Readers Comments

SIR, – Twice recently, you have published letters relating to my old regiment, the Gordon Highlanders. One (June 16) concerned a lack of visitors to the memorial at Kilmallie. Some of us do visit the memorial from time to time. However, the best way to learn about the great and gallant Gordon mentioned in the letter is to go to the Gordon Highlanders Museum, where artefacts relating to him are displayed and he is permanently remembered and spoken about.

THE expression “It’s a funny old game” has just taken on a somewhat different meaning for former Kilmarnock and Hibernian football manager Bobby Williamson, who is currently coaching the Ugandan national squad.

I HAVE learned two valuable lessons from our impending house-move extravaganza – one of which, of course, is never to do it again. The other seems less profound, yet it will undoubtedly have far-reaching consequences on our future lifestyle.

POOR Michael Jackson. Like his great hero, Peter Pan, he did not want to grow up. He certainly would not have wanted to grow old and die. He believed his youth was eternal. His premature demise was therefore a blessing in so many ways – a release from his many fears and problems.

THE skipper of Clyde puffer Vital Spark, the redoubtable Para Handy – central character of Neil Munro’s wonderfully-humorous short stories – was well warned about the dangers of water by fellow-sailor Hurricane Jack.

TORY leader David Cameron is deliberately acting in a prime ministerial way in order to get the country used to seeing him in that role. With a general election a year or so away, and Labour struggling in the polls, Mr Cameron has been flexing his political muscles.

DAD, daughter and dog set off for the beach because mother had stopped communicating due to her enthusiastic, open-mouthed participation in the annual gawp-fest that is Andy Murray on the box.

What is this feeling I’m having here, this feeling of . . . guilt? It must be an age thing. It feels quite new and different to me, anyway. I am feeling guilty – not so much for the things I’ve been doing (that kind of guilt I’m used to) but more for the things I haven’t done and which, at my age, am running out of time to do.

There’s laughin in the clachan

SEO sinn a-rithist le Bille Croitearachd, agus na croitearan an àirde na teasaich a chionns g’eil iad a’ deanamh a-mach g’eil am Bille dol a dheanamh call. Tha grunn nithean mu dheidhinn a’ Bhille nach eil a’ cordadh riutha. A’s a cheud àite, tha clàr do chroitean dol dha dheasachadh. ’S e rud math a tha seo a chionns gun cuir e mach na crìochan aig na croitean gu leir, ach ’s e rud gur e na croitearan a dh’fheumas pàigheadh air a shon. ’S tocha nach eil £250 a’ coimhead tòrr, ach mu tha deasbud sam bith gu bhith ann mu na crìochan, feumaidh tu dhol a Chùirt an Fhearainn, feumaidh tu fir-lagha agus eolaichean eile fhasdadh agus dh’fhaodadh e cosg fortan dhuit. Gu dearbha tha cuid ann a’ cumail a-mach g’eil uachdarain a’ deasachadh tagraidhean an aghaidh croitearan a bhith ceannachd na croitean, le bhith cuir ceist a’s na crìochan iad fhein. Tha fios aca deamhnaidh math g’eil am pocaidean fhein tòrr nas doimhne na feadhainn nan croitearan ’n uair a thig e gu fasdadh fir-lagha.

IT IS A RADIO show like no other and she is like no other radio presenter. The stalwart of the Saturday night romance slot Moonlight Shadow on Isles FM is one Peggy Macneil, an apparently quiet and polite housewife from Manor Park who changes with the dusk into the purring creature who relays the lurve messages with a hushed breathlessness that sends tingles up every male spine.

I READ with interest the story (the Press and Journal, May 23) on school bus signs and the fact that they shouldn't be permanently on display. While in principle I would agree with that, there are obvious problems in applying this.

THE recent swine-flu scare almost made a pig’s ear of the annual student nursing exchange between Grampian Region and its twin city of Houston, Texas. A two-week study visit to Aberdeen by two Mexican-born student nurses from Houston Baptist University had to be postponed earlier this month.

ANNOYING to some, perhaps, but I rather like the insurance advert that exhorts the hysterical woman to “calm down”. That’s possibly because I can identify with the lady in question – impetuous, impatient and prone to let fly, when pushed to the limit – and the boundaries of that limit can be extremely flexible.