Ever wanted to win the lottery so that you could change your life? Well Nick and Jill Noble say winning the lottery would make no difference, they've already changed their lives, and it couldn't get any better. "We've found our home," says Jill. The Nobles have done what many of us dream of, but are unlikely ever to do, to really 'get away from it all'. They answered an advertisement by the Scottish island of Muck for a family to join the small community of 24 inhabitants. When the Nobles were selected, Nick saw it as an opportunity to "work to live" instead of "live to work".
Sitting in what he hoped was his last traffic jam en route to his new life, Nick contemplates that 'road rage' would be unlikely on the island, given it has only a mile and a quarter of road, and the only vehicles are a Land Rover, pick-up truck and a couple of tractors. Freedom is the great attraction to Jill, who believes their children would be free to roam the island. In Menston, near Leeds, Jill feels it’s not safe to roam beyond the pavement due to the traffic.
Before their move, both Nick and Jill were working three days a week, which gave them more income than one of them working full-time. They felt that the demands of modern living consumed their time together as a family, the weekends were filled with the tasks of everyday life most of us endure, the shopping, gardening, DIY.
Jill now works five mornings a week at the Isle of Muck Primary School as a nursery assistant. Her new lifestyle has allowed her creative skills to blossom. She has begun to design cross-stitch kits, which are selling well locally, and has also started painting. Nick also has time to express his creative flair. He has a passion for photography and hopes to start selling a small collection of his photographs in the near future, which would allow him to cut down on his Web work.
The Nobles find life on the island affords them greater time to spend together as a family. Now able to live on a much smaller income, they've grown 'time rich'. Time, they say, is something they're never short of, Nick can even indulge in baking his own bread!
Traffic jams and overcrowded trains are a thing of the past, "rushing about trying to exist is no longer an issue," says Nick. For the Nobles, queuing in supermarkets is no longer necessary. They phone through an order to the mainland and it's delivered by ferry the next day. They also grow some of their own food and have plans to acquire some hens for some really fresh eggs.
The cacophony of urban life has been exchanged for the sights and sounds of wildlife. Watching a minke whale from the living room window, listening to the sound of corncrakes in spring, and having linnets and goldcrests as regular garden visitors are just some of the reasons the Nobles are delighted with their move. "No-one should get the idea that we live in paradise," says Nick, but he's yet to see a downside to their living on the island. Surprisingly perhaps, the downsides are only experienced when they have to visit the mainland, with finding accommodation, paying for transport and food. Fortunately they don't have to do this very often.
The winter weather is dramatic, but the storm-force winds fail to interfere with their everyday life, though with a very rough sea, the ferry is sometimes cancelled, preventing delivery of food and mail. Their only future dilemma is what to do when their children have to go to secondary school as there isn't one on the island. They're considering their options, but fortunately have several years to come to a decision. In the meantime, they can't think of anything that would make them leave behind their new way of life. Their decision to move from Menston to Muck the Nobles feel is quite simply, "the best thing we have ever done".
March 2006 update: Since this article was first published, the Nobel family have reportedly decided to leave the island after living there for four years.
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