Anyone seen Munguin?Sand LizardScotlandI’m sleepyBring back memories?This is Cisco.BrugesRait Castle, InvernessSunsetGrizzled SkipperTit gets his dinner in weatherman Sean Batty’s gardenOhhhh, let me at it…Camperdown Park, DundeeCheetahDaffs in the snow at Braemar CastleCome with me, son. I’ll show you how to get half of a human’s lunch!Wol (for Winnie the Pooh fans)Reminds me of me…The new V & A in Dundee is coming on apace.OK, I’m off for a nap.
The V&A building is very impressive. But I think it may have been built upside down. 😉
The two castles are nice. This is what I understand happened in 1442 at Rait Castle:
“In 1442, when the castle passed to the Mackintoshes from the Clan Cumming (Clan Comyn) a feast was held at the castle between the two families which ended in the slaughter of most of the Comyns. The laird blamed his daughter who he chased around the castle. She climbed out of a window but he chopped off her hands and she fell to her death. The castle is said to be haunted by her ghost, with no hands.”
I suppose that applying modern social norms to fifteenth century Scotland is problematic, but REALLY!!!! This strikes me as a celebratory feast gone terribly terribly wrong. Not to mention the familial dysfunction which seems to be implied by cutting off your daughter’s hands and heaving her out a high window of your castle.
Did ANYTHING nice and peaceful EVER happen in ye olde days in Scotland?
Look, it’s very easy to build a building upside down. All you need to do is fail to notice that the plans are the wrong way round on the table when you are pouring the whisky. It’s a simple mistake. People will just have to walk on their hands.
I’d be the first to admit though, that it does sound like a slightly dysfunctional family. But you know how family parties go when drink is taken. Why there was a wedding only a few weeks ago that make THAT sound like a picnic.
I think the V & A Museum is a fascinating structure. It looks a tad like a supertanker that has got bent in the middle. We must beware of the monsters of the deep!
🙂
Off topic, again:
Notably, no unionist newspaper of note, appears to be ‘down’. I swear I only accessed them to check, I read nothing. Honest guv!
I’m not sure that that is any longer the plan. It had been proposed for it to be party in and partly out of the Tay, but the costs of escalated, as these things do, and I think it is now all on dry land.
If you come over the Tay Bridge from the Fife side you can see just a little bit of what the outside of the building will look like once the cladding is removed.
Actually Danny, there have been periods of peace and prosperity. But all of Europe has been a battleground for hundreds of years. Scotland did enjoy a relatively peaceful period after the Wars Of Independence when trade with the rest of Europe expanded. and the neighbours left us alone.
The fact that the British Isles are just that, Isles, has kept most of the foreign hostile parties offshore, but internally even in the UK there are rarely more that a few generations between armed conflicts. The English civil war ( which did affect us, see Cromwell’s bullet holes in Glasgow Cathedral), the Glorious Revolution, The Jacobite Risings, The Irish Rebellion, etc.
Humans just seem to like to fight. When we trade with each other, tolerate each other’s religious differences. Treat others as we would expect to be treated ourselves. When we visit each other and discover that they don’t have horns and we don’t hunt haggis. When we realise that all men are created equal. Then we find we can rub along quite peacefully.
What you say is sort of true. On the other hand I am quite old and there has been no conflict between members of the Iron and Steel Community, EFTA nor the EU in my lifetime.
People get blazé about the lack of conflict. The Tories, having walked away from conflict resolution through the EU have already rattled their swords, or is it sabres, against Spain. For some Unionists this is acceptable, well, for me it is not. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go to war with Spain. Senior Westminster politicians grab it as their first negotiation stance. As far as I am concerned, they are fools that have probably lived through a similar lifetime to me, and have taken the utterly wrong conclusions from it. Churchill, who I think was a great wartime Prime Minister also said, in his more sober moment, that ‘Jaw. jaw”, was better than “War, war.”
The Eu has given us that, within it’s boundaries and extended boundaries, the Yugoslavian resolution comes to mind. There is actually, probably no organisation ever that has achieved the peace that you have the extreme good fortune to live under.
The EU may have faults, but they are trivial when measured against the history you ascribe to your arguement.
We really, really do not want to go back to that utter stupidity.
But that is the fire that Theresa May’s fine bunch of Etonians want to play with.
Sorry for going off topic so soon, but is anybody else having trouble accessing the Sunday Herald or the National today? What with cyber attacks, you never know whether it is your end or their end or someone else.
gosh what lovely fauna and flora this week. I loved the sleepy orangs and know exactly how they feel. And I really like a cheetah – beautiful kitties. I don’t know Dundee much having only been once but maybe the V&A will bring in the visitors. As for the national and herald – obviously my first visit of the day is MR so I don’t know.
Munguin is pleased to know that he is your first visit of the day before the lesser journals.
There is, and has been now for some time, massive redevelopment of the waterfront area of the town centre. I have to say that so far it is looking impressive. it was a dump before with the hideous leisure centre and the even more ghastly Tayside House.
I’ll take a few pics of the next few weeks and put them up. The idea is to build up a good tourism business. But we really need to have other things that V&A tourists would want to enjoy while they are here.
Niko…..The Saturday Night Live people always cover all the bases with Sean Spicer and the orange faced moron. Last night’s show HAD to include a reference to Spicey hiding in the Bushes on the White House grounds where he was discovered by the press contingent. And of course the letter from his tax accountants that he proudly proclaimed was CERTIFIED (simply a category of the US Postal Service that certifies the letter was sent and received.) And then the problem that Spicey and Sarah and all his surrogates are told what to say, and then he says exactly the opposite at his next personal interview. POOR Spicey. 😉
I had never heard of Rait Castle though I live near Inverness. Looked it up and found it. It is 30 odd miles from Inverness and about 2 and a half miles from Nairn. As the crow flies it is probably around 20 miles from me but there is the wee matter of the Moray Firth in between.
Very cool to have old castles everywhere! There are almost no castles in the USofA. Maybe the occasional fake one built as a home by an eccentric millionaire or some such.
From a slave to a racist Conservative party gorging on a
Hatefest against anyone not white Christian middle class
Or English detest of the Scots is a English Tory given.
You are comparing a snp pea shooter with Conservative MOAB
The Tories beat Ukip. But they must not become Ukip
Matthew d’Ancona
Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. Nietzsche’s maxim is a standing warning to those who take on the populist right. The Conservatives’ absorption of the old Farage phalanx must be a takeover not a merger. Beating Ukip should not in any sense mean becoming ukip
It’s too late Matthew
They like you Deano are vile monsters from the disgusting.
Conservative ID
Well, I don’t think most of them are vile monsters, Niko, but you’re bang on with the rest of it.
They have become UKIP and the Tories are even targeting pro-European constituencies.
Interestingly I read a comment from a Tory voter in England who says that he thinks May is a Brexit sceptic but is being opportunistic, and supporting what the majority of her parliamentary party wants. He wants her rep,laced by a sincere Brexiteer. God knows who. Foxy?
Dean: if any of it is true, then I expect that the police will deal with it.
The civic nationalism is going well. Thanks for asking.
How is the racism and threats against Nicola?. If that bloke who brags about his penis size still a councillor? How about the one that thinks black people carry spears and eat each other?
We might also ask about Kathleen Leslie (Fife), Ron McKail (Aberdeen), Ian James (Perth) David Wilson (inverclyde), and neil graham, Todd ferguson, Euan Blockley, Donald Gatt, Colin McGavigan.
All Tory candidates and councillors with racism, homophobia, and utter hatred of poor people to their names.
I’m not suggesting that every Tory is like that… but just a few names from Twitter seeing as you brought up bad behaviour.
Unfortunate and perhaps unhelpful behaviour if it is a true report. Of course our street stall is subjected to periodic water bombing, and we had a complaint made recently to a traffic warden because one of our blue badge wearing members had the temerity to park in a disabled space while displaying their badge. We don’t bother to waste police time on such trivia ourselves.
Anyway, the “offending” behaviour would be clearly just a “joke”. Seeing as that seems to be the standard excuse from all those Conservative pranksters we read about pretty much daily now.
Absolutely. It is done by the other teams too. Of course, that is no excuse for the SNP activists doing it, if any of this is true. It should be easily proved in this day and age. Even the Tories must have people with cameras on their phones.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
The V&A building is very impressive. But I think it may have been built upside down. 😉
The two castles are nice. This is what I understand happened in 1442 at Rait Castle:
“In 1442, when the castle passed to the Mackintoshes from the Clan Cumming (Clan Comyn) a feast was held at the castle between the two families which ended in the slaughter of most of the Comyns. The laird blamed his daughter who he chased around the castle. She climbed out of a window but he chopped off her hands and she fell to her death. The castle is said to be haunted by her ghost, with no hands.”
I suppose that applying modern social norms to fifteenth century Scotland is problematic, but REALLY!!!! This strikes me as a celebratory feast gone terribly terribly wrong. Not to mention the familial dysfunction which seems to be implied by cutting off your daughter’s hands and heaving her out a high window of your castle.
Did ANYTHING nice and peaceful EVER happen in ye olde days in Scotland?
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Look, it’s very easy to build a building upside down. All you need to do is fail to notice that the plans are the wrong way round on the table when you are pouring the whisky. It’s a simple mistake. People will just have to walk on their hands.
I’d be the first to admit though, that it does sound like a slightly dysfunctional family. But you know how family parties go when drink is taken. Why there was a wedding only a few weeks ago that make THAT sound like a picnic.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I think the V & A Museum is a fascinating structure. It looks a tad like a supertanker that has got bent in the middle. We must beware of the monsters of the deep!
🙂
Off topic, again:
Notably, no unionist newspaper of note, appears to be ‘down’. I swear I only accessed them to check, I read nothing. Honest guv!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very odd about the papers. Nothing on Twitter.
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Well I think it’s a fine looking structure and will do very nicely if it remains upright. 😉
And I’m glad to know that social engagements in Scotland are still very lively affairs.
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Actually, when it’s finished they are going to call on all of us to go down to the port area and heave until it is the right way up.
Then you will be impressed.
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@ Tris……..I hope there are press reports of you getting the thing righted. 😉
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@ dc…….At first, I didn’t realize that it’s partly in the water too. It gets more and more interesting! 😉
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I’m not sure that that is any longer the plan. It had been proposed for it to be party in and partly out of the Tay, but the costs of escalated, as these things do, and I think it is now all on dry land.
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If you come over the Tay Bridge from the Fife side you can see just a little bit of what the outside of the building will look like once the cladding is removed.
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Oh, thank you. Guess who will be doing that tomorrow!!!
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Actually Danny, there have been periods of peace and prosperity. But all of Europe has been a battleground for hundreds of years. Scotland did enjoy a relatively peaceful period after the Wars Of Independence when trade with the rest of Europe expanded. and the neighbours left us alone.
The fact that the British Isles are just that, Isles, has kept most of the foreign hostile parties offshore, but internally even in the UK there are rarely more that a few generations between armed conflicts. The English civil war ( which did affect us, see Cromwell’s bullet holes in Glasgow Cathedral), the Glorious Revolution, The Jacobite Risings, The Irish Rebellion, etc.
But again I stress. All of Europe has been in the throw of some fight or other for hundreds of years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Europe
Humans just seem to like to fight. When we trade with each other, tolerate each other’s religious differences. Treat others as we would expect to be treated ourselves. When we visit each other and discover that they don’t have horns and we don’t hunt haggis. When we realise that all men are created equal. Then we find we can rub along quite peacefully.
LikeLiked by 2 people
davidbsb,
What you say is sort of true. On the other hand I am quite old and there has been no conflict between members of the Iron and Steel Community, EFTA nor the EU in my lifetime.
People get blazé about the lack of conflict. The Tories, having walked away from conflict resolution through the EU have already rattled their swords, or is it sabres, against Spain. For some Unionists this is acceptable, well, for me it is not. I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to go to war with Spain. Senior Westminster politicians grab it as their first negotiation stance. As far as I am concerned, they are fools that have probably lived through a similar lifetime to me, and have taken the utterly wrong conclusions from it. Churchill, who I think was a great wartime Prime Minister also said, in his more sober moment, that ‘Jaw. jaw”, was better than “War, war.”
The Eu has given us that, within it’s boundaries and extended boundaries, the Yugoslavian resolution comes to mind. There is actually, probably no organisation ever that has achieved the peace that you have the extreme good fortune to live under.
The EU may have faults, but they are trivial when measured against the history you ascribe to your arguement.
We really, really do not want to go back to that utter stupidity.
But that is the fire that Theresa May’s fine bunch of Etonians want to play with.
LikeLiked by 3 people
@ dbsb……Yes, Europe was a tough place for a long time. I see there’s many Wikipedia pages devoted to the Scottish clan battles.
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Ahem, the modern phraseology is “The War of the Three Kingdoms”, as not all historians are parochial English snobs.
Yes, I mean Starkey.
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Great photos as usual.
Sorry for going off topic so soon, but is anybody else having trouble accessing the Sunday Herald or the National today? What with cyber attacks, you never know whether it is your end or their end or someone else.
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Me too, first tried about 7 am.
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I can’t get in…
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Oooer ! I say
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I thought you would.
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gosh what lovely fauna and flora this week. I loved the sleepy orangs and know exactly how they feel. And I really like a cheetah – beautiful kitties. I don’t know Dundee much having only been once but maybe the V&A will bring in the visitors. As for the national and herald – obviously my first visit of the day is MR so I don’t know.
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Me too, MR is my first stop. But it would be interesting if you checked it out and reported back. Seems a tad weird to me.
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Could just be a glitch on the website (presumably linked).
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Seems they are both back up.
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Must have been a glitch.
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Munguin is pleased to know that he is your first visit of the day before the lesser journals.
There is, and has been now for some time, massive redevelopment of the waterfront area of the town centre. I have to say that so far it is looking impressive. it was a dump before with the hideous leisure centre and the even more ghastly Tayside House.
I’ll take a few pics of the next few weeks and put them up. The idea is to build up a good tourism business. But we really need to have other things that V&A tourists would want to enjoy while they are here.
Some theatre would perhaps be an idea!
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Look forward to the photies!
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Glad you enjoy them, Douglas.
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that was funny and more than a little tr
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When you feel a bit sorry for Spicey….
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Niko…..The Saturday Night Live people always cover all the bases with Sean Spicer and the orange faced moron. Last night’s show HAD to include a reference to Spicey hiding in the Bushes on the White House grounds where he was discovered by the press contingent. And of course the letter from his tax accountants that he proudly proclaimed was CERTIFIED (simply a category of the US Postal Service that certifies the letter was sent and received.) And then the problem that Spicey and Sarah and all his surrogates are told what to say, and then he says exactly the opposite at his next personal interview. POOR Spicey. 😉
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A view of Spicey’s nighttime press conference after the reporters found him in the White House shrubbery.
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Think the Orange Faced Moron is going to take him on as a gardener?
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I had never heard of Rait Castle though I live near Inverness. Looked it up and found it. It is 30 odd miles from Inverness and about 2 and a half miles from Nairn. As the crow flies it is probably around 20 miles from me but there is the wee matter of the Moray Firth in between.
Might look to making a visit some time.
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You’ll need to make friends with a crow, and see if you can hitch a lift 🙂
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Very cool to have old castles everywhere! There are almost no castles in the USofA. Maybe the occasional fake one built as a home by an eccentric millionaire or some such.
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Well, they aren’t quite everywhere, but there are, I guess, a lot, in comparison to the US.
Barons, Earls, Dukes and the likes had to live somewhere.
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Anyone seen this? SNP activists reported to police after they repeatedly threatened opposition activists, harassing them on the streets for hours.
How is your ‘civic nationalism’ going chaps?
http://www.midlothianview.com/news/snp-activists-reported-to-police/
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Deano
From a slave to a racist Conservative party gorging on a
Hatefest against anyone not white Christian middle class
Or English detest of the Scots is a English Tory given.
You are comparing a snp pea shooter with Conservative MOAB
The Tories beat Ukip. But they must not become Ukip
Matthew d’Ancona
Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. Nietzsche’s maxim is a standing warning to those who take on the populist right. The Conservatives’ absorption of the old Farage phalanx must be a takeover not a merger. Beating Ukip should not in any sense mean becoming ukip
It’s too late Matthew
They like you Deano are vile monsters from the disgusting.
Conservative ID
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Well, I don’t think most of them are vile monsters, Niko, but you’re bang on with the rest of it.
They have become UKIP and the Tories are even targeting pro-European constituencies.
Interestingly I read a comment from a Tory voter in England who says that he thinks May is a Brexit sceptic but is being opportunistic, and supporting what the majority of her parliamentary party wants. He wants her rep,laced by a sincere Brexiteer. God knows who. Foxy?
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Dean: if any of it is true, then I expect that the police will deal with it.
The civic nationalism is going well. Thanks for asking.
How is the racism and threats against Nicola?. If that bloke who brags about his penis size still a councillor? How about the one that thinks black people carry spears and eat each other?
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Your pal Deano ?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-2017-james-heappey-tory-mp-referendum-scottish-national-party-a7735311.html
A Tory MP told a girl to “f*** off back to Scotland” when she said she’d vote for independence if a second referendum was triggered
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LOL. I read about him, Niko. He says he was only joking. He’s got a funny idea of an appropriate joke for an official visit to a school.
Who does he think he is? Taking over from Philip? Damned middle-class upstart!
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We might also ask about Kathleen Leslie (Fife), Ron McKail (Aberdeen), Ian James (Perth) David Wilson (inverclyde), and neil graham, Todd ferguson, Euan Blockley, Donald Gatt, Colin McGavigan.
All Tory candidates and councillors with racism, homophobia, and utter hatred of poor people to their names.
I’m not suggesting that every Tory is like that… but just a few names from Twitter seeing as you brought up bad behaviour.
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Unfortunate and perhaps unhelpful behaviour if it is a true report. Of course our street stall is subjected to periodic water bombing, and we had a complaint made recently to a traffic warden because one of our blue badge wearing members had the temerity to park in a disabled space while displaying their badge. We don’t bother to waste police time on such trivia ourselves.
Anyway, the “offending” behaviour would be clearly just a “joke”. Seeing as that seems to be the standard excuse from all those Conservative pranksters we read about pretty much daily now.
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Absolutely. It is done by the other teams too. Of course, that is no excuse for the SNP activists doing it, if any of this is true. It should be easily proved in this day and age. Even the Tories must have people with cameras on their phones.
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Barrel scraping Google trawl for “Threatening SNP Activists”.
Here’s what really happened.
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Yep… well, Dean?
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You can see the vile “shoulder bashing” at 0:54.
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I noticed. Ruddy hooligans.
This is a nice fellow…
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If that was the same event, then the Tories are the ones that have just made fools of themselves.
What’s new?
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Maybe they didn’t realise that people had mobile phones, with video recording equipment.
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tris
After brexit and the reimposing of passport controls
I insists that munguins republic declare Deano
Persona non grata and Conan as well,
Ok conans was a joke but Deano well really though !
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I can tell you, all passports will be checked very carefully on entry into the Republic, Niko.
I had word that Prince Philip was hoping to spend his retirement here…
Hmmm…
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