Hi Again

[khartoumteddy]

Hi again all

Website changes and work mean I have to send a belated Happy Hogmanay
to one and all.
:English Flag
am bound to annoy a few over the coming months but lets start with good will to all[/
Teddy

[Seil Blubber]

Hello Teddy

Happy New Year to you - gone very quiet on here, everyone got the January blues?

[Maggie]

Just trying my new avatrix....not a bad likeness.
Where is everyone? Check out the OT forum. Usual suspects, I guess, mainly using false names and having a good old wind-up by the looks of things. Lets hope they stay there.

[Sandy MacSeil]

Hello everyone! I'm a new boy around here (Maggie, I quite fancy you if you look anything like your avatar! Doing anything Friday night?). First things first - when are you going to get a mobile phone signal throughout Seil? You have a new water supply, new sewage system - all you need now is a decent road and a signal! Anyone agree?

[Pentlandpirate]

Hello Spiderman! Good to see you back.

[spiderman]

Listen, PP, I'm still in self-exile from this nanny state forum, so please don't bring me into it. Surely it's illogical for you to assume that Spiderman is the only person on the island who wants a phone signal. Give the new boy Sandy a fair reply - presumably he doesn't know the history of all the threads on the site! Anyway, Sandy MacSeil, I thoroughly agree with you...

[longshanks]

I'm still in self-exile from this nanny state forum,

Judging by the XXXXXX drop in activity since the recent XXXXXX it looks like you're not the only one Spidey.

Anyway, I'm starting a rumour that the lovely green boxes appearing around the island (and, incidentally totally destroying the ambience of some of our prettier spots) are electricity substations for the proposed XXXXXX.....yes there will be twelve of them (the green boxes) dotted around the route from the Bridge to Balvicar. The remainder are stored on a couple of flatbeds awaiting installation.

Who loves BB now and still sings the praises of the XXXXXXX sewarage scheme?

Armitage Shanks ( by choice)

edited to remove thoughts the management may not agree with

[NickB]

.
Was talking to the BB boys the other day - the new pole on the golf course is to hold a transformer for the pumping station there. I think describing them as 'substations' is a little ott. Anyway let's wait and see what they look like when they are in place before we go off on one. In a year or so all this will be a distant memory, the landscape reinstated, the infrastructure largely invisible or unremarked and the road greatly improved.

(As long as it all keeps working that is . . . )

- N

[Eric the Viking]

I see you've just been 'erased' by the OT.

Did you jump ......or were you pushed?

Remember - Bad things never happen in the Oban Times (unless there's a chance to promote local business's) ..and if they do they're invariably printed on page 3 or 5 and only mentioned in passing

[NickB]

Hi Eric,

Love the new avatar.

I deleted my original post on that thread, not them. If you want to know anything about the background behind it feel free to PM me.

- N

[Eric the Viking]

It wasn't the original post - it was the bit about OT employees...or not

[NickB]

.
Ah - I see what you mean. Not a very subtle job, as that particular reference is quoted twice further down the thread.

I thought it was me who was the fascist control freak? Must be a trait of forum administrators

- N

[longshanks]

.
In a year or so all this will be a distant memory, the landscape reinstated, the infrastructure largely invisible or unremarked and the road greatly improved.
- N

What planet are you on?

Have you seen the green boxes which have already been installed? "Largely invisible" !!!! My R's.

"Road greatly improved"...oh yeh; who by? What we'll be left with is a pothold race course several feet wider than it was with deep dropoffs. It will not be anyway improved from what it was before this farce began, just patched where BB dug holes and trenches. Do you honestly think they'll resurface its whole length and rebuild the verges in their original positions? About as much chance of that as Al Gore admitting he was wrong.

"Landscape reinstated" !! As a greenie you should know that's impossible. You should have said new landscape made by man.

Shankers (co-owner of RBS, not by choice)

[NickB]

What planet are you on?

I worked on several sections of the 36" high pressure gas line they ran through rural Aberdeenshire in the mid-70s.The spread was up to 100m wide, patrolled by machinery that makes BB's stuff look like Tonka toys. It was a sea of mud, the topsoil removed and taken off-site, all vegetation destroyed. Within one to two years you couldn't tell where the pipeline had gone through for 99% of its length.

As for natural vs man-made - if you want a natural landscape then go and live on the Cairngorm plateau, it's about the only place you will find one. I bet your ancestors were badgering Stevenson's boys in 1792 and moaning that everything was ruined forever.

Is your house being connected to the new system?

- N

[NickB]

.
OK Longshanks, I apologise - I thought you were moaning about the extra transformers required - but I have just seen the big green box opposite the shop in Balvicar.

It is a complete excrescence, utterly out of place in the landscape and extremely difficult to camouflage in any way. The people who have agreed to the siting of these monstrosities should each have one ot two put in their gardens.

I don't think anyone realised that these industrial blots would be strewn around the landscape, and I think it shows what a hollow process all this alleged 'consultation' has been. Perhaps Mona Lott is quite happy to see these, but I suggest that anyone else writes to the Oban Times, their MP and anyone else who might allegedly be interested.

Once again my apologies to Longshanks for replying in haste. Are there any other nasty surprises waiting for us to repent at leisure, I wonder?

- N

[longshanks]

.
OK Longshanks, I apologise .................It is a complete excrescence, utterly out of place in the landscape .....monstrosities .......industrial blots ......strewn around the landscape.......Are there any other nasty surprises waiting for us ?
- N

Despite the fact that you've always refused to accept the many apologies I've offered you in the past; of course I accept your apology. Remember Rule number 28 in The Book of Life viz: "Always forgive but never forget"

Any other nasty surprises? you ask. Well there are at least six more of those boxes to go up. One went out outside the TnT on Tuesday; take a look...even you can't miss it. And wait till you see the finished main treatment works! Its taking shape now.
BB restore the roads?; for all they care eh having left that tank trap of a trench across the road at Phil Moss's for two consequetive weekends before finally filling and tarmacking it. How many damaged axles and tyres of the unaware in that time?

Shankers (by choice)

[MonaLott]

Perhaps Mona Lott is quite happy to see these, but I suggest that anyone else writes to the Oban Times, their MP and anyone else who might allegedly be interested.

NickB, I find no surprise in the appearance of a pumping station at a place designated for a pumping station and worked on in that regard for the past 6 months. What kind of cloud cuckoo land do you live in? Of course there must be pumps. No flow without shove. No gain without pain. As for your turnaround above - one minute giant Aberdeen scars vanish into nature in a year or two, next minute a green box is the end of the eco-world....well, as I said before, your stability of view is too frequently in question.

As for you, Longshanks, you're just a stirrer!

Everyone else, keep the faith! This scheme will work, will improve things and will not destroy our island's beauty!!

[longshanks]

This scheme will work, will improve things and will not destroy our island's beauty!!

...which is in the eye of the beholder; should have gone to Specsavers Mona.



Stirrer??? Just, as always, telling it as I see it.
I think that you'll find universal shock on this island at the appearance of the first two of these green monsters and growing anger as the rest start to appear.
Still, good to see NickMacB (once an apologist for this farce of a sewage scheme) complete a spectacular U-turn. Expect to see more letters from him in the OT (though not on their Forum where he appears to have taken on the role of Mr Bad).

Long Box (Green by choice)

[NickB]

.
Shankers,

I would hardly describe it as a spectacular turn-around. As you will recall my attitude to this project has always been ambivalent at best and my letter to the Oban Times was written more on behalf of the 'unheard voices' than as a reflection of my own opinion. If you recall my original query - which produced the acccusations of luddism, nimbyism and half a dozen other isms from Mona and co - was as to whether this was the best way to implement a new sewage scheme for Seil. I still have reservations, as do many others.

My response to the people who claimed the landscape would never recover remains - it will recover, and remarkably quickly. It is also pertinent that none of what has happened is Balfour Beattie's fault and generally they have been very sympathetic and kept disruption to a minimum (although I take your point on the recent 'tank trap' near Phil Moss's)

BUT . . . The leaving behind of large lumps of industrial architecture instead of a few discretely camouflaged earthworksis another matter altogether, and one that has only just come to light. I suspect that most of us anticipated that the pumping stations and treatment plant would be sympathetically hidden from public view. Well, it seems we may have been a little naive. The people who designed the big green boxes (and singularly failed to show us any pictures or 'artists impressions') obviously have no sympathy whatsoever for the character of the area, or another solution would have been found. An engineer (not one involved with the project I hasten to add) who I spoke to yesterday was astounded at the size of these things and was confident that he could have installed the same equipment in a structure one third the height, while one of the guys I spoke to who was working on the project remarked that he thought they were an 'eyesore'

If Scottish Water are prepared to do this then I agree, we should be very worried about the appearance of the main treatment plant will present when it is finished.

So - no, it isn't a dramatic turnaround - the scars will vanish, the giant green cupboards won't. Apparently Mona is happy to have giant green tin boxes sprouting along the line of the new sewer. I am not - what about the rest of you?

(last para deleted by Nick 31/01/2009 as on reflection it was not relevant to the discussion)

- N

[tinkerbell]

i like the green - they will blend in to the scenery once that has indeed returned to normal. could be worse - they could be red, or mauve....

i dont think the one at the T & T is an eyesore, it is out of the way!! The shop one on the other hand is a wee bit out of place, but whoever's land it is must have agreed to it. Ok ok, yeah yeah, but how much money are they getting compensated for that, i hear you say. Who knows? But i certainly wouldnt mind having one in my garden for a sum of money. Especially in this current recession!

Perhaps at the next meeting there can be a waiting list where you can put your name down for a big green box with a cheque attached. Think there would be a few takers there? I'd volunteer.

Shouldnt this thread of "Hi Again" be "Balfour Beatty" or something along those lines?!