nobody loves you when you're down and out

It's Christmas Eve. I nearly got trapped off the island today but with Jayne at Kinnererach three miles across the water. Waving not drowning. The ferry stopped running at midday. Lucky I was tipped off that things were getting a bit bleak. It was a close run thing.

So we're together and the weather outside is dreadful, but the fire inside's delightful.

Our friends here know we've hit a dead stop. One of the reasons for wanting to stay on Gigha is because we live in a place where our friends look out for us, as we do for them. You can leave your front door unlocked for weeks on end and no-one will nick your stuff though people might come in to feed your goldfish or check your heating is on and your pipes haven't frozen. Fuck the advertising executives' "Big Society". We are going to need a lot of help, and we'll get it - but then we'll help out when our friends need help too. We know there are the spiteful and malign few who glory in ours and others' problems.

Today the Halifax has published its annual survey and 42 of the top 50 places in Britain are in the south and east of England. There is nowhere in Wales in the top 200 and nowhere in the North of England or Scotland features anywhere near the top 50 either. It's a survey for commuters by commuters. Love the Anglo Saxon M2/M3/M4 corridors. Screw the Celts, Gaels and especially Geordies, Dalesmen, Highlanders and Islanders. We should all live happily ever after in Hampshire or Royal Berkshire. To most people I know and respect this would be purgatory - at best.

Would you leave your doors unlocked in Hampshire, Surrey, Herts., Kent ?

Why would anyone believe that a failed bank can judge on quality of life ?

longest night / shortest day

Can't sleep hence the unearthly hour of this blog.

We have lost most of what was left of our life savings and the crucial funds needed to complete the build and realise our lifetime project in 2012. Our reserves are dwindling, insufficient and will erode rapidly if we are stalled for any length of time.

We can probably finish the carcass of the small roundhouse by building it ourselves but just short of it being in a liveable condition. So we have to maintain additional costs of living at a time when we can least afford it.

We do not know how we can refinance the project as it is more than difficult to get enough reliable outside work to cover any mortgage - itself difficult at our age and in the current climate. The solution for most problems is to work through them. It is by our own efforts that we recover from the slings and arrows. However, it is not lack of willingness that is the issue.

I need decent part time work to repay a mortgage and not on short term contracts on very low wages. But this is the Kintyre economy. There is little else. Hope is at a premium here. Even my occasional supply teaching wages have been reduced by over 40% by this government. I do the same job, with the same commitment and skill but suddenly I am worth less - read that both ways. The SNP have lost my vote. So they too are worth less.

Both of us have the philosophy of being self reliant and believe in self determination.

You should earn what you get in this life yet this society is full of the undeserving rich. Politically the lunatics run the asylum and the crooks run the economy. Or are they one and the same ?

The economy is actually a massive pyramid selling scheme which is finally slowly toppling with the only people insulated from the effects of this being those who designed it and those who run it. If the cream rises to the top - then the scum floats above them. (I used to be an angry young man and, rereading this, I'm pleased I've not lost the knack of a wee bit of polemic.)

Age discrimination is rife. Somehow you become stupid once you are past 50. It's as if lifetime skills and experience, let alone intelligence and education are wiped out. At interviews I am obliged to undertake very basic, demeaning and almost insulting IT skills tests to satisfy some recruiter's lack of trust in their own judgement. I've worked with computers for over 20 years. I've written over 500,000 words of technical and strategic reports, done original research and development. Take a letter Miss Jones.

We have already been turned down by our preferred lender "because you're on an island". This story will have to wait but is a perfect demonstration of the irrational, ignorant and prejudiced way English based businesses look at Scotland. Nationwide means the south and east of Englandshire and not the UK. The underwriter who made the decision had to Google Gigha as he'd never heard of it and clearly had a well informed knowledge of the property market here.

We can't finish the build and move to Ardailly as it stands. Our plans were to be pretty much self sufficient asap and we would use the small roundhouse to generate income to cover our retirement. That option is now denied us for the foreseable future. Joseph Heller got the philosophy of life just about right.

Thankfully I can't comment on what has happened to us as it will be the subject of criminal investigations.

Anyway we hope all our readers have a better Christmas than we will.

Kit Part 2

This afternoon we received a letter from Tim's accountant that he has ceased trading. No more kit and no build. Letter dated 2/12/11 posted 7/12/11

Money lost ? Yes

How much ? Not sure yet but we can't cover it.

Watch this space.

Kit Part 1

Jubilation as the first part of the kit arrived today and was offloaded successfully by Rob with his Manitou. Very short notice from Tim and risky weatherwise but the small roundhouse is mostly here.