Staying at home with an ‘appalling inferiority complex’, or fireworks causing fireworks…

No, the Gurn team will not be going to the show in Inverness tonight to watch £300,000 vanish into the night sky over the course of 12mins. We note that James Hunter has stepped into the fray. Here is what he is quoted with saying in the Press and Journal:

 "I think it's time people in the Highlands and Islands get out from under the appalling inferiority complex that underlies a lot of the moaning and groaning about things like the fireworks on the Kessock Bridge.'

The Gurn fails to see how James Hunter’s intervention will calm things down, the controversy has nothing to do with ‘inferiority complexes’ but with the fact that most of the money for the fireworks came out of the Inverness Common Good fund and many Invernesians think that is morally wrong and perhaps breaks the rules too. It is their democratic right to criticise spending on their behalf if they wish to do  so.
Was Highland 2007 any use? The Gurn hardly noticed it and was not impressed, others are more scathing.

Ministers hail nuclear decision

Ministers hail nuclear decision

'The Scottish Government said it was delighted there were no plans in the pipeline to build new nuclear power stations north of the border.'

Wonder if that would have happened if Labour had won the Scottish election? Lose your post offices but win half a dozen nuclear reactors?

A sign? ...of better things to come for the brae?

A reflection of winter sun reflects from a metal surface at the top of the brae. An omen of the good times to come if pedestrianisation goes ahead or just another false dawn? Like it or not hundreds of cars go up the brae each day, it would be interesting to know where they all go and how many of them seek a parking space on the High Street and what they would do if they could no longer go straight up the High Street. Would they bother anymore? The Gurn has no particular axe to grind but thinks pedestrianisation just wouldn't work.

By the way citizens the Harbour Street post office is on the hit list for closure, you can get a form to register your complaint from the said office. Seems it doesn't make money, then neither do schools and hospitals, will Labour close them next? Gotta pay for new nuclear power stations somehow!

Nollaig Chridheil - Merry Christmas

Lights thanks to Convenor Sandy (saviour of the Sandown allotments), moon thrown in for free.

All the best to the Gurn's occasional readers and here's hoping for a prosperous, ecological 2008,

And maybe just a few more houses between here and Inverness.

Nearby time to make the most of the autumn sun

Thoughts left at the harbour fade away

Does society already have too many hangers-on?

Whatever it is called this gentleman has taken to it like a duck to water. Others were doing similar things with giant kites/parachutes on the the links, their boards have wheels. Obviously once trained up you can leave the grass behind and head for the water and have some fun. Must be fun and no doubt takes the mind off the horror of a general election looming and the prospect of wall to wall non-stop sameness from all the parties for 5 weeks.

Nairn 1 Clach 1

Just one of those sunny days before we drift into the early dark nights. Plenty of Clach supporters singing about 'a shitty home support' amongst other things. The first half was played at a cracking pace and although the second session had its moments, including Clach missing a penalty, many fans thought that it wasn't all that good in the final 45 minutes. At half time a long train with the old-fashioned carriages passed nearby on the railway. It looked like an enthusiasts' day out or something like that. Some Clach fans on their way back from a quick half-time, half-pint decided to sing to passengers...'People wanna know...'

Gaelic blogging - the movie!

Check it out if you have a spare half-hour, sub titles in English: Cuairt nam blog.

Northern Crock

I've just heard Alistair Darling on Radio 4 this morning and he of the dark eyebrows has prompted me to make a blog entry, the first for some time here. Well after the first two sentences it just became the usual background noise that politicians make. It would have been more use in calming things down if they'd played some of the music you get in supermarkets. If ever there was a time for straight answers then surely this was it. It might just as well have been some council official trying to bore you to tears with reasons why you can't have a bypass in your area.

So I imagined more Northern Rock investors all over the country dropping their toast and marmalade and rushing off the the nearest branch. Maybe their money is safe, the politicians and the financial experts say it is but what might happen by dinner-time? It's a whole new ball game. If I had any cash in that bank I'd get it out, call me irrational, mad even if you like, but if you are a politician or a financial expert why don't you go and put your money in the Northern Rock - all of your money? If Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling had been sitting in deckchairs waiting for the Northern Rock to open so they could open an account then that might have done some good in restoring confidence.