BS: Scotland - Closing down sale

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 04:03 AM

There is a Festival at Denholm. This year Nov 4th -6th. Take a look on the Scotbordersfolk.org web site for his years programe.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Teribus
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 11:11 AM

Enjoy your trip Metchosin, I don't know about a Folk Festival centred on Denholm but it does host a Folk Club out of the Cross Keys. The other pub in the village, The Fox and Hounds, is a hoot, full of some great characters. On top of the Minto Craig was an Peel Tower that celebrated under the name of 'Fatlips' Castle. It was up for sale a few years ago, I'd appreciate a quick line as to its fate.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,Jorrox
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 06:42 AM

Does any other Scot take real offence to 'sweaty'?
It is every bit as offensive as 'paki' 'mick' or whatever.
As is 'jock' for that matter. If you doubt this, ask yourself "what is the English equivalent of the word 'jock'?"
Grrrrr
Jorrox

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Metchosin
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 09:33 PM

A few vaccinations and worming, in a timely manner seems a reasonable hoop for a dog to jump through.

The requirement now, for Canadians to present a passport in order to visit the US is a hoop too. Annoying, but no real big deal.

However, the requirement that one now must give the address and zip code of where one will be staying when in the US, could be a bit of a poser. Guess overnight camp/parking in a Walmart parking lots is out, as well as leisurely drives down the coast, taking your own sweet time. Will they bring out the jack boots if we vary our route or fail to show up on time?

Makes travel and camping in Canada seem an even better alternative. Especially when we can jump in the car and tell the dogs we're off on an adventure! Lets see where we end up tonight! No spontaneous side trips in the US for us anymore; there are hoops and then there are road blocks ....pity.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: DougR
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 04:26 PM

Good luck with the dogs. I certainly don't blame you for wanting to take them but there sure are a lot of hoops you have to jump through to qualify. I just read the blue clicky kat supplied and it sounds a bit complicated.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Metchosin
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 11:39 AM

Well gee, I do hope the glacier hangs about in the Minto Craggs and the little cottage further below in the valley will be spared, but that doesn't bode well for Dornoch. Guess we better start training the dogs to pull a sled in case we have to mush our way into the Highlands.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 07:18 AM

It's just what the Cairngorm skiing industry needs...

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 05:18 AM

It may be dry, but it will be bloody cold - under a kilometre or ss of glacier...

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 17 Oct 05 - 05:13 AM

Dont forget all the great things that the Scots invented like the two Aberdonians who invented copper wire after an arguement over a penny!

The other posibility with global warming is that half of England will be under water and most of Scotland will be high and dry. Here's to more global warming!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 11:42 PM

It is beautiful isn't it! I imagine it was quite a rip for them to come from something like that, to the Ontario wilderness and start anew. Amazingly resourceful and couragous people that pioneered this continent. We sometimes seem like such friggin' whining wimps by comparison.

Yeah the dogs are a bit complicated, but not as much as they used to be. And besides, how could we ever deny them the opportunity to show them the place where Colonel Malcolm decided that white dogs were a good idea, lest they be mistaken for game and shot in error. BG

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 05:04 PM

According to this site, one might avoid the 6 month quarantine, IF all requirements are met.

Looks beautiful, Mets!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: DougR
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 04:19 PM

Metchosin: Lovely cottage! I don't blame you for hoping scotland stays afloat.

Are there restrictions on bringing dogs into Scotland? I was under the impression that it is quite complicated.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Metchosin
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 02:02 PM

Oh dear, I hope it doesn't close down until after 2007. We were hoping to stay at this place which is where or within about 100 yds. of where my husband's family lived prior to 1839. I was so happy to find that we could bring the dogs......And I understand there's a great annual Folk Festival in Denholm. But perhaps if Scotland's truly closing down, we could expect a wee break on the price......? we don't fancy golf too much.

Of course now, we'll also have the ethical dilema of the sociological and economic implications of our visit, as well as adding to the enviromental effect of freezing the place up with our jet plane ride over the pole, to consider too.

It does seem a puzzler that so little of the land, even after almost 300 years, actually belongs privately or publicly to the people of Scotland, considering that the country was the cradle to so many firebrands regarding such stuff. Perhaps they were all driven out.

See you all in a couple of years, if the fates and money allow.....hope you don't mind a couple of extra Westies too. They don't have any cash to spend on really touristy stuff, but they are even more friendly and enthusiastic than their travelling companions. Does anyone know if Canadian tourists seeking to experience their roots in 2007, with dogs in tow, will be too late to explore the area around Dornoch as well?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 09:31 AM

I know why the Scots are selling out!

I've just seen the TV doco that explains that global warming is causing increased northern hemisphere rainfall and ice melting. This is causing the Gulf Stream 'heat elevator' to shut down in the near future, because the extra fresh water from the extra melting ice and the increased river flow from Siberia will dilute the salinity of the cold salty water that falls due to its higher density and then flows south to start the flow all over again. This will cause Scotland to freeze over solid, so they are selling out to the dumb English and all going to live in the south of France on the Med.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 16 Oct 05 - 04:51 AM

" I'm just a tad dubious about hard-done-by remarks made by miserly Scot's gits!"

What about us poor hard done by students trying to live off 3k a year? At least if you go to uni in London you get an extra £1000 living allowence!

Crystal (on another Pc!)

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 07:31 PM

ake, the same things have been happening in Colorado for years. Though not all windfarms, but developments. All over the forest, canyons, orchards, ranches, etc. are being eaten up by developers who sell the same, generic looking boxes to Californian and other retirees who made a killing selling out wherever they came from and now are running up the prices of everything here, esp. real estate. Some of them have a fele for the land and the beauty, but not the majority, imo.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 06:28 PM

Raedwulf,

As a school caretaker who has managed after many years of service to work my way UP to the princely sum of £15000 p.a., you won't find me agreeing to your affluent tag.

My salary is about half the national average.

Re. travels in Scotland, you will note that I said caravanning, and the holiday encompassed a few tourist traps, but for the most part was in the wilder off-the-beaten-track areas, so I think that the prices I found are pretty general. They were on average about 10 to 15 percent higher than at home.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: akenaton
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 05:58 PM

The wild beauty of Scotland will soon be only a memory.

These bloody wind farms are sprouting up all over Argyll and other areas of the Highlands.
An absolute racket!! Big profits for the developers and landowners, the losers being the ordinary "sweaty Scots". We are having our beautiful landscape ruined, and paying for the priviledge.

Wind farms are not an answer to our energy problems, and never will be, the development costs, maintenance costs, plus the bribes paid out to local councils to avoid planning protests, make the small amount of energy produced much too expensive.

But small matters like that never stopped the "made men".

The landowners are now bypassing the wind farm companies, and doing the whole development themselves for even bigger profits.
Meanwhile the people who have lived here for generations see their country disappear under windmills and "bungalow boxes" inhabited by octogenarian English, with no feel for nature or the sensibilities of the indigenous "sweaties"

The "sweaties" seem too dumb to see what's happening and remind me of the workers in Robert Tressels socialist classic "The ragged trousered philanthropists"

"Happy to give away their most precious and sometimes only posessions, to make the rich more wealthy".....Ake

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Raedwulf
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 02:58 PM

Don - This is why I ask for genuine cost of living figures. Everything I've ever seen says London/Home Counties is the best paid portion of the country & the most expensive to live in (the one is a consequence of the other, I think). I wouldn't be at all surprised to find enclaves that buck the regional trend, be it because of tourism or wealthy incomers/retirers (an old Ake argument there! ;-) ).

But the money, as we are told time & again (often negatively), is in the London area. Even the likes of Rutland have seen property prices go through the roof - it's "only" 90 minutes commute from London, rural, pretty, quiet, CHEAP... Well it was... Another dormitory... :(

Scotland is pretty big, so I'm sceptical of a blanket "Scotland is expensive" statement. I can well believe that certain picturesque parts are abnormally pricey. I'm just a tad dubious about hard-done-by remarks made by miserly Scot's gits! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 11:42 AM

Agreed Boab, and it's a great pity, because Scotland is one of the most beautiful countries you could hope to find on this earth.

It's a damn shame that I can't afford to go there very often.

The land of my ancestors, Eire, has been doing the same thing for the last 20 years, and that's another stunningly beautiful place I can't afford to visit.

I can go to Florida (hurricanes permitting) on the other side of the atlantic for considerably less. How sad is that?

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 11:26 AM

May I have Glenbogle or whatsit featured in Monarch of the Glen? Beaufitful and gorgeous and looks like hame to me! Kilts optional in the winter, of course.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 15 Oct 05 - 04:11 AM

Don T.---As a Scot, I am with you on this one; some folks greedily price their Country out of the tourist market. Shame-----

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 07:29 PM

Is there any truth in the rumour that the Grand Canyon is the result of a Scot dropping a five cent piece down a rabbit hole?

Raedwulf,

About five years ago I took a caravan tour of Bonnie Scotland, and found it much more expensive than at home (Kent, in the "affluent" southeast). Both in the tourist areas and in tiny villages off the beaten track, everyday items were pricey, and I don't think that's down to "one price for sassenachs, another for Scots.

Or is it.............?

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 07:00 PM

Headstone:"Here lies McPherson, a kind considerate gentleman and a generous, loving father"
Irish visitor;"Trust dem Scotsmen to bury three men in de one hole!!"

Digging Jock out of a snowdrift:" Are ye doon there Mister MacMab??"
"Aye---wha's that?"
"It's the Red Cross rescue crew!"
"Bugger off---I bought a flag last year!"

Auld Hamish was lying at death's door in the wee room behind the family grocer's. Tam, his eldest, was at the bedside. So were Wullie and Cameron, his other two sons.
"Whispers;"Are ye there Hamish?"
"Aye Faither---"
"You too Wullie?"
"Aye Faither---"
"And you Cameron?"
'Aye Faither---"
"AN' WHA THE HELL'S LOOKIN' EFTER THE SHOAP?!!?"

The train from London to Glasgow was emptying it's [dejected as usual] football fans after a defeat at Wembley. Tam's wife met him on the platform.
"Good game Tam?"
"Aye Maisie, but we had a bit o' excitement on the wey hame; an Englishman was kill't by the train just ayont Carlisle"
"Aw!--that was a bit rough!"
"Aye--it was so! The driver had tae cross a field tae get 'im !"

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Raedwulf
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 06:07 PM

ake - Pre-senile dementia? "A healthy penchant for sheep & goats"? And there was innocent little me thinking that was a Welsh (or Kiwi) trait. You must know something I don't. Never mind the fact that I'm less than fond of either (/any - lamb, goat, welsh, kiwi...). Now deer, dear... Venison, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... :))

But since you ask so nicely, I declare you an honorary (with a properly posh haspirated haitch) Englishman, so you can move down any time you like. After all, if you will insist on sticking a knife in my back... ;-)

R

P.S. Cost of living - try the SE sometime. Certain little bits of Scotland may be expensive, but what's the average figure?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: akenaton
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 05:29 PM

Raedwulf...Have ye room for one more in "Blighty"??

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: DougR
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 04:05 PM

I'd settle for an acre or two around Loch Tay.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Big Mick
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 11:06 AM

Giok here on Big Mick's pooter.
The two biggest landlords round where I live are the Duke of Westminster, and Mohammed El Bleedin Fayed. So it'smore a case of give us our land back you foreign bastards if the truth be told!
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,Mad Jock
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 10:36 AM

Wit ? Expensive! Aye Mon A hud tae pay 40 thoosand poons fur my hoose an it only hus wan bedroom and twa acres o garden grun. Mind yea it is only 20 minits frae ra skiing.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Crystal
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 10:12 AM

Also there will be a smoking ban soon!
But on the down side it is a VERY expensive place to live

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Essex Girl
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 10:10 AM

The cost of living isn't any lower in Scotland, in fact in Edinburgh it's higher.It also rains a lot especially in the west where all the magnificent scenery is. On the plus side the pubs open late and you can sing and play without being told "we haven't got a music licence"

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 09:50 AM

I'd like to have the Talisker distillery, Mons Meg, Glencoe, and Culloden, please. And I'll need Edinburgh Castle to store Meg in.

Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Tam the man
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 07:34 AM

no man in Scotland wears skirts, it's kilts.

Tam frae Scotland and a Scottish Nationalist very patriotic as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 06:23 AM

Just been on E-Bay lots of bargins WOW!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 06:19 AM

It is just a ploy to get rid of all the English who are North of the border.
Either that or try to get some decent footballers to move in!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Albaman
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 06:18 AM

Why is there more flooding in the south of england in the past ten years.Because the scots are leaving the north! Its all a part of the master plan of the SNP. Droon them aw!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Crystal
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 05:58 AM

"what about Morris Dancers"

Banchory Morris Men! Scotland has everything for the discerning traveller, except sun of course!

"Pay will be worse, yes, but then cost of living is also considerably cheaper."

WHERE WHERE????? I'm living in the only bit of the UK where houseprices are still skyrocketing!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: akenaton
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 05:03 AM

Any derogatory posts from Raedwulf on this subject should be taken witha shovelful of salt.
Raedwulf has in fact been offered the status of honourary Scot, having easily filled three of the main criteria.
Extreme parsimony, a healthy penchant for sheep and goats, and the clincher for Raedwulf, the ability to communicate in gibberish!!

Now that Raedwulf has been exposed as a closet Scot, I hope his attacks will cease forthwith.

They fool no one .....Ake

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 05:00 AM

Jock once attended a Temperance lecture given by Scotland's top medical man, a noted anti-drink campaigner. The speaker began by placing a live, wriggling worm in a glass of whisky. After a moment or two it died and sank to the bottom.

The speaker said quietly to the audience, "Now my friends, what does
this tell us?"

Jock piped up, "If you drink whisky you'll not be bothered by worms!"

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: sian, west wales
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 04:45 AM

Raedwulf, so in the absence of any claims from the Picts, it reverts! And anyway, I think we got it in writing. I had the paper but I think someone wrapped their chips in it ...

f'ted's original post doesn't actually say that the Scots are leaving Scotland. I know that around 1987-8 you couldn't get into an estate agent's office here in West Wales for the hordes of English fighting to buy property here. 10 years later, no one was looking to buy; a lot were looking to sell. The in-migrants had realized that Good Life / Rural Idyll wasn't all it cracked up to be.

Don't know what the Scottish situation is but I used to do a lot of work with rural community development groups there and none of them seemed to want to leave ...

siân

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 04:35 AM

"Like Raedwulf said, Is England any better?" Answer? No it bloody isn't! Thanks to the nanny Health and safety executive I now have to wear a helmet, safety googles and mittens just to use this computer! Come back common sense all is forgiven!
Scotland does have THE most glorious mountain bike circuit in Glentress, far better than anything in Wales, so I hope the Scottish Clan Chief ( or whatever passes as your leader) doesn't sell the province off to the French!

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 03:59 AM

Dinnae fret wee Ted---Gin Ah meet ye wi' the Gordon plaid roond ma hurdies, ye'll be safe eneugh; wee dinne tend tae dae herm tae wee laddies. Big Ladies, noo THEY maun hae cause for excitement------

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Terry K
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 03:56 AM

The only useful purpose the place serves is to keep all those lovely golf courses we have no room for in England.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Paul Burke
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 03:38 AM

Don't forget that the alternative to the nanny state is the billy state- like Northern Ireland perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Oct 05 - 12:01 AM

I think Disney has a lot to answer for. Peter Finch as Alan Breck Stewart in Kidnapped. Greyfriars Bobby. Errol Flynn in The Master of Balantrae

well it can't have helped.

also its a long way, and when you get up there what will there be? after all theres not all that much down here.... theres bound to be even less up there.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 08:24 PM

Taking Ted seriously for a minute (probably not a good idea!)

1) The country has turned into a socialist distopia where all aspects of expression are regulated against by its nanny state mentality.
Like Raedwulf says, is England any better ?

3) The men wear skirts which frightens small children.
Not in my experince. Small Children are more tolerant than many adults, not that that's hard...

And if there is a closing down sale, I know which bit I'll have. She's in Aberdeen at the moment, and rather likes kilts...

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Davetnova
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 04:42 PM

We're closed, please go away.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 03:34 PM

I don't think it's the knees that scares them...but these large bearded women....

How do you tell a scotsman apart from a woman? the thickness of their beard.

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Raedwulf
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 01:42 PM

Sian - Sorry to disappoint, but the previous occupiers were the Picts, not your mob. And they won't be making a comeback because the nice friendly Scots (Irish) did their best to massacre the poor little buggers around the time of Kenneth mac Alpin!

If the Sweaties are so eager to be devolved & have their own bloody government, may we please deport all the ones 'angin' aroun' dahn 'ere, nickin' ahr bleedin' jobs, etc? Yer can 'ave Mark Forsyf back fer a start! (Nah, 'e's awright reely!) Then the sink the ruddy place. But rescue Ake first. 'E's awright fer a Sweaty... ;-)

Slightly more seriously,

1) ROFLMAO! Like England isn't a nanny state courtesy of Nanny Blair, Old Mother Brown, & their horde of appalling "children"!

2) Don't know about conditions, but doubt it. Pay will be worse, yes, but then cost of living is also considerably cheaper. So Scots come south, work & save for however long, then piss off back up north much more (relatively) wealthy. Who is taking the piss out of who? I've not seen anything to suggest that quality of life is any worse, on the whole, in Scotland than anywhere else. As far as I know, the suicide capital of the UK is still Hastings. Go south from Hastings & you fall into the Channel (which is exactly what some of the suicides do). There are some things that can't be measured in purely monetary terms.

3) Doubt it. Small children can be remarkably difficult to frighten. Not even by the sight of a Scotsman's knees...

Subject: RE: BS: Scotland - Closing down sale
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 13 Oct 05 - 12:47 PM

Hey Mooman, we'll start a band on Barra then? That would certainly be my island of choice. Or possibly Rum.
S:0)