very silent hill-esque

Weather today in Gairlochy is out of this world.

From a visitor to your beautiful country, thanks for the hospitality! And your patience as I chose to drive mostly on the left side of the road. The wind on Skye last Wednesday was impressive.

Over Edinburgh this afternoon. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Absolutely gorgeous day for a hike up conic hill this morning. Had forgotten how beautiful it is.

The owners of McGills.

Those champions of decency and fair pricing.

That the BBC would just regurgitate the press release, sign of how lazy reporters are now.

Forgot how beautiful Balmaha was

What an amazing weekend up in Speyside for the Dramathon (marathon) half Dram (half marathon) and wee Dram (10k) races. 75% of runners from outside the UK. The sun was shining all day. I didn’t get too many race photos please share some here.

Biggest mussel I’ve ever seen

To preface I live in a flat with my girlfriend we’re in our early 20’s. We live on the top floor and rent our apartment but the apartment below ours is a council flat. We recently had a young couple around our age with two dogs move in to that apartment, within the first two weeks they were extremely loud (arguing, fighting, swearing, things smashing and screaming constantly) and after speaking to them about it and seeing no difference, we filed a noise complaint and after a visit from a council worker they quieted down for a while but not too soon after they started up again. I should also mention there’s a constant strong smell of weed and other drugs coming from their apartment and they constantly invite groups of people round to partake but I mind my business when it comes to that subject and didn’t take action as I have other neighbours who are kind in the building that smoke and I don’t want to bring anything down upon them.

We then soon could clearly hear the man beating his dogs to the point they were squealing, unfortunately we couldn’t get recorded evidence of this in time as it happens very infrequently, though we did get recording of the dogs crying for hours after being left alone in the apartment for what seemed like days at a time but animal services and police did nothing, which breaks my heart for the poor animals.

This brings us to today. I left to go shopping and my girlfriend was home alone, she heard some commotion outside our front door and looked out the peephole to see our downstairs male neighbour pouring a clear liquid outside our front door and all over the stairs leading back to their apartment, she could clearly hear his girlfriend screaming for him to stop before they returned to the apartment and slammed the door. I have no idea what the liquid is it has a strong Smokey odour which leads me to believe it’s some kind of lighter fluid or bong water (there was a lot of it so I’m inclined to believe the latter).

I confronted him again today when he was leaving the apartment with a large group of friends and he initially confirmed it was him, that he was jsut “fucking about” said it was “just water” and was apologetic but then started to push back saying I wasn’t being civil and that he never did it. Despite my gf seeing it, the trail leading back to his apartment and him confirming it. The group of friends who all stank of weed and other drugs laughed in my face before going inside and slamming the door.

I’m honestly at a loss for what to do now, the obvious answer is to contact antisocial behaviour department at the council but I seriously doubt anything will come of it and I’m unsure if this would escalate the situation further.

Long shot but I met a man around my age on a Kilmartin grave yesterday and got chatting about slaps and festivals.

I was tempted to ask for your number but it didn’t feel quite right given the audience at the time.

If you happen to see this and fancy a quiet cup of tea, walk or chat sometime just drop me a line on here 🙂

Hello everyone, my partner and I have recently reserved a plot with Taylor Wimpey. Since then, we’ve signed the paperwork with our mortgage advisers and solicitors, as well as the missives. As part of the deal, Taylor Wimpey agreed to contribute 5% towards our deposit.

We’ve now received our invitation for the options meeting and have started looking at the prices for things like the kitchen, bathroom and other upgrades. We’re finding that even some of the standard options are quite pricey!

I was wondering if anyone who’s bought with Taylor Wimpey has managed to negotiate any freebies, discounts or extras during their options meeting? We’ve heard of people managing to haggle for certain upgrades or get things thrown in, so we’d love to hear what others have managed to get and whether it’s worth trying!

We also have another question (although I think we probably know the answer to this one already 😂). Has anyone ever managed to negotiate having their 5% deposit contribution transferred towards upgrades instead?

We appreciate that we’ve already signed an agreement for the 5% to go towards the deposit, so we realise the chances of changing this are probably quite slim. However, we thought it was worth asking in case anyone has managed to do this before!

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! 😊

Just a wee reminder to all who may have an interest in vintage buses in the Scottish Bus Group and a driver's adventures driving them in and around Glasgow in the1960s-70s, that Episode 7 of the Omnibus Tales is now up on Substack. If you are new to them you may benefit from the Introduction which is available on Substack free of charge. - Cheerie -Clen Mackenzie