Back in Edinburgh

First thing this morning Ann took me for a walk down by the reservoir with Alfie the Beardie. I thought he might want to play with me and do some running but he didn't. He just wanted to meander along at his own pace sniffing things. So do you know what I did?....................... I found a little hole in the wire fence and squeezed myself through it so that I could have a swim in the reservoir. Alfie went mad at me. He barked and barked and barked until I came back onto the path. He goes for his walk there practically everyday and apparently squeezing through the fence and going for a swim isn't appropriate behaviour?!

Then it was into the car for the long journey back to Edinburgh. We stopped just south of the Scottish Border at Spittal Beach for me to have another play. The beach there is massive and although there were quite a few people around there was lots of room for us all. However not sure what the English rules are re how many people can meet up together (is it 6?) but there were quite a few large groups of people playing cricket, rounders and having picnics. And quite a few not social distancing in the queues on the prom for the food outlets!

Which brings us to my human's next rant!...........................

Face Book is absolutely full of pictures of people in Cornish towns and villages who are not social distancing. Ann would say that there are three reasons for this:
1 The streets in most Cornish towns/villages are so narrow that following social distancing guidelines are almost impossible and will most definitely get worse as the season progresses.
2 Holiday makers will almost certainly have arrived from larger towns/cities where they are used to a lot more people wandering around in close proximity. Ie, the difference between life in Edinburgh and life in St Ives over the last couple of weeks has been like chalk and cheese. Even after the 4th July when all the hospitality outlets opened up it still wasn't as busy as it has been in a city.  We know locals that have been panicking about the number of people in town and to us...................it's like, what people?  It's seemed really quiet.
3 Holiday makers are re-known for leaving their brains at home when they come on holiday. Lol!

................And then what usually happens on these FB posts is there's hundreds of comments from locals and tourists having a go at each other. Honestly it's just getting ridiculous. Same old, same old. Everyone knows thousands of tourists descend on Cornwall in the summer. Everyone knows that Boris has spoken and has opened up the hospitality industry. Everyone knows about social distancing and washing hands, etc, etc, etc. And everyone knows that everyone else doesn't adhere to the rules?!

So why are all these photos are popping up on FB with the same old comments, every single day..................... Boring...................  Obviously my human could just remove herself from these FB groups but actually she's quite nosey so likes to see what's going on, even though she's stopped reading most of the comments. Lol!!!

Which brings us to the next point. My human is feeling very 'ranty' tonight. What is the definition of a 'Cornish Local'? My human lived in Cornwall for more than 20 years, until last year when she decided that she would probably be spending more time in Edinburgh than she does in Cornwall. At that point she registered our Cornish House as a 'second home'  because she thought it was the correct thing to do and now has to pay more council tax on it than when she was living there (as she doesn't get the single person discount), but because it is 'officially' a second home she wasn't allowed to go there during lock down. WHY? It's our home. We live between the two. We've adhered to the rules this time but if there's another lock down we'll be going where we want to go. Totally understand that there's only 15 ICU beds in the one main hospital in Cornwall and we totally accept that a large proportion of the population is elderly and vulnerable but to be honest if second home owners are paying full council tax why shouldn't they be entitled to full council amenities? Oh and before anyone jumps on their high horse and starts ranting about holiday lets being registered as businesses and being able to claim £10,000 grants................. don't even go there. …........NO, we haven't had any grants, or in fact any income from anywhere for more than three months. My human has lived in Cornwall since 1996 and just because she is now choosing to spend about two thirds of her life in Edinburgh she shouldn't be told that she can't go to a house that she has owned since 2002???? Just saying.

OK RANT over.

PS – Now my human needs to check out the 'Scottish Rules'. She knows that she will need to purchase some more masks as masks in Scottish shops are now mandatory. However, she's totally not up to date with what the rest of the Scottish rules are. Looks like she's got a fun evening of googling ahead??!!


Happy Saturday night peeps. xxx