By Daisy Bard

On The Subject Of Wifi

It’s the day before my SCA scholarship deadline. And I’m on a remote island in the Hebrides.

The Isle of Bute has roughly 8000 inhabitants, and is blissfully quiet and a blessed escape from London in its current political turmoil (Boris and Gove, crawl back into the earth like the horrid worms you are). However, I’ve encountered one not un-small problem: the Wifi is unspeakably bad.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine for emails, and I have been working from here – but uploading videos? Forget it.

I tried in the house we’re staying at: no luck.

I went to three different pubs: no dice.

I bought some mint tea in a book shop that claimed to have wifi: internet was down and I left the tea unsipped.

Finally I discovered the Bute library and crossed my fingers that their internet assertions were for real. Thankfully, I was able to upload my Facebook scholarship project video and the Youtube scholarship video itself. Clearly someone’s on my side.

This time yesterday morning, I was stressing to unforeseen levels that there was nowhere on the island to upload my video, and that it would look like I couldn’t be bothered, or hadn’t worked hard (I could!! I have!!). And today, just in the nick of time, I am feeling proud of achieving this project that I found really fun, instructive and that took me pretty far outside of my comfort zone.

It may be great and it may be shit. Competitions are kind of a lottery like that. Either way, thanks SCA, I appear to be learning already.