testing? What is it about these tests that are so popular? As a parent, as a creative entrepreneur, would you rather your child sit in a row colouring in ABCD bubbles, or would you rather they be actively engaged in the application of knowledge?

Sit in a row regurgitating facts, or creating new worlds?

To me, a writer - no contest. But I wish someone, anyone would explain to me why we still persist with the multi-billion dollar industry of test taking. It costs taxpayers in every country billions of dollars to produce, distribute, mark and report, and yet there is no tangible outcome to the economy (with the exception of those employed to do the former).

It ranks and separates schools by social classes; it perpetuates socio-economic divisions in societies, and yet, we will have ‘the examinations’ every year.

Scotland is no different. In fact, in the UK, the testing may be even more extreme. Starting in the third year of secondary (S3), pupils complete a full practice test, contracted out to an independent test firm to complete, and then the national examination. In total, the time dedicated to practicing, studying, evaluating, and test taking may account for four to five months of the school year, or almost one half of each year! And this does not include the time pupils spend with tutors, on their own, to increase their test marks.

As in every country, good scores for a school, mean a good HMIe (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate) inspection. This, in turn, raises the school’s profile in the rankings, and, for those parents who read these superficial rankings, moves more affluent social classes into that geographical area, hence raising property values.

Test taking is quite an industry. Real estate agents, builders, shop owners, educators, inspectors, principals, and of course politicians, all use, “[our area] scores high in the testing” as evidence of superiority. It is a self-perpetuating sickness.

If we dedicated the same amount of time and energy to increasing innovation, think of where we would be as a nation!