She's back!
It did my heart good to open the Daily Express and see the smiling face of Dr Mary Fortune peeking out from between its pages, hailed by the columnist Gavin Docherty - that man of no mean comment when he has it in for the charlatans of showbiz - as someone for whom he has a particular soft spot.
For her, he has only the best of comments.
She's back on our screens and does more to promote Scotland as a country worth considering as a welcoming destination than VisitScotland's expensive marketing, if we believe all we are told about the deficiencies of our main marketing agency when it comes to selling Scotland at home and abroad.
Industry event
It was with that complaint in mind I spoke to the chairman of VisitScotland, Dr Michael Cantlay, in essence to ask: is it with you, or with us, that the fault lies when there is this huge belief that our area is not getting the attention we feel it deserves?
Is our product unable to meet the requirements of today's demanding visitors, be it leisure or business?
Or is VisitScotland not getting to grips with marketing this diverse and fascinating chunk of Scotland that intrigues and captivates all who finally find us.
His response was instantaneous. Set it up, and I'll come and meet the businesses, take it forward from there.
So, with my Federation of Small Businesses hat on, I set about organising an industry event. If the businesses don't turn up to take advantage of this opportunity, I'll eat that hat!
Put Thursday, 11th November, in your diaries, Mackay's Hotel, Wick, a 10.30am start, when you will have the opportunity to bring your concerns to the very people you accuse of not getting it right.
Invitations will come out through various means, allowing you to register for a place. Go for it.
Face to face
You can understand why I want to bring the businesses and VisitScotland together when you read in your Northern Times one week the distressing experience of a business that has lost all faith in VisitScotland; and the next week you read of the work put out by VisitScotland in partnership with Highland Council in its latest direct mail campaign to more than 50,000 households, showcasing Sutherland along with other attractions.
Only by meeting and working together can we build our product so that this area will become a destination to demand the attention of a market that can only know of our existence if we work along with those who have the means and the skills to reach the far corners of the earth.
Surely that should be VisitScotland, reliant as they are on government funding as much as that ploughed in through your own marketing budgets. Much of VisitScotland funding comes at the discretion of Highland Council.We have to get our message across to them all. November 11th will give you that face-to-face chance.
A puzzling ptance
I'm at a loss to understand why Julia, a regular visitor to our area, in the name of retaining our historical landscape, can object to a local couple building a single-storey home in their own large park, above which are other homesteads.
If we were all stymied by that attitude there wouldn't be much of a place to visit, other than the historical landscape!
Visitors matter to the economic and social welfare of a community, and a community matters to visitors. When people stay for part of their holiday in their chosen area, the local ambience means as much as the historical landscape. People enjoy a blended community, not one where new homes are viewed with suspicion and objections.
Melvich Community Council believes this proposed build will ruin views for locals and visitors alike.
My home looks directly on to Bighouse Park and I would sooner see the progression of another home rather than an empty whin-encroached field.
Visitors were delighted to walk the roads and paths of the Bighouse landscape without the need for access to Bighouse Park, or the sheep-filled fields next door. There were plenty of walking opportunities then as there are now, and that should not change. The gate was certainly opened at times, allowing Kathleen's horse to hightail it. I know because, having horses of my own, I was called to catch the animal when the Wares were at work, leading to a need to lock the gate.
Taking a stance against the progress of another within the confines of a village requires conscientious thought, whether from a resident or a visitor, and due diligence from a community council raising an objection on behalf of the people it serves, leaving no room whatsoever for doubt. Its stance should be representative and supportable.
And finally
I am so annoyed at myself - yeah, I know, there's others annoyed at me now too, but that's life. I'm annoyed because I had such a laugh when I least felt like laughing, and thought: I could share that with you, but I've forgotten half the punchline!
Driving to a book talk, after a particularly difficult meeting, I had to give a humorous talk on my writing, but the mood was not there. However, listening to a radio programme about inappropriate tunes, I was reminded of my sister and her husband's silver wedding celebration. She sang him a lovely appropriate song. He was persuaded to respond, and, under duress, flung open his arms and came out with "Please release me, let me go!" He swore it was the first song he thought of and it was not meant literally. The memory lightened my mood.
Then I laughed out loud when a minister came on the programme remembering the time he conducted a funeral service with a special song requested by the family - and I've forgotten the title, but in it was the word Remember. However, his assistant misheard, and the coffin left the church to the strains of Return to Sender!
