Hopefully the locals won’t be giving us dirty looks and it won’t have turned all Royston Vasey.
Theres Newtonmore for that
Good to read that TGA. Hopefully some of the local reaction on social media can be dialled down a bit now.
From an admittedly cursory look, it does seem that it has. There were a couple of local folk who went up there to clean up the mess, and reported that it was spotless.
Anyone have any ideas at what stage we will be allowed to stay over at another family's house? I've trawled through the Scottish Govt guidance and nothing is leaping out at me.
And tattoos! When am a gettin ma tramp stamp?! 🤣😂
Drove to perth and did the trails up around Kinnoul. First time i have driven more than a handful of miles since lockdown. Was great to be out, met a mate who took a seperate car and spent 3 hours there having a great time. Trails were muddy and it poured at the start but loved every minute of it. Lots and lots of people about but felt all safe /socially distanced.
@beamers should be allowed in phase3. Im hoping an announcement this Thursday (9th) will allow this - desperate to see the folks...
Fingers crossed for the 9th as announcement of more freedoms.
I'm still nervous of how many cars that are out, having had to go to Larbert over the last few days.
I see the highland neighbourhood watch is in full flow! 😆
Anyhow, had my first pint in a beer garden today, was only in for half an hour. Just picking up the auld man to give him a lift up the road. Would have been rude not to have a quick pint! 😆 Felt weird.
Anyhow, 30 minutes in, and generally socially distanced, but tables hugging each other goodbye as some tables left. All fairly civilised tbh, not a drunk crowd by any means, was interesting to watch for a little while. Can imagine a drunk crowd will be a riot tbh...
Pubs open = society open imo, any real pretense of social distance happening when they open for indoors in a few weeks time is out the windae, imo.
Not against opening up at all, myself, we have to find the functional level in this incremental manner. Just do hope we are over the worst and the track/trace and local isolation works well.
guessing that was a pint of soda water and line.
A lovely fresh pint of draft lager, went down well! 😆
Made it to Aviemore yesterday. Quieter than usual still quite a few tourists about. Got out on the bike through the forest trails, was tremendous. I noticed the Aldi is quite posh in Aviemore. The ones in Aberdeen are a bit tougher and social distancing does not take place. In Aviemore it’s all smart, organised and social distanced. Thought I was in Waitrose.
On the ride back to the digs yesterday I passed the Old Bridge Inn. It was busy. Looked great. However can’t go there the kids are very keen on social distancing so I’d get told off.
A lovely fresh pint of draft lager, went down well!
and then you drove?
Don't think that would be advisable, you'd probably be sitting there wanting me done with car theft and driving without a licence or insurance, as well as drink driving! 😆
you gave your old man a cokeie back then
Or mibbie someone else was driving...
Prof Linda Bauld, the Bruce and John Usher chair of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said she believed part of Scotland’s success rested on the clarity of Sturgeon’s leadership, but that the success was also driven by geography, demographics and timing – components which had helped suppress the prevalence of the virus.
As a communicator, Sturgeon had been “phenomenal”, said Bauld. “She is trusted. And if the communicator is trusted and is seen to also communicate uncertainty where there is uncertainty, she does that extremely well. That increases public confidence that there’s a reason why they’re being asked to do x, y and z.”
From the Guardian - hardly known for its support of the SNP or its knowledge of scottish issue and politics
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/08/we-mess-with-this-virus-at-our-peril-sturgeon-urges-caution-as-covid-19-deaths-fall
It's been fun at work, broaching the political situation with the staunch unionistas, with Westminster currently resembling an Ealing comedy. But the best part is offering the opinion that BawJaws has done more for the independence cause than pretty much anyone.
They like that. 😊
Thought I was in Waitrose
all those milfs making feel funny down below?
I know some staunch unionists who have gone from disliking Sturgeon to huge respect for her during this crisis.
I have a lot more respect for her since Covid as she has presented herself very well. How genuine it is I have no idea (I would like to think it is) and even Alastair Campbell appeared to have mellowed in his piece yesterday.
It obviously helps her significantly when compared to the moronic clueless shambles over the border.
A stuffed soft toy would look good compared to bojo.
To be fair she has been fairly clear and consistant from the begining including actually saying the word lockdown at the start of this which bojo seemed unable/unwilling to do.
She’s also not got very much competition in Scotland......Richard Leonard.....😬
Exactly. Not a fan of her rhetoric at all but she has been very clear and consistent which has, against a backdrop of epic fluckwittery, made her stand out in leadership. You don't have to be Poirot to work out what's coming next when the time is right out of all this and to be fair she has tee'd the ball up perfectly aided and abetted by BJ, Cummings and the Westminster elite.
She's tee'd nothing up, instead she seems genuine in her strength and determined leadership to steer her country through this shitstorm, but it's a nice side effect that Bawjaws et al in the monkeyhoose have done more for the independence cause than anyone.
She really just has to carry on doing what she's doing, and independence will be inevitable.
Had a wee day hillwalking on Arran yesterday, never in my life did I think I'd see the summit of Goatfell deserted in July, was tremendous.
As genuine as a fake watch.
Whatever.
She’s tee’d nothing up, instead she seems genuine in her strength and determined leadership to steer her country through this shitstorm, but it’s a nice side effect that Bawjaws et al in the monkeyhoose have done more for the independence cause than anyone.
I am sure ther has been a bit of political calculation in this but I am certain she is doing things the way she has simply because she knows its right and its her duty.
I particularly like the " I am sure we will learn lessons from this in inquiries to come and that we will find things we wished we had done differently" in response to hostile questioning and also the laying out of the balance of rights and responsibilities and of comparative risk - ie treating us as adults.
Whatever else you think of Sturgeon she has a social conscience and understands the real world - something sadly lacking in the tories. Its easy to be the only adult in the room when you get compared to developmentally challenged toddlers
Sturgeon is doing good coming out of this. But at the start she should have been a lot more vocal.
I'd agree Joe, I'm sure she wishes she'd done a few things differently , quicker lockdown, not sending folks back to nursing homes etc.
Whatever else you think of Sturgeon she has a social conscience and understands the real world – something sadly lacking in the tories. Its easy to be the only adult in the room when you get compared to developmentally challenged toddlers
Agreed, not just Tories though, as mentioned earlier, that fool Leonard actually makes his predecessor look like she was competent.
How? Hindsight is a wonderful thing @seosamh
Looking at the numbers of cases, deaths etc we seem to have been consistently running at around 1% of the UK numbers (despite having around 10% of the population) for weeks now. I'm sure the reasons for this are complex, but the perception has been that the FM has at least been more consistent than our PM (who sometimes appears to be all over the place), so it's hard not to give her some credit for the current position. How on earth you maintain that position given the mixing between Scotland and England that happens every day is anybody's guess though.
Logic has gone out of the window though.
I can currently visit a beer garden and share the toilets with all the other drunken customers.
From Wednesday, I can sit inside the pub and share toilets with all the other drunken customers.
But wild camping is still prohibited as it is too risky.
It's decisions for the masses innit, sadly a huge amount of folk think the pub is the be all and end all.
I don't think it's much to do with wild camping being risky- I think it's more about trying to keep the amount of litter, forest fires etc to a minimum.
I think there's also the fact some things are way down the priority list, and wild camping is one of them, probably viewed as not a lot of people do it, and an unknown in terms of impact/financial benefit on rural areas.
I don’t think it’s much to do with wild camping being risky- I think it’s more about trying to keep the amount of litter, forest fires etc to a minimum.
Yeah, if wild camping became a 'legal' alternative to going round to your mates house or going out to pubs then you would get even more knuckle draggers filthing up the countryside (pedalled past what looked like a mini-festival site completely abandoned strewn across trails in Dean plantation at weekend...grrrr)
I think there’s also the fact some things are way down the priority list, and wild camping is one of them, probably viewed as not a lot of people do it, and an unknown in terms of impact/financial benefit on rural areas.
Yeah - if it was completely over-looked in the guidance, that would be understandable. It's the fact that, as of 18th June, wild camping in tents was specifically ruled out. "Wild camping" in caravans, motorhomes and campervans is allowed though. It's just using shared facilities that is a no no.
“Wild camping” in caravans, motorhomes and campervans is allowed though.
I've nearly finished mine, can't wait to get away somewhere.... 🙂
scotroutes
SubscriberYeah – if it was completely over-looked in the guidance, that would be understandable. It’s the fact that, as of 18th June, wild camping in tents was specifically ruled out. “Wild camping” in caravans, motorhomes and campervans is allowed though. It’s just using shared facilities that is a no no.
tbh looking the guidence, I reckon they'll want the pubs open before saying wild camping is ok, cause that'll reduce the numbers.
If pubs are shut and wild camping is ok, then it's a free for all basically.
Saying that, if I choose to do something this weekend, I will.
lastest advice:
What about going camping?
Campsites should only be available for users that have fully self-contained facilities, for example, caravans and motorhomes/campervans, as defined above. It does not include camping in tents, where campers would have to rely on shared facilities, or in the wild, since this is not ‘booked’ in advance so numbers cannot be managed.
I can manage numbers myself fine cheers.
Saw quite a few tents adjacent to the WHW this morning while riding out from Milngavie towards Strathblane. Certainly more than in non COVID times and it doesn’t appear to be behaviour that is being challenged so I guess this will increase with us moving into a sunny weekend.
I think wild camping is one of those things where, if you do it responsibly, nobody is going to stop you, but keeping it “officially prohibited” means they can go after the nutters without having to come up with a complicated definition of responsible camping.
The helipad carpark in Glencoe probably only had 20 cars in it yesterday, and there was hardly any tourist traffic on the road so things seem quieter. Booked into Ullapool next week so some normality is returning. Wild camping in some wee corner of the Fannichs on the 14th though,so will have to stay awake till midnight to avoid breaking the guidelines.
Calmac going from a 2 week rolling booking to 4 weeks this morning, and 1m distancing meaning a lot more capacity too.
I was over walking on Arran on Wednesday, ferry was eerily quiet, less than 20 people on the 7am crossing, 41 on the return (We were last on, heard ticket inspector saying numbers), mist of them were tradesman.
Never thought I'd see Goatfell summit deserted in July, for over an hour!.
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An empty Goatfell - that would be a pleasure!
We're aiming for Anoach Eagach tomorrow, I'm suspecting it won't be empty...
