Birds

[Husker Doo]

Ah i`ve got chavtas out of retirement my work here is done.

[Pentlandpirate]

I would say freedom has never been greater. The problem is that traditonalists have lost the freedom to complain or have something done about other people's behaviour. But birds haven't fared so well out of these social changes.

[Tony the Toad]

Birds of a feather still flock together, though.

[Pentlandpirate]

Naturally! But I think with the anonymity of Seil Chat at least people say what they think as individuals.

[Foxglove]

We all hope to be 'middle aged' and indeed 'old' one day so can't see why these are getting some stick!. Just a gimp...you cannot blame everything on these people. Working class people can and do work their way up to home ownership...drinking and fighting outside the local hostelries is probably not the way to go about it.

[Pentlandpirate]

Foxglove, we all wish we could stay young too! What would any of us give to be able to turn the clock back? But just a gimp should realise getting older and mature will happen to him too, whether he likes it or not. And his view on what is socially acceptable will change too. Fights outside the local pubs or village halls have been going on for time immemorial. But they are merely a phase of youth . Some grow out of it quicker than others. Getting back on the topic of birds, a girlfriend normally does the trick. Sounds like the Gimp needs to find love.

[Foxglove]

Wise words Pentlandpirate! But then I suppose getting a girlfriend brings on the 'nest building' urge and the desire to have your own home. Living at home with parents, working and saving hard for a couple of years would be the best way to get on the property ladder.

[Pentlandpirate]

I believe the problem is that mortgage companies/building societies require such big deposits to start with. Young people can scrimp and save but saving and setting aside a deposit of say, £20-30,000 is beyond most of us. People seem to think renting is just wasting money. They think it is wasteful to spend money to have a home if you don't own it at the end of 20 or 30 years. But we're happy to buy other costly items like cars and throw the money down the drain. Why should having the use of a house be any different? Most Europeans rent their homes. Why shouldn't todays youth get used to renting and just accept it is a means to an end? Am I right in thinking that about 25 years ago or so a £35000 mortgage would cost something like £70000 to pay off over 25 years? Todays interest rates were a pipedream.

PS I think the bird blackboards are a 'fun' idea bringing serious and comic contributions together.

[Just a gimp]

Pentland and Foxglove I do read and listen to your wise words but when did I ever mention having a great time by drunkenly fighting outside pubs? The mention of buckfast was supposed to be a little bit of wit, thought you may have realised that Pentland but not you Foxglove.
But you have all read me wrong, for I am not a drunken, young, hotheaded yobbo, no I am an entirely grownup adult and, ahem, ahem, I certainly amnot looking for a women. I have the love of my life thank you very much.
I donot reside on the bottom rung, have my own house and money [not sate handouts]
But, as you say Pentland, I am entitled to my demorcratic point of view and I speak as I find. Some maynot like that, but I donot think I deserved the vitriolic attack I had launched at me and so, with restraint I may add I retaliated.
Can we all move forward now pretty please????????

[Foxglove]

Just a gimp...are you saying I'm thick? . What I [like Maggie] would like to know is what you mean by 'the rot'?? I am fairly certain you are not down to Buckfast yet..let's face it..with the handouts the state gives then you'd have to really mismanage your money to be that low , however..seems like you have a problem with the middle aged people...are you not one yourself?

[NickB]

.
There's middle aged chronologically and there's middle aged in the head.

Husker, there's still a few kids play wild in the woods, fields and shores around Balvicar - building huts, making bows and arrows etc. It's one of the (many) things I love about the place.

[Just a gimp]

My dear Foxglove...and this is my last word on this.
Do you actually read this forum? If you did you would see that I have never once mentioned that getting totally drunk and fighting outside the pub is a great night out not that I ever do this.
If you actually read this forum, you would see that it was myself that said I had brought up my family at a time when Seil was a much more free, happier place than it is now.
There were no white lines at the roadsides nor in the middle of it. There was no ludicrous crane dumped in the middle of Ellenabeich nor a ghastly paved area with twee plant holders. Sheep and the odd wild goat roamed about the village until Dunmor was forced to fence them all in.
There was no Seilachan complaining about the orange netting at Clachan Seil, what of it. It is only letting the grass grow.
The community council even concerns itself about roads at Kilninver and Kilmore now, if that isnot meddling then I dont know what is.
There was no school uniform and the children werenot restrained to the back of the building. They played at the front and talked to folk passing by.
There were alot of characters and folk looked out for each other, no talk of being on the bottom rung of society. Children and older people called each other by their first names and all mixed together.
Most of all the Clachan Bridge was still just that, where did it become th 'Bridge over the Atlantic'?
In short there really was no 'middle class', that has come about more recently.
Yes times change and some things for the better, we all like our modcons, but somewhere along the way a lot has been lost, so much so that there is almost a dimension missing now.
'The rot' sets in when folk come here, like what they see and move here to escape the rat race. No sooner are they here than they seem determined to bring it with them. Nuff said.

[Foxglove]

Gimp..do YOU read this forum? I never said you went on about drunken louts fighting What I am taking issue with is what you mean about 'middle class meddlers'?? Looks like you are living in the past when things were very different..and not just on Seil, kids used to play out and use their imagination to have a good time, now they are mostly 'online' and playing with Nintendos. Unfortunately we have to move with the times..who is to blame? Parents..schools? or is it just the natural progression of the techno era? I don't like it myself ..but hey..what can anyone do about it? think you are out of order blaming the middle aged/middle class..?

[Pentlandpirate]

Everything changes. Seil attracts people because the places they come from are even more 'changed'. They come to Seil because by their relative standards Seil, is backward, quiet and quaint and gives them the sense they can live the way they used to before the 'rot' set in where they used to live. These changes are just Life. TV, internet, cars, aeroplanes, medecines, better life expectancy. We can't uninvent them ......Mankind is not allowed to stand still or go backwards. I suspect that if we were all transported back to the way things were when we grew up, after a while, we would acknowledge Life was not actually any better.....It's just it wouldn't last as long.

[Foxglove]

Wow PP...you put so eloquently what I meant to say... ..

[Foxglove]

Oh and by the way...I recall when children did NOT call adults by their first name...maybe this was a part of 'the rot' setting in?

[Maggie]

Well, having taken the trouble to decipher the Gimp's scribblings I think I might just understand what he/she is really whining about; incomers.
Same old, same old.
Gimp. I will give you one piece of advice. Stop blaming others for the state of your life.
Gimp. I will tell you one thing. You are an incomer too.
Gimp. I will ask you one thing. Seeing as you obviously disdain middle class, what is good about being lower class?

mags
x

[Just a gimp]

Hi Mags,
The answer has to be of course Benidorm!

[Tony the Toad]

Gimp. I will ask you one thing. Seeing as you obviously disdain middle class, what is good about being lower class?

Er, would that be 'working class'?

[Just a gimp]

All that sangria, kareoke and chips....great!