Furniture Church and Pets Rule

I guess that could be the ideal title or headline to catch most people’s attention in any newspapers. It certainly caught my attention, that is, the fact that it is so, and not the headline itself. This past Thursday, 7 April 2010, I needed to go to what is known here as Job Centre Plus. Normally this is where people go seeking employment, but in my case it was to have an interview for my application for a National Insurance Number. Most of the forms and documents can of course be completed and sent in via post, fax or email, but humans having created the systems that they have, have also devised ways of getting around these systems. Hence, as with pension, disability, and unemployment these days, there comes a time when the authorities want to see the person in body, and to put it bluntly “to verify that you actually exist” and are still alive.

The nearest such centre for us on the Isle of Arran is at Saltcoats, which is on the mainland. Thus this was also the very first time in almost six months that I left the island and took the ferry back to Ardrosan Harbour. From there it is short maybe three mile walk to the main shopping area of Saltcoats, and where the Job Centre Plus is also found. Along the way I passed a typical beach as one would find in South Africa anywhere along the coast, except I thought this beach was really a waste of a beach. Who in their right mind would go to the beach with the temperatures here being what they are? And even if you went there, it is doubtful if anybody would want to go for a swim. The sun is certainly not strong enough to do anything much in the line of even starting a sun tan, but that is also why there are a fair amount of tanning studios about.

Not wanting to be late for this very important appointment for me, which already took close on ten weeks to set up, I first established the exact location of the offices, before proceeding to have a look at the shops as I was half an hour early. While doing so I was ‘comforted’ to know that crime does exist in Scotland as well, in the sense that somebody had obviously not too long ago that very morning gained access to a chemist through the front door by means of a paving stone. And though that was the very first and only incidence of crime I have experienced since leaving South Africa, I am told it does happen more frequently on the mainland, but it is very seldom violent crime, and even in this instance was most likely perpetrated by some junky desperately in need of drugs.

It is an almost one-hour ferry ride from the island back to the mainland, and it was a real excursion for me, not only hardly having had any exposure to society or much noise and traffic, not that even here there was much traffic or noise, but it was certainly considerably more busy and lively than on the island. And then obviously there are also all the extra people. On Arran there is an average regular population of around 5 000, which I am told during the tourist season or summer months, starting round about now, increases to around 25 000. The chances of my normally meeting even five percent of Arran’s population in a year is fairly slim, while in Saltcoats I easily came across two or three thousand people throughout the course of the day.

Saltcoats is essentially one of the less affluent areas of Scotland, with high unemployment and accordingly high very young pregnant women, and men with too much time on their hands. According to this one would think that they do not have too much spare cash to spend either, yet walking along the shops gave me a different experience. It is a regular little town with most amenities, at least compared to Bronkhorstspruit where I had lived my previous ten years. In Saltcoats there is an abundance and variety of shops, but with some startling phenomena, or observations by myself. Most of the churches have been converted in to shops or businesses (see two of my photos). In the one instance I spoke with the young sales woman inside, and she told me she quite regularly has people walking in saying that they were married in that church, or they got christened there, and the likes. So, churches are out, but shopping is in. The most prevalent shop I came across and I recall counting about eight, though I may have missed one or two, are pet shops. Plus, if my memory serves me, two pouch or pet grooming parlours. Thus pets are well catered for.  Next most popular or prevalent were stores with baby things, and ‘wedding boutiques’. Very closely followed by photographers, who were also much in evidence.

I assume for anybody living there they do not notice these things, but as an outsider, being there for the very first time, naturally some things stand out. Just as when I for the very first time drove through Bronkhorstspruit about fifteen years ago, I was stunned by the huge number of funeral parlours and burial homes. Naturally the one place which always makes money, regardless of how much unemployment there is, are bars and pubs, and gambling salons or horse racing and betting venues. They are inevitably always well frequented. And finally there is an abundance of charity shops, though they are not charity shops as I know them from South Africa. Possibly every third or fourth shop, which from the outside looks like any other clothes boutique, and even when you walk in it has the look and feel of an ordinary clothing shop, turns out to be run by one or other charity, and the clothes are invariably fairly cheaply priced.

Just because the clothes, books, CDs and the likes are cheaply priced does not mean that they are shabby, nor necessarily that the quality is cheap. It appears that there are people out there, obviously people with more money than sense, who will not wear a pair of jeans  for more maybe two or three months. Nor most of their other garments for that matter. The books and CDs etc. were less worth looking at, but I ‘picked up’ a decent pair of jeans for £4.99, and two long-sleeved T-shirts for £2.00 each. Not only is this possibly the best fitting pair of denims I have had in a very long time, but it certainly looks the same, if not better, than the customary pre-worn-look denims most people pay a lot of money for. And the quality of material is really exceptional. I had ordered other clothes on-line, but with pants it is always a bit of an iffy thing as far as size goes, as I discovered while still trying to obtain a pair of cycling tights. But maybe more of that saga another time – for now back to my excursion in Saltcoats.

I was also hoping to find some decent priced roller blinds, as with the changing angle and duration of the sun the afternoons have become somewhat of a challenge in my cabin as far as reading and computer work goes. It turns out that even the Pakistani-run cheap-price stores are not really all that much cheaper when it comes to roller blinds or similar window coverings. And the hardware stores do not even stock them, but they advised me that within about a ten minute walk I would find a place called B&Q who make awnings, and if they could not make me the blinds to size, they could probably sell me some canvass, which I will most likely end up with in any event, and then make a makeshift kind or roller blind for the windows myself.

I am not sure if the woman in the hardware store is a long-distance runner, or what? After walking briskly for about fifteen minutes in the given direction I wisely thought I should check that I am on the right path (and who says men don’t ask for directions, hey?) to find out that I was indeed going in the right direction. When I then proceeded to ask the guy how much further it was, it assured me not more than five minutes by bus. BY BUS??? My ferry was leaving in forty-five minutes, and that was now another about eight kilometres in the opposite direction. Yeah, so I gave that one up as a bad idea and did catch a bus, but straight back to the harbour. That is one of the really wonderful things in Europe which I have always appreciated, the public transport system. There is almost always either a train, a bus, or both, going in the general direction of most places you may want to go to. And even if you do not want to take a bus or train, it is generally quite safe to walk on your own. The freedom of walking anywhere in the town, in the streets or harbour, and not to have to unnecessarily worry about being attacked or robbed is so liberating and glorious.

As with most cities I have travelled to in Europe, Guatemala, Taiwan, Malaysia, even Botswana, I am always struck by how clean the streets are. In parts of Botswana it is perhaps pushing it a bit, but in Saltcoats the streets were practically gleaming. Obviously you find the odd piece of paper or cigarette butt lying around, but on the whole, especially when compared to Johannesburg, Pretoria, or even Bronkhorstspruit, they were stunningly clean. In addition there are guys walking around to sweep the streets and pavements, and to pick up an litter which somebody may inadvertently have thrown on the ground (none of that alleged employment creating nonsense here), but … they are actually walking around, not standing or sitting still somewhere talking to one another, and they are actively doing their work, not admiring the rubbish lying on the ground while idly picking their noses.

I also learnt on this excursion to not continue trying to get a signal if the signal is known to be weak, but to rather wait until I am where I know there is the signal is strong, and thus save the mobile battery life for more useful things. Because unnecessarily trying to find a signal, or trying to log on to a very weak signal, wastes an immense amount of power of the battery unnecessarily. And thus the final comment I have to make concerns a notice on the ferry which sadly I could not take a picture of because the battery of my mobile phone had gone flat, but which I shall photograph next time. The sign read: “Parents are kindly requested for the benefit of all guests to ensure that their children do not run around the ship.” I may have the exact wording slightly wrong, but the gist remains the same. And it struck me that if their children really did manage to run around the ship, then they would be miracle children, as they would have perfected the art of walking on water. See what the church dilemma has done to me now? At best they could be swimming around the ship, but surely not running around it? I assume what they were getting at was to not run around on the ship. Well, how sure can I already be?

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