Could I move to Scotland?!

jmcquown wrote:

Obviously I'm being facetious, folks. I do hope to visit there one day,
though. I have some family there. Of course they have no idea who I am,
but what the heck

And some of them might even have cats.

Or a house.

Joyce

wrote:

That's true, of course, at least now. But the question was whether
there were racial differences or tribal ones, not geopolitical ones.

I think you're taking Helen a bit literally here, she probably just
meant that, being English, she wasn't popular in Scotland - due,
perhaps, to political issues. It sounded to me that she was using
the word "racism" rather loosely to mean "prejudice against someone
for their ethnicity."

Did I get this right, Helen?

Joyce

wrote in message
...
wrote:

That's true, of course, at least now. But the question was whether
there were racial differences or tribal ones, not geopolitical ones.

I think you're taking Helen a bit literally here, she probably just
meant that, being English, she wasn't popular in Scotland - due,
perhaps, to political issues. It sounded to me that she was using
the word "racism" rather loosely to mean "prejudice against someone
for their ethnicity."

Did I get this right, Helen?

I'm not Helen but I think you're on the right track.

One of my friends is Scottish. He came here (Canada) as an adult and he is
happy to identify himself as a Canadian (he became a citizen some years
ago), a Scotsman or as British but he gets offended if you call him English.
"British" encompasses all the English, Scottish, Welsh and (Northern) Irish
people in the United Kingdom so he is British by virtue of his Scottish
birth but he is emphatically NOT English because he was not born in England.

--
Rhino

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
Please.... with my cat and my small parrot

Love you guys!

Your pets are going to be a BIG problem if you plan to bring them to
Scotland, either for a visit or to stay.

The United Kingdom, which includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland, has a very strong and longstanding fear of rabies. Until very
recently, any pet arriving in the UK (or at least dogs and cats, I'm not
sure about parrots) had to be placed in quarantine upon arrival. That
quarantine lasted SIX MONTHS and there were apparently no exceptions. So
picture your cat (and maybe your parrot) sitting in a kennel at Heathrow for
six months before you could be reunited!

Now, apparently things have loosened off somewhat within the last five or
ten years. I think you can now be excused from the quarantine provisions if
you have sufficient paperwork, including proof of rabies vaccinations and
some kind of "pet passport". I've never looked into this in detail so it
would be best to either check with a travel agent who is up-to-date on
British entry requirements or to check with the appropriate ministry of the
British government. Maybe someone here can point you to the right ministry
or a website that explains the current rules.

But please don't consider going to Scotland or the rest of the UK with your
pets without first checking out the rules or you could be letting them in
for a long and miserable separation from you.

Of course, if you leave the pets with someone and go without them, you are
subject only to the normal passport requirements for humans. That would
enable you to visit Scotland to see if you like it before relocating there.

--
Rhino

"Chakolate" wrote in message
44.170...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
:

Note my words. IT'S TOO
COLD UP THERE!


Too cold? From a page about Scotland's climate: "January and February
are the coldest months, averaging 41°F to 45°F (5°C to 7°C), and summer
has average temperatures of 66°F (19°C) during its warmest months of July
and August." The hottest months average 66 and the coldest average 41?
Sounds like paradise to me.

I hope your idea of paradise includes rain.

One of my friends visited Scotland once and it rained almost nonstop for the
two weeks that he was there. He was staying at a B&B and looked out the
window one day to find it pouring again. He asked the hostess if it always
rained so hard. She said "Rain? Och, no, it's just a wee Scottish mist!"

Now, apparently the amount of rain varies considerably depending on which
part of Scotland you are in. I think the west coast is far wetter than the
east coast, although I might have those backwards. But you should definitely
be aware that it rains there a lot before deciding to move there
permanently.

I know for a fact that some people find constant rain harder to take than
cold.

One of my friends was born in Scotland and emigrated here (Canada) when he
was 28. He much prefers the Canadian climate; he says the slightly colder
temperatures in Southern Ontario are far easier to take than the frequent
rain in his native Glasgow.

--
Rhino

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
Obviously I'm being facetious, folks. I do hope to visit there one day,
though. I have some family there. Of course they have no idea who I am,
but what the heck

And some of them might even have cats.

The Brits are famous over much of the world for being animal lovers so I
feel sure you will find many cat-lovers there.

--
Rhino

"wafflycat" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
Please.... with my cat and my small parrot

Love you guys!

Jill



Why?

Cold
Wet
Midges that eat you alive before breakfast

But the scenery is nice :-)

And the place where I was racially abused for being English...

Verbal abuse is not the only problem you face in Scotland. My friend from
Glasgow tells a rather grim joke that he says epitomizes some of the nastier
sorts of people in Glasgow.

-------------

A Jew is walking down the street in Glasgow and is jumped by a pair of
drunken Glaswegians (the adjective for natives of Glasgow) who apparently
mean to rob and beat him. One of the thugs says "So, are you a Protestant or
a Catholic?"

"Neither, " says their victim. "I'm a Jew."

"Oh, " says the other thug. "Are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew
then?".

----------------

I don't mean any disrespect to the Scottish or the people of Glasgow with
that "joke"; I've never been to Scotland and have no experience with the
country at all. But my friend grew up there and knows the area very well so
I'm just passing it on so that you know there is a darker side to Glasgow
and Scotland, just as there is to anywhere else.

--
Rhino

"Adrian A" wrote in message
...
wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
Midges that eat you alive before breakfast

Is that a mosquito?

And the place where I was racially abused for being English...

The English are a separate race from the Scots? You're kidding, yes?
I thought they were all the same race, just different tribes.
I could only tell they were different once I heard them speaking.

Granted I did detect a lot of xenophobia, but that I got from the
English for being non-English. The Scots actually gave me a pass.

Scotland, England and Wales are three countries, which along with Northern
Ireland comprise the United Kingdom.

You're using the word "country" rather loosely, aren't you?

Typically, a country has a sovereign government, signs its own treaties, has
a seat in the UN, has its own armed forces, and so forth. As far as I know,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have none of these things.

The national government is based in London and recognizes Queen Elizabeth II
as the queen of the whole UK. The British armed forces protect England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK has a seat at the UN but not
England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And so on.

I know that Tony Blair has given the Scots and Irish new "national"
assemblies and that the Northern Irish also have an assembly of their own
but none of these are true national governments in terms of their powers.

I'm certainly not denying that each of those places has its own distinctive
personality, culture and history, but I'd hate for people in this newsgroup
to get the impression that they really are fully sovereign countries in the
sense that most people outside the UK use the word....

--
Rhino

"Chakolate" wrote in message
44.170...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
:

Note my words. IT'S TOO
COLD UP THERE!


Too cold? From a page about Scotland's climate: "January and February
are the coldest months, averaging 41°F to 45°F (5°C to 7°C), and summer
has average temperatures of 66°F (19°C) during its warmest months of July
and August." The hottest months average 66 and the coldest average 41?
Sounds like paradise to me.

Chak

OK. Take no notice of me, I've only been there three times. Every day we
get weather reports on the TV for the whole of the UK. Every day it's
colder in Scotland.
Have you been to Scotland yourself?

Tweed

wrote in message
oups.com...
Adrian A wrote:
wrote:
wafflycat wrote:
Midges that eat you alive before breakfast

Is that a mosquito?

And the place where I was racially abused for being English...

The English are a separate race from the Scots? You're kidding, yes?
I thought they were all the same race, just different tribes.
I could only tell they were different once I heard them speaking.

Granted I did detect a lot of xenophobia, but that I got from the
English for being non-English. The Scots actually gave me a pass.

Scotland, England and Wales are three countries, which along with
Northern
Ireland comprise the United Kingdom.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy and Bagheera)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart.
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

That's true, of course, at least now. But the question was whether
there were racial differences or tribal ones, not geopolitical ones.
Originally they were tribes that became countries. Probably the tribes
banded together and became one super big tribe, a country. Smaller than
the tribes were the clans to use the usual term for Scotland's
sub-tribes. Clans, according to Wikipedia, are sub-groups of tribes. In
any event, the point I was trying to make, apparently unsuccessfully,
that being targeted by the Scots for being English cannot be racial
since they are both from the same race. Or am I mistaken? There is a
race of Scots and a race of English?

It's not as easy as you think. Scots hate the English, Welsh hate the
English, Irish hate the English sigh

Tweed