Breezy November days

Wednesday and Thursday are somewhat wet but very windy. On Wednesday I find a route through forestry tracks to Tobermory, where I am nearly blown off my bike and take one picture to prove I’ve been there. You can see the boats in the harbour are bucking in the swell.

Thursday, I head out to Caliach point, then on to Calgary bay where I have the beach (not surprisingly) to myself ...

...and also enjoy the Calgary Art in Nature woodlands until I begin to get cold despite my seven layers of clothing.

Yes you’ve guessed it I was the only person there too, the problem with which is definitely no cup of coffee.

Mull

A wet crossing from Oban to Craignure and I am (not surprisingly) the only bike on the ferry. No fighting for outside seats, which have been carefully designed to collect puddles of rainwater.

Ten miles in the rain up to Salen, and then just enough brightness in the west to tempt me the long way round the west coast to Dervaig, a 37 mile day “with some steep bits”.

About half way, my bike objects to my breaking the “never change parts within 14 days prior to a trip” and the new rear tyre pops out of the wheel rim. After a bit of experimenting – switching the front and back tyres/tubes keeps the problem at the rear so it is a tyre-wheel combination issue – I continue with relatively low tyre pressure and make it to Dervaig

North of Ulva, something big passes over without the roar of a RAF jet. Unmistakable wings and white flash in the tail, first one and then two sea eagles circle over Loch Tuath before heading inland. Very impressive, although I would have liked to see them fishing.

It is getting dark when I get to the bunkhouse, attached to a new village hall built with Millennium funding. As a new build, it is not a character-filled log-fire sort of place but functional, and (not surprisingly) I have it to myself.

And it is 200m from the oldest inn on the island, which is serving Avalanche, a rather nice highland beer from Fyne Ales

A late summer holiday

Gilshochill, Summerston. Way-places that give you ideas and feelings because of where you are going whenever you see the names.

Garelocheadhead, Ardlui. Feeling-of-getting-there-places that you might even settle for getting off at.

Crianlarich. “The front two coaches are for Oban, the two rear coaches for Fort William and Mallaig.” Turning left here is new territory as I have never been beyond Cruachan to Oban.

At Tyndrum, the ground is still white with a hard frost, in contrast with the Meadows in Edinburgh where the sun had cleared the grass by 10:30. Loch Awe wears a necklace of ice around its edges and it begins to look very grey.

Taynuilt, and the rain comes on. Again on this trip, I look convincingly old and am not asked for proof of age for my Club55 ticket.

Oban. Another passing-through place best known for its ferries to nicer places. But because everyone has said it is a bit of a dump I am pleasantly surprised, and the fish (local I assume) and chips are excellent.

I pass through.

Disconnects

As my first mobile phone, vintage 2002, ages, there is an inevitability that its replacement will be able to do more than this one does. It might even access the internet, which would be both good and bad.

By the way, this in not a Christmas present hint to my daughters!

I’ve tried the idea of a weekly e-sabbath, not connecting to the internet for one day each week, but I either forget or feel the need to keep going with clearing my inbox. I remember telling Pastor Job in Uganda, whose day off was a Monday, to turn his new mobile phone off on Mondays, his wife loved the suggestion but Job himself couldn’t bring himself to do it as he is supposed to be available. Needless to say I found him working the next Monday.

So instead I plan to disconnect for a 6 day slot each quarter during 2011. It doesn’t mean actually going away, but that will obviously help to add value. The first one starts tomorrow, and I am off to Dervaig on Mull. I will be taking three good books and my Sangstream song words to learn.

Bealach

After that course for the advisers last Monday, I had a strong sense that I was in a place of bealach. That’s the gaelic word for a hill pass, not a long narrow one, that’s a lairig, more of an up and over the ridge.

The last couple of weeks has been heavy going, rather like the last slog up to the ridge. A bealach is a good place to be, partly because you get to eat your sandwiches. But also because the way then goes down, and because you get a new set of views.

One quote I noticed in a financial advice mailing this week was by J.P.Morgan “When you expect things to happen, strangely enough they do happen.” And I suppose that because I decided in 1995 to leave BP, I began to cause that to happen.

But to go to the very last page of the Hobbit, a book I may well quote from time to time in these posts, Bilbo had a visit from Balin and Gandalf some years after he returned from his adventure to his burrow. On hearing what had been happening,

‘Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true after a fashion!’ said Bilbo.

‘Of course’, said Gandalf. And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?’

However, so far I am on the bealach in cloud (a not unusual state of affairs!), and am looking forward to the view appearing.

The Elders at the Gate

Back on 30 July, Colin H raised the idea of having a 10 year or even 20 year plan. I gave up on the 20 year idea, but as in 10 years I will be 66 it seems like a good idea to plan that far ahead. This could be dangerous because the last time I had one of these plans was in 1995, when it involved leaving BP by 2005. In the end, I managed that goal in under 5 years and as a result ended up in Karamoja, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China.

This time I wrote down some comments about what I would not be doing, classic retirement stuff, before I think getting to the crux of it.

“Meanwhile, build up my skills for an elder at the gate role. And specifically skills in listening to God and speaking prophetically into other people’s lives.”

This can be interpreted at an individual level, as my role individually amongst the elders in a Middle East town in Old Testament times. But it can also be interpreted at a community level, I’m probably taking that idea from Michael Frost, who wants to see the local church taking its missional place amongst the community of elders at the gate. Would the community miss us if we closed or moved away?

Image – The Elders at the Gate – James Tissot (1836-1902)

I feel the Money Clinic did that last Monday when we put on a personal budget course for advisers, attended by half a dozen Citizens Advice, Housing Association and council advisers. So far, I would say that the only source of budget coaching in Edinburgh is two churches - CCE and Abbeyhill – but it was a big step up to teach the skills to advisers to augment their own debt advice skills.

Stepping out of routines

Since I have a sense that blogs are now rather last year, and quite a few active bloggers have given up or faded, it must be about time as a convinced contrarian to restart mine after a 19 month gap. In fact, I even had a problem locating it after all this time.

I suppose the point which concerns me is that instant publishing of stuff without any filtering or processing is good in one sense, but deadening in another. As a result, our processing of the present can become quite superficial. I think blogging forces me to think and to write about the present in a more considered way, "living life with eyes wide open" in much the same way that carrying a camera around makes me look more carefully at my surroundings.

Earlier in October I said that I would plan to do at least one thing quite out of character every week for the rest of 2010. I wasn’t thinking about anything quite as extreme as this suggestion list from a sibling:

· turn up at a station without any pre planning.

· Start watching EastEnders.

· Say "who cares" when someone gets some facts wrong.

· Be extrovert at a party.

· Buy some smart new clothes.

Let’s settle to begin with for extending my routine world rather than turning me into someone else altogether … but still radically breaking the Duguid clan taboos (a concept which outsiders won't understand at all).

So far we have

· 5 and 19 Oct I went to two lunchtime plays in the Traverse theatre “ A Play a Pie and a Pint series”. Might be routine for you, but thanks to Gill for poking me on this one. Still hoping to get my dad to the Birnam Institute where I am assured nothing at all ever happens.

· 18 and 25 Oct, went out for a coffee at the Metropole on a Monday morning by myself with a Guardian weekly, also an illegal activity. You are allowed possibly to meet up with a third party for coffee. You can also buy a coffee on a train. If neither of these exemptions apply, sensible people have their coffee at home.

· 23 Oct, built on this by having an even nicer coffee at Vane Farm while watching the birds on Loch Leven. Oh, and there is a really nice 8 mile cycle track round the loch to Kinross. Not only does your lunch taste better outside, but perhaps the poem you sat on works better outside too?

There are a number of these benches along the Loch Leven Heritage Way which offer an insight into the work of Michael Bruce, a famous 18th century Scots poet who was born in nearby Kinesswood

Candle on the table in the evening. Thanks to Jill for this former Christmas present, but aren't candles just for decoration? Are you allowed to burn them?

· 28 Oct was in Tescos in Nicholson Street, remember that’s where I had my heart attack 22 months ago. Checked my till receipt (OK, not to do this would be a step too far) and noticed that the cereal bars had come up as 76p instead of 72p. And I didn’t bother pulling them up, even although they would double the mistake to 8p.

Next week’s contradiction will be to go to Mull, an island I haven’t been to before, with a Munro and a Corbett I haven’t climbed, and be quite happy cycling around the other half of the island. Giving me an excuse course to go back later (but that would be to rationalise it).

And perhaps even restarting this blog after 19 months counts as another change of routine?

Setting my targets

OK, so I've put my head above the parapet by asking:

"... for all of us, if we are going to make changes in our energy, we need targets. What are yours?"

I've been poking my church too, with its £9,000 annual bill but with no temperature monitoring in place. We have plenty of radiator thermostats, but a lot of user fingergepoken and no clear temperature indication. How much does that bill justify on upgraded monitoring and control?

My flat's electricity consumption was 2,475kWh/year over four years (2003-07), but measuring it over the last four weeks, it's down 33% to 1,650kWh/year. However, that's with just me in residence. A mixture of low energy lightbulbs, not leaving things on standby, not overfilling the kettle and so on. But you could also say that, by not having a lodger the usage per person has actually gone up!

This is actually a big issue. The percentage of one person households in Scotland has been rising steadily ...

• 1981 22%
• 1991 29%
• 2001 33%
• 2006 34%

[Source : General Register Office report - Estimates of households and dwellings in Scotland, 2007 - Table 9]

Looking to the future, according to the latest Household Projections for Scotland issued by the General Register Office for Scotland, the government thinks this will continue to rise:

Between 2004 and 2024, the number of households consisting of just one adult will increase from 770,000 to over a million – making up over 40 per cent of all households in Scotland. The total number of households is projected to increase by 13 per cent to 2.5 million - an average of 14,800 additional households per year.

Meanwhile, my gas consumption has gone down year by year, which perhaps reflects different tenants ...
* 2003-05 Natasha 13,749kWh/year
* 2005-07 Jacqueline and Liana 13,067kWh/year
* 2007-09 Jacqueline and Sarah ... and Neil 11,988kWh/year

But that's still only a 13% decrease. Where do I start with a target? Firstly, get a lodger so I can divide my household usage by two! Beyond that, should I replace the boiler with a more efficient one even although there will not be a commercially attractive payback? How much energy does the new boiler cost to make?

But initially the key step is monitoring - knowing where it goes - so as to pick up the easy steps first. For example, there is a lot of rubbish talked about devices using energy while on standby. Some do - others use nothing. I plan to use my power meter to see just where the electricity is going, and to upgrade some of my building insulation (although there is a limit as to what you can do with my 1903 building.

I've also suggested that my church considers a 10% year-on-year reduction. Would we be prepared to commit ourselves as a holistic community to three steps:

• reducing the CCE energy usage (kWh/year - ) by 10% over the previous year (2008 = base year), each year for the next ten years. Thus by 2018 it will be 35% of 2008 level. Perhaps we could omit electricity from renewable sources under certain circumstances.
• a target of 70 CCE households signing up to reduce their domestic energy usage by 10% over the previous year, with the option to sign up for transport too.
• provide signposts to sources of support for those who sign up, including organising basic seminars and services on auditing your usage and preparing an action plan.

Disconnecting usage from payment

In my Money Clinic work, I would like to even out people's payments over the months, so the idea of paying a regular amount each month for gas and electricity seems a good idea. Especially since you get the lowest rate for regular monthly direct debits. But there's a problem. It places a disconnect between usage and payment.

We also suggest a greater use of cash so that you feel the value of what you are spending, but this regular monthly payment for energy breaks the link. It's as though Tescos would offer me a monthly direct debit of my recent average expenditure and then let me put everything on the tab each time I go round. That's not an idea I would welcome - I would rather be on PAYG.

What I find is three problems.

• You have overpaid into the "Bank of Scottish Gas" without realising it. One client started paying four times as much because of a duff meter reading, and was amazed to realise that the increase in regular payments from £20 a month to £80 a month was not a price increase but a mistake ... and that he could get several hundred pounds back.
• Or you are underpaying each month because of estimated readings, and then get a big shock when the utility company finally takes a reading and sends you a bill which tips you into debt. One client, a guy from a lovely warm country, had moved to Edinburgh, rented a flat, paid four quarterly bills based on estimated readings, and then finally received a bill for a four figure sum. The companies are getting more flak for taking too much by direct debit, but I would far rather they erred on the side of keeping your account in credit than giving you a nasty shock later.
• There is a lot more in the financial press about saving by switching supplier than being in control and saving by reducing your consumption. Surprise, surprise. Because the financial press is making money out of the roundabout of movers. One supplier has been giving £70 cashback to switchers recently! Ultimately, we all pay this money out of our bills, so those who stay with one supplier lose out.

We need to help people on a tight budget to find a way of keeping track of their energy usage, in a way that is tied to payments. For some people, phoning in a reading whenever they get an estimated reading and getting the bill reissued is the best way. For others, the best way is the good old prepayment meter.

But, ultimately, one big newsline is missing - learning to look at how, both as a society and as individuals, we actually use less. And for all of us, if we are going to make changes in our energy consumption, we need to set targets. What are yours?

Anither bit fixed

OK, this x-ray isn't my shoulder, it's from the internet.

I had a good visit to the orthopaedic outpatients department on Wednesday, where I had a series of X-rays which confirmed my rotator cuff tendonitis. This is where the tendon which runs between the ball and the overhanging shoulder blade gets trapped in the small space between the two bones. Because it has been around a while, there are clear calcium deposits in the inflamed area.

So I had a corticosteroid injection, to give it a chance to heal up, and by today it is certainly feeling much better. I have to go back in two months. If repeated injections are not enough, the next step is to do some engineering repairs and plane a bit off the underside of the shoulderblade to make a bit more room for the tendon. That sounds sore ...