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Old...
... and new! Specially the post mistress knows. She is quite an institution! They are all great! To reach the level of service you can get here, others have to do a lot of market research first. Imagine this: Postman calls you (telephone) and says: "The next post delivery will only be tomorrow afternoon, but I have a postcard here for you, which says that the electrician will come today to check your wiring. I just wanted to let you know!" or: Postmistress tells old lady who returns from a few days away: "You had a postcard from your cousin Ann. She is coming to see you. As I knew you were away, I booked a room for her with Mrs MacDonald already. I hope that is okay for you?" Mrs. MacDonald being a local Bed&Breakfast, of course. So much for postal secrets!
Actually there are not many secrets here. "News travels fast in the area", says one character in that wonderful movie Local Hero. Quite right! It is amazing and you don’t know how they do it. One sunny summer day we arranged a group of people to sail over to the Isle of Skye with a local fisherman to see the Highland Games at Portree. Everything was fine as long as we were still in the sheltered part of Loch Torridon but once we got out into the open sea, we felt like in a roller coaster. And when eventually the skipper lit a heavy black cigar the majority of passengers turned yellow and green and so we decided to abandon the trip, turned around and came back. We reached the Shieldaig Pier, staggered out of the boat, climbed into the car and went to the bar seven miles away to get rid of that awful taste in our mouths. When we arrived at the bar - and we had not been overtaken by any other car - everybody knew already that we failed and we were greeted with a lot of friendly teasing! I really don’t know what they used for communication! But there is a lot to be said for that kind of transmitting. You could never imagine something dreadful happening to you and nobody to know and to come and help or rescue you. That is very comforting, believe me. A lot of things seem fairly easy here. You have a problem? Just tell the next one you meet. There will be a solution, don’t be afraid!
Don’t get me wrong! Life is not all that easy up here! People do have to struggle pretty hard to make ends meet. But the last thing they would consider themselves was to be lacking in anything. It just feels so right, that many of the status symbols which are thought to be so important in the self considered civilised world, mean so little here. Somehow you do not realise that people might not be so well off and you would not care if they were. Nobody, for instance, around here is terribly proud of having a new car! It just indicates that you had been not all that careful with your old one or you would not have needed another one. Shame on you! I know of somebody who is always going for the same car and the same colour, so that people do not find out that he got a new one!
People in general are very hospitable and generous. Who says the Scottish were mean? They might not have the means, that is all. But you will be made welcome and they will be interested in who you are and where you came from. Sometimes I am ashamed when I run into people I have not seen for a while and they vividly remember that a year ago I was very worried on my parents health and they will investigate and send good wishes although they never might have met my parents at all.
