Sofa scandal day 8

How long must this dreadful sofa be tolerated and how much longer will the authorities fail to act.? Already a plastic chair was attracted to the same area the other day. This menace is a threat to us all. When will we have any action from the fragments that are left of our once powerful(allegedly) area committee? Bring back the days of Nairn District Council, that's what I say. Meg Anderson and Chrissie Ellen would have stopped this developing porblem in its tracks.

The good old days are gone now and our city fathers are a mere shawdow of their formidable forerunners. Something will have to be done before a vigilante group is formed and innocent sofas suffer for the reckless actions of this evil piece of furniture. Are our representatives only interested in the furniture at Glen Urquart Road - how can anyone sit on their backside while this is going on.

Think globally, gurn locally - phone your councillor now!

Shameless sofa soaks up Saturday sunshine.

There it was, an absolute disgrace, just basking in the long-awaited sunshine. Resplendent after it’s escape into the wild, mocking the good citizens of Nairn as they passed. How much more can we take from this out-of-control sofa? There is no respect from furniture any more, why aren’t the police doing anything? They must act before it is too late and all our sofas stop listening to us and all take up these dreadful kind of inner-city habits. Too much pandering to wet liberal soft furnishing designers that’s what’s wrong with our country today.

Breaking news - Slugs on the move

We reach the weekend in a normal January fashion, no real benefit from the slightly lengthening hours with the grey clouds that cover the town again: no downer for the slugs, however, who are already on the move and eyeing up every tasty piece of new vegetation.
Speaking of food - A custard slice from Ashers will cheer things up if the sun stays away. Nothing much new to report really but your correspondent will return with any breaking news on the sofa situation.

Lost your sofa?

Anyone woke up to find their sofa is gone? There is a big bright red sofa sitting in the middle of the river just upstream of the A96 bridge (the only bridge a car can go across to be more precise), this is your last chance to get it back as the river is rising fast today and your sofa will soon be away to start a new career on the old bar.

A tiny bit of winter colour

A tiny bit of winter colour.

I saw a Winter Aconite in full bloom just below Broadhill. Beautiful in its solitude though it was, and probably finding its way down the brae from somebody’s garden by one means or other – is this delightful piece of colour just simply another herald of dangerous times ahead. Perhaps it is just the odd man out, these are normally very early flowers anyway and are the flowers that create the massive yellow carpet under the trees in the policies by the river at Firhall. No sign of them up there yet, however. Their name is misleading, they are not aconites at all but part of the Hellebore family.
A new report out today will try and warn us that we have very little time left to reverse global warming, if we can at all, and the effects will come far sooner than we think. We could well start paying the price very soon. But will we give up our addiction to cars or give an inch on our overwhelming desire to go to places like the golden mile in Inverness? It would probably take roadblocks by armed policemen.
So within a very short time we could be in the grip of irreversible global climate change that will accelerate at a remarkable rate. Seas rising, agriculture failing, droughts creating new deserts, forests dying, disease rampant and populations on the move seeking safety. All this could put even the most impressive pension plan under serious pressure as the world’s economy changes.
There is much debate about where the supermarket is to go in Nairn and who will build it but how long will the Earth be capable of producing the food to fill the shelves of all the supermarkets. What can we do? There doesn’t seem to be any real desire in society to do anything, Big Brother gets more attention than this subject. Shall we keep our heads in the sand and just hope that if it does happen, it comes after our time?

Gàidhlig classes

Want to brush up on your Gàidhlig or learn some? There are two classes each week now in Nairn. One for beginners on Thursday nights - 7.30pm in the old Links School building and Wedenesdays for post-beginners -same time, same place. There has been demand for some time for these classes and at last they have got underway.
Bidh Fàilte Bhlàth ort.

Latest: Classes will restart Weds 20th April and Thurs 21st

Weds suitable for Speaking our Language 2 and above and Thurs for SPOL 1

Supermarket rumours number 99

A friend with an ear to the ground tells me that with the proposed brand new community at the McDermott's site being a 'goer' that puts the Sandown Lands back in the frame for a supermarket as that would give this brand new community less distance to travel for their weekly needs. You heard it here first and it could be just as silly as anything else you hear.
I'll vote for a Co-op then or at least a little bit of Lidl.

Child-free colony grows

Brodie Castle reports daffodils and rhododendrons coming out far too soon as well, perhaps tonight’s hard frost and possible snow tomorrow will give them more sensible ideas.
The child-free colony at Firhall has spread out a little more, looks like a couple of houses are going up each week now. You meet the new residents all the time on your walks around the river. They tend to offer more reserved greetings than locals but hopefully they will adopt a bit of the local crac.
All has returned to normal tonight, it is cold, Nairn County Football Club lost again and the High Street came to life as everyone headed downtown for takeaways from an ever-increasing choice of ethnic cuisine. Overhead in the riverside darkness a Heron makes its unmistakeable screeching noise, simply because it is a Heron and Herons love that sort of thing.

Blue Skies?

Thank goodness blue skies are breaking through this morning although the weekend promises more nastiness from the weather. The days are without doubt lengthening but you don’t really notice it when skies are grey and the wind blows the rain in your face. It hinders people having their usual chat on the High Street as the rush around for their messages, trying to avoid the showers and the strong gusts of wind.

Local soccer player takes a break

Gary Ewing is to take a break from soccer to spend more time with his girlfriend in London. County fans will wish him all the best, he has been part of the backbone of the team in good times and bad and he will be missed. It's a shame there aren't more local loons in the team and that's one less now. Let's hope he returns to play for the Wee County in the future.

Full story on Ging's site

http://www.geocities.com/weecounty/news14

What's in a name

Well the 'new' supermarket is open after the latest name change. Remember when Templeton became Presto and moved over there, then it becam Safeway and no sooner had it been Morrison that it became the latest entity 'Somerfield'. It has everything the old set-up had and at least the staff have been given decent new uniforms. Your correspondent successfully bought a P&J and a loaf of bread. Looks fine, town centre back to normal - for the time being?

Viewfield battle on the Horizon?

Viewfield battle on the horizon.?

This could be the issue that dominates the year. Plans to put a supermarket on the police station site and the sports club area are to be discussed with the council, some of the grassed area on that side would be lost too. As compensation, the bus station and the café would be raised to the ground and landscaped, creating a ‘gateway’ to the park.
Things are complicated by existing plans to put the community centre on the police station site.
There is a massive body of opinion that wants Viewfield left alone and you will remember the 500 plus letters of objection to a previous proposal for a community centre on the grassed area. It remains to be seen if there is a similar body of opinion in Nairn that will get behind the proposal. Witness the daily exodus along the A96 to both Forres and Inverness to the delights of Tesco, familiar Nairn faces are seen in both places.
Local councillors could find themselves caught between two opposing factions but the Viewfield campaigners are numerous and well-organised.



Early signs of spring

Snowdrops and crocuses have made an early exit from the ground and a rhododendron was in full bloom in the Auldearn area, in some places daffodils are several inches out of the ground and displaying the as-yet unopened flower-heads. But today comes a cold spell and snow lying on the ground in the town centre.


Pedestrian crossings

This correspondent is worried that someone will get seriously injured or even killed at the pedestrian crossings on the A96. For reasons better known to themselves a number of drivers don’t stop when the lights are red. I have witnessed this several times and others report the same. Surely it is time they were prosecuted. Could it be done with the help of the CCTV? Another concern is the number of people you still see using mobile phones whilst driving through town on this busy trunk road. How inconsiderate can you get?
I hope these reckless motorists never have someone’s death on their conscience.

The riverside paths in a deplorable state.

We had a big fanfare in the summer when the paths were done up with the help of some ‘expert’ or other. Well the publicity came and went and now the paths are as bad as they ever were in places. Big muddy puddles obstruct many of the sections and in places it is now impassable without sturdy footwear. Could something be done?

Co-op very busy

Well the shelves are emptying fast of bread, milk and a few other things in the C0-0p as a few folk have been caught out by Morrisons shutting and changing into Somerfield (hopefully somebody will remember to take down the Safeway logo). Anyway it stays closed until Wednesday when we'll see what is on offer.
An urban myth has sprung up that Lidl are coming to town - now that would be good news if that fantasy were to materialise. What chocolate they sell - just delicious.

The months slip by and now in 2005 the town centre redevelopment still has to get off the ground. Will it ever happen?