Another month of the season left for Parkdean

The season doesn't wind down quite so fast at Parkdean Lochloy, the holiday camp will be shutting on the 6th of November.

Midweek press review

The Nairnshire is full of some old chesnuts this week. An analysis of the latest situation with the co-op. 'Co-op' commits to Nairn...But?' is the banner headline. There's no secret about the 'but', quite a few folk feel they are hedging their bets to see which way the Scottish Government falls with the Sainsburys Public Inquiry result. The result should be due any day soon? Get hold of the Nairnshire to see the latest twists and turns, could Rosemary Machen-Young soon be climbing the exterior of the Regal with a pot of paint in one hand?

Concerns too over care of the elderly, Community Council boundaries and a double-barrelled broadside against the 'Incomprehensible 'Main Issues Report' and the Highland wide Local Development Plan. More interesting comment about that on the Nairn Matters blog. Lots more including an Obituary for Donald (Dan) Morrison.

Coddy says...

A comment received elsewhere but worthy of the Gurn front page late Tuesday night edition:

'Great t' see such a fine place fir Nernites t' hov a right gurn, righ' eenuf! Fir me an' other baarn n breed, exiled Nernites, we miss our wee toony. Y' only miss somethin whenit's gone - or so my bare scalp keeps tellin' may!My heart's on the shorline o the firth, jist beyond the Showes, like....and still waftin' a Yak's vinegar-injected poke o' chips, wrapped in a P an' J!'

Coddy

Just how much should Highland League referees have to put up with?

Deveronvale managment observe the game.

Rumour has it that Les Fridge is currently suspended from the dugout for 6 weeks after being reported by the referee following the match at Keith. If that is the case and the law is being zealously interpreted to the letter in the Highland league presumably Saturday's match officials (who had a good game incidently) will report the Deveronvale management team for their vociferous and extremely animated comments at the end of the game at Station Park. The Gurn has spoken to supporters who saw Nairn's Mike MacKintosh position himself between the Deveronvale management and the officials in an effort to calm things down as everyone headed for the tunnel. Will the officials consider the Deveronvale behaviour worthy of a report to the SFA? Management teams should set a standard for players and fans to follow and if they have serious points to raise with officials they should do it in the privacy of the dressing rooms and not make a spectacle of themselves on the field.

Update: this in from a regular at Station Park:

'It will be interesting to see if a report does go in about the conduct of the 'Vale officials. I have to say I left directly after the final whistle and didn't witness this confrontation. But heaven only knows what they had to complain about. I read Vale co-manager Scott Anderson's comments in today's P&J where he says: "I don't think we deserved to come away with just a point." he must have been at a different match from the rest of us because Nairn were well worth the draw and possibly even a win.
Nairn were much better in the second half and fought back well from 3-1 down. The only question on everyone's mind must be is why our top scorer Steve Mackay played most of this game at left back! He proved what damage he can do with the equaliser. Well done to the young lad Gillespie too. What a great second goal. '

The Vale fans seemed to go away with a similar attitude to the manager, towards the end one of them shouted: 'Come on it's only Nairn we're playing.' That's a dangerous attitude to come to Nairn with. Yes we can be accused of being inconsistent but on the day Nairn can give anyone a game.

Nairn 3 Deveronvale 3

(picture will enlarge) A pulsating 90 minutes up at the hallowed Station Park today, the faithfull fully entertained with the 3-3 draw. Some Vale fans were not amused and disappointed that the league leaders only came away with one point. They just don't know what the Wee County are capable of on a good day.

Pictures now available here on Gurn flickr

Match report now available here.

Nickel and Dime now recruiting staff in Nairn

It really would be nice to see some friendly faces from the former Woolies working in there, anyway good to see jobs coming to Nairn High Street. Let's hope this new venture brings a bit of life back into this part of the town.

Sainsbury's report now with minsiters - oops sorry about that, we mean ministers

We're all minced with that startling vid from that Forres loon. (see post below)

The Inverness Courier states that the public inquiry reporter Janet McNair has handed her recommendations to ministers earlier this week.

No doubt we'll soon know if we'll be able to have the sort of retail food choice that many towns smaller than Nairn take for granted. Here's hoping for the right decision.

Nae mince in Moray

Evidence that the language that is spoken the other side of Auldearn is still alive and kicking. As the description on the facebook group page Wir Ain Leid so succintly explains:

'The desperate plight of a Moray man who, unable to locate a sufficient quantity of minced beef for his evening meal, finally loses the plot and takes vengeance with his frenzied rap. Lyrics: Six in the ...'

395

Respite care – you have to go to Inverness to get it now! Liz speaks out.

The Gurn has learned that another part of the fabric that is our community has been removed from us. Respite care provision will not be available in the town. If members of your family or friends go into respite care you will now have to go to Inverness if you want to visit them. There can be no excuse, this is a cruel move and an attack on community. A town the size of Nairn should be able to deal with this in its own right. This move is anathema to the spirit of the caring community that is Nairn.

Also it isn’t as if there are a lack of facilities to provide it here. Provost Liz told the Gurn:

‘When Corsee closed I lobbied hard to get a commitment for respite provision in Nairn and it was based at St Olaf, 2 weeks ago this was withdrawn and clients from Nairn will now have to go to Inverness for respite. Families have told me and it's clear this means when they are going away and an older person goes into respite it'll be far more difficult for friends to visit.

This happened because of the block tender contract for respite, which was about providing care closer to home so clients wouldn't have to travel so far for the service - doesn't apply to Nairn obviously.

As to the front page of the Nairnshire 117,000 additional hours of home care?! - so far no additional extra hours of care have been provided and all that has happened is In-house (Council) home care clients are being transferred to the private sector - no new clients or extra hours as far as I can see. The £1million a year extra for home care was agreed when SNP was in administration and was intended to be used to support and extend the council home care service.’

It doesn’t look good, more proof that everything in Nairn is being uprooted and taken to Inverness. If we are now considered part of Inverness why can't Highland Council at least have the decency to admit it? As the credit crunch bites into council funds and more cuts fall what else will be taken away from us? Maybe it really is time to start the Nairnshire Independence Party?

A picture from Hamish

Hamish sends us a picture from his collection. He reports to the Gurn that he is enjoying the lingering Indian summer in Wales. Here we still have reasonably good weather Hamish, but colder at night and the moisture from the heavy morning dew lingers almost all day on the lawns now. Leaves are falling but not in great numbers, yesterday the river rose a little and did look a bit like leaf soup however. The year moves on.