to think that the Scottish Highlands are in fact part of the UK mainland?

[Habbibu]

I've just ordered some spare parts for my coffee machine, and, on trying to find out more about shipping, read this: "Please note that as from today 26/01/2010 we now ONLY ship to the UK Mainland.

We no longer ship to southern or northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey,Isle of man, Scottish Highlands and Islands or anywhere outside of mainland UK.

This is due to the fact that shipping to these destinations has proved difficult and time consuming.

Please note that there are NO EXCEPTIONS to the rule, please do not E-mail us asking us about this as these mails will not be replied to."

Leaving aside the rather unfriendly and unhelpful nature of this note, plus the PITA it must be to those on the islands, since when was there a sea to cross to get to (say) Inverness? How is it so more difficult to get just that bit further up the A9? (well, yes, yes, I know, it can be a pain, but you get my point). Thankfully it doesn't affect me (though I have seen the odd place that won't deliver north of Edinburgh), but it's a massive pain for my ILs and others - who manage to get themselves up and down the road quite happily.

DH made the wry observation this morning that H&I communities used to rely really heavily on mail order - much more so than other places - but now that online shopping is so popular, H&I people are being increasingly excluded.

This has reminded me about something that happened about 12 years ago, this time someone thought Scotland was smaller than it is.

My colleague (we were in Ayr at the time) got a call from head office in England at about 5pm telling her they needed her to go to Lerwick the next day and they had booked her on the ferry. They had booked the ferry for something like 17:30 (I can't remember the exact time). It took a lot of persuasion to convince head office that it wouldn't be possible. They phoned back about 10min later to announce that the problem had been fixed and she was booked on a flight out of Aberdeen at 6pm. Head office staff went home very confused that night, my colleague went home very angry and the rest of us went home laughing.

That's great applejelly, especially coming from the metropolitan hub that is Cornwall.

I noticed that our local Dobbies sells Happy Donkey stuff. You should check whether they sell it in any branches up north and perhaps mention this thread to the management?

BTW, Waitrose lovers, brand spanking BIG waitrose opening in Newton Mearns in a couple of weeks.

Paisley needs a facelift :o.

Actually, we got lost there trying to find the Pizza Hut, and we wound up in a really nice neighbourhood.

Were we still in Paisley?

Dundee's getting a V&A. Surely that makes a Waitrose and John Lewis part of the deal?

Argyll's getting FA.

Well depends what you mean by really nice area expat If it was near Pizza Hut you could have been in Linwood, depends how far you were out your way.

''

Ach, that's nothing, you should see some of the places we've lived :o. Our P-reg Vauxhall Astra was getting all kinds of looks in this neighbourhood, we were definitely not in Kansas anymore.

But we still never found the bloody Pizza Hut! The girls were desperate for a Pizza Hut.

Is there one at Braehead? Much easier to find and park .

Paisley, I discovered last week, even has an observatory. Look. And you can gpo and look through the telescope for free too.

Perhaps Habbs needs to move to Paisley and open a coffee supplies shop, delivering to the Scottish Highlands.

There is a Pizza Hut in Braehead and over at Xscape. There is a Pizza Express there too. The Pizza Hut is at the Pheonix in Paisley near the Cinema, quite near the St James Interchange.

It was also home to the Glasgow Airport bombers! :o

Anyone give birth at RAH? It was such an enriching cultural experience. One thing I did find funny is that they stuck all the Argyll people in the same ward. It was our own little ghetto, the bastard stepchild of Scotland.

Well, parcel's here. I feel a bit bad.

How do courier hubs work? Wouldn't it make sense for couriers to swap parcels so that as many parcels as possible are on each load? And as for the 10 miles with one parcel thing - that cannot be just Scotland where that happens.

I have always wanted to know who's idea it was to put carpets in wards. It was the same at IRH too.

there was no telly! not even to pay for!

and they wouldn't let you walk round the corridors with your baby.

saying that, at least they bathed the bairns.

at ERI, they just left them all fusty.

when i had DD1, we were in there for days as i had an infection.

i had to ask someone to help me bath the poor bairn!

I'd have moved, too, Euphemia!

Ugggh, just today, some chaps were in here because we're getting GCH put in, and so of course we were blethering, and they were telling me of a house in town where a tenant murdered a man in there to install GCH, and now no one stays long in it.

Freaky deaky!

Hab, why feel guilty? It's a discriminatory and stupid policy because there are plenty of places in England and Wales that are very remote.

Did she have problems selling it Euphemia? I know someone who lives round the corner from there. It gives you the creeps when you find out someone is not how you thought they were doesn't it.