There hasn’t been a lot published on this blog recently – I’ve been very busy on other things.
Went up to Scotland for a week. It was my brother’s birthday. A fun party was had by all, with a load of relatives, and the usual off-to-the-one-side entertainment. Enjoyable.
I took a lot of photos – video and stills – and have been beavering away, compiling them into a DVD. Nearly finished. Let us hope that the family members still retain a sense of humour!
Fife has changed a lot over the years. They have gone absolutely bonkers over traffic calming. Speed bumps, low speed limits, electronic speed indicators, road narrowing.
Dear Fife Road Managers. A few pointers …
I have a speedometer in the car (it is a legal requirement), so I do NOT need big distracting LED displays to know what speed I am doing.
If you have a circulatory problem, the cure is NOT narrowing the arteries. Just ask your doctor!
The locals all drive as if they were competing in the Monaco Grand Prix. So all the money spent calming them down does NOT work.
Levenmouth (as you insist on calling the place) is not the most prosperous part of Fife. Look at the local shops, will you! Just try looking it up on a tourist guide – it doesn’t exist. Nothing between Dunfermline and St. Andrews. I was born in Methil. The name was missed off maps then, and it still fails to feature 60 years later.
Leven must have the lowest sales of hair dye in all of Britain. Half, or more, of the people you meet in the High Street have grey hair. Lack of vanity? Or is it because all the young people have fled (over the speed bumps, through the narrowed roads, at a publicly displayed speed) to other places where there is work for them?
Methil has the largest wind turbine in Britain. It is a prototype, so it is bigger, nearer, and lower to the ground than you would be allowed anywhere else in Britain. Why treat Methil like a Crap Town? It is St Andrews that featured in the notorious (and delightful) book ‘Crap Towns of Britain’.
Go visit Kirkcaldy, Methil, Leven, Glenrothes. The houses are far better than those in so-called ‘Garden Cities’ in England. They cost less to buy, and the quality is far superior. Lots of green spaces, and they people are quietly polite, and friendly.
And you can watch the Methil Grand Prix every day if you wish. They don’t even charge for admission!
And it is a muckle great thing, that windmill!