Saturday, January 17, 2015

Ten years of gurning - plus ça change...

The Gurn first emerged on January 17th 2005. There was considerable output during 2005 including in-depth investigative coverage of the story the authorities wished to keep under wraps – migratory killer sofas in the River Nairn! Perhaps we are far too serious ten years on? 2006 and 2007 were pretty thin as far as articles go but from 2008 onwards the volume steadily increased and over the years we added the Gurn Flickr pages, Youtube vids and the Gurn twitter account to provide a multi-meida service on anything Gurnshire we came across. We’re still here and will continue whenever anything happens and/or time permits. It’s been a bit of a learning curve but great fun. Thanks to everyone in Gurnshire that has helped or participated over the past 10 years – it couldn’t have been done without you.

 For our birthday we reproduce our first post which might bring on an ironic smile or two as we wonder if somethings just keep going round and round - the rumours of Lidl are a little more concrete now though.

MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2005

Well the shelves are emptying fast of bread, milk and a few other things in the Co-op as a few folk have been caught out by Morrisons shutting and changing into Somerfield (hopefully somebody will remember to take down the Safeway logo). Anyway it stays closed until Wednesday when we'll see what is on offer.
An urban myth has sprung up that Lidl are coming to town - now that would be good news if that fantasy were to materialise. What chocolate they sell - just delicious.

The months slip by and now in 2005 the town centre redevelopment still has to get off the ground. Will it ever happen?

For good measure we add the first comment ever made on the Gurn - was the prophetic "iright" on the ball with his vision of the future?

"What a shame that some folk just drift to oor co-opie when the 'main' supermarket is closed. The Co-op Society is just that, a co-op. It supports charities, fair trade, non-GM food & farming. I am sure to most people it just seems a crap supermarket compared to Tescos but if you are going to spend money on food at least look at who's pockets you are lining.

The 'street' in Nairn is fast becoming the shopping centre of the elderly, those without cars, others just shopping for a few items, rather than being the main shopping outlet for our community. There are only so many charity shops we can support (eBay?); beyond that will we see shops being turned into flats (as at the harbour). Nairn is fast becoming the place to commute from, not only for work but also for consumer spending. Those left behind will find a poor selection of shops, for the future surely is Inverness or stay at home and order from the Internet?"

10 comments:

Stephen Fuller said...

Happy anniversary and here's to many more years of Gurnning. The GurnNurn has become a very valuable online resource for the local community, thank you for all your time and efforts in keeping us informed on everything that's happening in our town.

Anonymous said...

Happy 10th birthday Gurn, thanks for the stories so far, keep up the interesting and amusing good work,.

sweet dreams are made of lidl said...

Sweet dreams of a Lidl still seems to prevail 10 years later, and not much has changed about the High St other than it's still there with a plethora of charities shaking their wares

Well done on keeping a blog going for most of these years apart from one interlude?

I miss the red sofas on the river but can see that posts of that ilk undermined the serious side that you now want to project

Spurtle said...

Thanks to the Gurnmeister for the effort put in to keeping the folks of Nairn and further afield updated with what's happening in our town & county for this past ten years.

Perhaps some of the people that are critical on occasions should spend a while running about gathering the amount of information that we see on the Gurn ....then they might realise how much work goes into it.

So while I may have the odd difference of opinion with those expressed by the majority of Gurnions or, at times, even the CEO of the Gurn publishing empire, I always enjoy reading it and think it has become an integral and important part of the fabric of the town.

An interesting historical,yet surprisingly current, perspective highlighted by reading the post from 2005.

The high street seemed under threat then, yet it's still here.

I suspect that when the Gurn celebrates its 20th, 30th or 40th birthday, we'll still find ourselves with a reasonable selection of shops in the town.

The Gurn has made it to 10 years because is was a good idea, convenient, well packaged and focussed on people..... The same comcept as the high street.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to the Gurn for keeping us informed for all these years. A great source of up to date local info. which is invaluable to me and plenty others. Keep up the good work and hopefully you will continue for many years to come.

LeBlanc LeBlog said...

Happy Anniversary! Love reading The Gurn to stay updated with happenings from back home. Cheers and here's to many more Gurns x

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary, Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

Taing mhòr do "The Gurn" - cum a' dol!

Brian Turner said...

Congratulations on 10 years of publishing! The Gurn has always been an invaluable source of local news and opinion, and long may it continue. :)

E.Maree said...

Happy anniversary Graisg, and here's to many more years of gurning! :)