So, even the Law Society of Scotland is feeling the effects of the downturn in the property market, announcing last week that it was staying put at Drumsheugh Gardens for now.
Hell, if I’d have had a spare £5.5 million or so (although in Edinburgh the offers over premium could be 20% or more, adding a hefty chunk to that total), I’d have snapped it up in no time…I’m sure I could easily fill it with clutter in no time! 🙂
The Estates Gazette is a nice journal – it wraps its issues in what appears to be faster degrading plastic, which is nice for the planet an’ all that….but I can’t help but giggle when I read that “this polythene is oxo-degradable”.
Images of having to dunk the wrapping plastic in hot beef stock spring to mind…
So, last week, there I was, slumped in a bus seat with a vacant look (as usual), when I spotted something odd coming out of a side street.
A wee black car…with a huge pole on top, covered with cameras.
Now, it’s coming up for Festival season in Edinburgh, when all sorts of strangeness occurs on a regular basis, and therefore such randomness would blend right in, but this was a tad too early.
Aha – it turned a corner, and I clocked the discrete little Google StreetView logo on its side.
Since then, I know it’s been into the cul-de-sac where I live (but not got my flat as it’s on the wrong side to be seen from the street), and continues to travel through Edinburgh.
Now, I know there’s debate over privacy issues (which, to be honest, I think are hugely overblown by the paranoid), but I personally think it’s kinda cool!
The usefulness of a walk-through map of a city, with actual images of the physical, ‘real’ landmarks and what they look like far outweighs the possibility of someone, somewhere being spotted doing something they shouldn’t be doing, or being somewhere they shouldn’t be.
So, when they launch it for Edinburgh, I’ll be the one with the disturbingly red hair on the top deck of the number 25 on Leith Walk….with the blurred out face 😀
Seriously, the problem with large bodies like the National Archives of Scotland is there’s no pressure on them to be better, or faster, or to compete, as they’re the only body that holds certain items.
Which means that the speed they deal with enquiries is, just well, what ya gotta accept.
Which doesn’t help when you started an enquiry a week ago, they got back to you the next day for details, then the following day they tell you they have the item, and ask you to pay.
You pay within an hour, and wait…and wait…and wait.
3 working days later, there’s still no sign of the materials, and of course they’re wanted urgently. Urgently, as in last week, when you thought you’d sorted things.
*drums fingers impatiently*
Dumpling in a Hanky 