You know, it’s true – first impressions do tend to stick.
Although I never saw it with my own eyes, Robert Combs, assistant engineer at The Crieff Hydro Hotel, created an amazing picture for me; describing how a professional diviner was engaged by the hotel to locate a productive fresh water spring on in its grounds, to supplement the existing – and costly – metered supply.
With an imaginary hazel twitch in his hands, he began animatedly striding across the wet lawns, enacting how the said water prophet, criss-crossed over the entire estate, stooping and bending to place brightly coloured flags in the ground – like fluttering totems – as his magical wand wavered earthwards, bowing and dipping like a mating crane, at the source of its potential joy!
An engineer by trade and outlook, Robert had such a lovely way of presenting the nuts and bolts of how his department were minimizing use of costly serviced resources, like utilizing their own natural spring (discovered by the water diviner) to adopt a greener approach to business, in a very passionate manner which you couldn’t help but warm too.
I was on day two of a series of film recees – for a project commissioned by Perth and Kinross Council and the Green Tourism Business Scheme to glean more information about initiatives which Robert and his colleagues had created to help make their business more cost effect by adopting a greener approach to their business.
Up at the self-catering lodges Alexandra MacDonald, who manages 28 properties, also had that same cheery disposition as Robert, and an enthusiasm for her work which is so infectious.
It’s not only their candid belief that it’s the right approach to their work, Robert and Alexandra are also making a genuine and conscious effort to reduce waste and recycle whatever they can where ver they can to everyone and their own benefit.
Last stop on the visit was Robert’s source of greatest pleasure, his CHP unit, which in laymen’s terms means, a combined heat and power source. It’s a basically a big diesel engine which has been converted to run on gas and has a generator stuck on the end, which produces electricity to power the hotel. Through all sorts of technological advances Robert and his team also capture the hot exhausts from the engine, and integrate them into the hotel heating system, which also reduces costs and minimizes impact on the environment.
In the last twist of the story Robert explained, with a twinkle in his eye, that the data from his all singing, all dancing, big hot box is gathered remotely from the generator by a company in California. Rob then accesses the information by logging into California to obtain the data he requires from the CHP,which sits less than 50 meters from his computer.
I love it! The paradox of the old and the new. The hazel twitch and the micro chip working alongside each other. One operating remotely from the other side of the world, the other tapping into unexplained earth rhythms known by the ancients. And both work!
Now you couldn’t make that up – could you?
Photography
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