On the subject of "lipstick on a pig" the next-door neighbour on the other side says he thought it all looked a bit OTT, and they've been doing it for two years now. Why? If you have that kind of money why not buy a better house in the first place? It really doesn't make sense to me. Anywa...

Most likely the spammers were very active. Possibly some bots too, but perhaps the forum had a security issue in that it wasn't totally up to date with every issue to prevent the bad guys and they got through. I had an issue the other day with a flood of spam on one of my email accounts. Sometimes i...

We watched the Crow Road when it first came out and liked it so much we bought half a dozen copies and sent them to friends around the world. Everyone loved it. Most couldn't stop watching until they'd seen the whole series. Staying up all night in several cases. I'd thought that 'Crow Road' was may...

Alan Alda (Hawkeye Pierce in the MASH TV series) was very upset as a child when his dog died and his well-meaning father sent the dog to a taxidermist. Nice idea but it was not a success. Oh gee. It sounds horrendous. I've bought the Kindle version of one of his books £3.99. https://www.amazon.co.uk...

That's just dreadful, Barney. I am most certainly not trying to excuse them, I would take the Tony Martin approach too. But I don't have a gun or even a pistol these days. It's just that I wonder how desperate some people are getting with this cost of living crisis, food banks and all that. No, it's...

Hi Myrkk, I'm not sure that Scotland is the same as the rest of the UK for many things. Scotland is more civilised.

Also income tax is higher but you get more for your money. Council tax includes water. There are quite a few differences.

It's terrible trying to get an NHS dentist in some parts of England. Most won't take on any new NHS patients. We were lucky because we found a good dentist several years ago and she agreed to have us back when we were evac'd from Kyiv. I'm wondering what the situation is like in SW Scotland. So, if ...

It's not really very sensible for me to do any gardening right now, not even a little bit of kitchen gardening. We're moving from Kent to SW Scotland in three weeks time. Then it's an AirBnB for a month and then goodness knows what. But Scotland is a bit behind SE England in terms of seasons so if w...

Thanks, Primrose. It has been a bit hectic with packing and all sorts of things to sort out. We were still in the 'moving in' stages and now we're 'moving out' at the same time. :) I know it's easy enough to pay someone to do the packing but in our experience they've invariably made a hash of it and...

I dunno. I certainly would agree that the moving industry wants to extract money from us but if no lender would touch such a place we'd have to be cash buyers. Maybe we could do that but we'd need to sell our house in Kent first, and that would involve money down the drain renting meanwhile and that...

Sounds like something one might find on the Scottish Tourist Board website. You don't need to sell Scotland to me as I'm Scottish born and bred. Left as a young adult but later went back here and there for a few years. I'd no particular intention of returning 'home' but when husband was offered this...

Want to buy humus rather than make it?

We've tried all the major supermarket's versions and reached the conclusion that Tesco is best, both for taste and texture.

Husband is flying up to Glasgow today to 'view' a house that we might like to buy. The seller has had a survey done so potential purchasers don't all have to commission their own surverys. (I've not bought/sold in Scotland since 19oatcake.) Anyway, the survey specifically says that the report does n...

Hi Geoff,

That doesn't sound good. I wish you and your wife all the best.

Dunno if you can have a 'happy' birthday but I hope you can make the best of it.

Kindest regards.

Hippy, hoppy, happy birthday!

G'day mate.

Hope you enjoy your birthday, Westi! Lang may yet lum reek!