Blogging from Nairn: sometimes satirical, sometimes silly, sometimes serious but hopefully giving a flavour of life in our community. The gurn welcomes contributions. 'Does what it says on the tin.'(ica) gurnnurn@googlemail.com
The league leaders returned after beating Nairn at Station Park last Saturday 1-5 but Groundhog day it was not. Nairn reduced to 9 men had to endure an eternity of injury time before the referee finally blew the whistle. Cove are out of the cup and a resurgent County march on.
Good morning Gurnshire, we've got one or two articles to put up over the weekend but we're going to leave Hughie's fantastic video near the top for most of the day and may put it back on top for Monday morning too - the video is generating quite a bit of interest. Great job Hugh! The video has only just been uploaded onto Youtube but is already attracting interest around the world, here's a graphic from Youtube.
It's a fresh morning but the light rain seems to have ceased. The first daffodils are making serious efforts to open now. On Wednesday this observer saw a bee, tempted out by the sunshine, on some flowering heather close to the beach. Further into the town a wasp too yesterday. Turning the corner at last? Today Cove return in the League Cup, no doubt hoping to emulate their five goal performance from their previous visit last Saturday. If Nairn continue on the high from the mid-week victory over Huntly then Cove's mission will not be so easily accomplished this time round. Have a good weekend Gurnites!
Thanks to Doc Grigor for this link. Hughie needs no intro for Gurnites but if you're just visiting the Gurn or thinking of coming to Nairn on holiday perhaps you'd like to know a little more about our favourite postie, this P&J article will give you an idea of what a great guy he is. Hugh has made a first class video that sings just a few of Nairn's praises.
Anyway here's Hugh's video - enjoy the walk and your holiday in Nairn :-)
The Press and Journal again:
'Highland Council is to write to the chancellor to seek emergency funds for the cost of repairing potholes after the worst winter for decades.
The authority’s transport director told councillors, meeting in Inverness yesterday, that the big December and January freeze had blown a £1.5million hole in the council’s budget that would have to be carried over into the 2010-11 financial year.'
Another burden on an organisation creaking under the strain. It appears also that the Council may use part-time fire-fighters for winter maintenance duty in the future. More in the P&J.
Meanwhile the Council is hopeful of saving money on a new ICT deal (information and communication tecnology). Another page on the Council's site gives details of another regular item that has to be met on the budget - the details of how much the Heads of Department earn.
The Press and Journal reports:
'An investigation is under way after three nursery children were able to walk across a railway line to retrieve a lost toy.
Youngsters at Junior World nursery at Nairn gained access to the tracks by crawling under a security fence adjacent to the Aberdeen-Inverness line.
Network Rail yesterday admitted the fence had been “incorrectly” installed because a gap had been left at the bottom of the wire, which was large enough for small children to squeeze through.'
When you consider the massive investment made recently in new fencing along the railway in Nairn, one wonders how more attention wasn't paid to ensure that this wouldn't happen.
More here: Nairn youngsters able to crawl under fence and cross tracks to retrieve toy
Mrs Gurnmeister was complaining that her train from Aberdeen was an hour late earlier this week. A sobering thought however for anyone worried about delays on the local line, to think that in the days when the railway only extended as far as Nairn from Inverness that you would need another seven and a half hours on the Stagecoach to even reach Huntly! At least the transport system was integrated, there must have been unity among the Community Councils of the time.
Thanks to Irene for another snippet from her extensive research.
Click on image to enlarge.
The time has come Gurnites. Nairn is capable of punching its weight in the Inverness dominated world and the Royal Burgh of Nairn Community Council would be the ideal democratic forum to do that. Since the demise of the old Nairnshire District Council there has been a democratic deficit within the County Boundaries.
''Time for a single Community Council for Nairn!' will be hitting the digital presses for (hopefully) the Monday morning edition but if you are standing in the digital queue at the virtual Co-op with 40p in your hand perhaps you might get a sneak preview tomorrow night. This new blog will argue the case for a Royal Burgh Council but in the interests of Democracy will also carry information on what some consider the pitfalls. There will be information on how you can contribute to the debate and help the dream come true. When you think about it Gurnites - what on earth would be wrong with a democratically elected body called 'The Royal Burgh of Nairn Community Council' meeting in the Courthouse and expressing the views of the town's residents in a world that increasingly sees Nairn as simply a suburb of Inverness. Let's go for it! There will be a consultation period between April and June, we have to act, the chance might never come again.
'Blogging from Nairn: sometimes satirical, sometimes silly, sometimes serious but hopefully giving a flavour of life in our community,' claims the Gurn. Perhaps we should add to that our ambition to become the house journal of the Nairnshire Freedom Party in their efforts to end Inverness domination and establish home rule for Nairn.
We also like to encourage others to blog and it was good to hear a Gurnite who works overseas say how much he enjoys reading the Gurn and those others in the Blogroll - 'Apart from Bill Cameron,' he said. I'm sure Bill will be delighted to know he has had that sort of impact :-) We'll keep on adding as much crac to the show as we can but it is the Gurnites out there that add so much to the fun. The tools are yours too Gurnites, with the publishing tools that the web offers you can have your message out there too. If you are thinking of starting a blog or already have one that we haven't noticed please let us know and we'll put it in that wee list in the sidebar. Here's a video on how to blog, within minutes you could be adding to the Gurnosphere carry-on.
Pictures will enlarge. The second image shows Tony Low's goal going into the net. Nairn never lived up to the promise (perhaps even dare we say flashes of genius) of the first half and Cove stepped forward to claim their three points to stay at the top of the league. More pictures later perhaps and a link to a full match report once it appears on HighlandLeague.net.
One of the Gurn's readers has drawn our attention to more information on the Highland Council website:
'The Highland Council is supporting the WWF’s Earth Hour 2010 and on Saturday 27 March will be joining million of people across the globe by switching off lights to seven prominent landmarks for an hour in a demonstration of support for people and wildlife threatened by climate change.
From 8.30pm to 9.30pm the floodlighting to Inverness Castle, the Cathedral, Ness Bridge, the Hector Macdonald Monument in Dingwall, the Ross Institute in Halkirk and the Thomas Telford Bridge in Helmsdale will be switched off, while in Lochaber every second lighting column along the Caol to Kilmallie Road will be turned off.'
Why not leave them switched off all the time? Suggests a concerned resident of Gurnshire.
A bit heavy so early in the morning but Highland Council are looking for consultation on their Housing Strategy. An alert Gurnite has spotted this information on the council website. We should really put in strong responses from Nairn if we are to influence what kind of housing gets built here in the future. No doubt it will be another set of documents that get forwarded to Nairnshire's community councils. There must be a few community councillors out there with houses full of documents that have to be read and commented upon. Here at the Gurn we think that that is another good reason to have just one Community Council for the town, the work of interpreting these documents and deciding what is the best response for the community would not have to be repeated three times over and as an offshoot of that maybe one or two trees could be saved. More on the Highland Council's housing strategy however:
'Highland's Housing Strategy proposes six main outcomes which the Council wants to achieve, these are that:
people are best able to live in suitable, and affordable housing, through increased supply in the best places and improved access routes to a wide range of housing choices.
owners and renters are able to live in sustainable, energy-efficient houses which are in good condition and, for renters well managed.
fewer households living in fuel poverty.
more people with community care needs successfully living at home independently.
fewer households experience homelessness through increased prevention and the delivery of responsive, effective services.
we have strong and support communities which have a long term future where people feel safe; where the impact of disadvantage is reduced and where public services are delivered well and provide value for money.'
More here for those that are interested and we should be really but reading all the documents coming out for public consultation is a full-time job in itself. Maybe the town's community councillors should have a clerk working for them just for that purpose alone.
Click the pic to go to buy Irene Main Mackintosh’s book ‘Street Names of Nairn'.
Get in touch with the Gurn at: gurnnurn@googlemail.com
