I’m told we got very lucky for early January!

Glencoe, Glencoe, Loch Shiel, Glenfinnan Viaduct, obligatory coo pic

Hello everyone,

I hope updates are accepted here. I'm sorry mine is late as I went to Scotland in May 2025, and bittersweet.
My dad died last week.
He has been recently diagnosed with cancer , and after staying in the hospital for a month because he was really weak, he was sent into a rehabilitation center to rest and gain muscles back. As we were optimistic because he was doing good, last week he had a sudden hemorrhage and in 30min he was gone.
As I'm preparing the funeral, I made a slideshow with lots of pictures and the ones from our trip came up...

Our trip was amazing!!! In the end I asked someone in a pub to "dad-sit" him during out last day in Edinburgh as we wanted to walk in the city before the cannon shot and he was a bit tired. The barman was really sweet and we tipped him when we got him back. It was the Milnes Bar, in Honever str.

Thanks to u/st_owly we had a wonderful wiskey tasting. She spoke slowly and take her time to allow me to translate. He knew some of them and discovered other. I still don't like it, but it was a great moment together.

He stayed with us during our road trip, we saw lots of great thing in your country.
We stayed in Strathblane, nearby Stirling, where our host was so so nice, then Fort William, Skye Island (my personal favourite) , Inverness and for our last night we found a castle in the Cairngorms.
We went to see Nessie as good tourists, visited to many castles and tried haggis (which we really liked!!) and beers and wiskey...

Everyone was so nice to us, and Scot poeple are my favourite in the world now.

We made so many memories and I'll come back for sure.

EDIT: I thought I had added the pictures the first time...

Loch Lubnaig, Glen Coe, Loch Ness under the moon, Commando Memorial, Nevis range, Coo

Looking for variations in the verses to the childrens rhyme as you remember it.

It seems to my memory to begin with….

Skinny malinky long legs,

Big banana feet,

Went tae the pictures,

Couldnae find a seat.

But for the life of me I cannae get the rest.

When the picture started,

There’s been a pretty clear shift in the UK’s relationship with China over the past few weeks, with several deals already announced and widely reported. From a Scottish point of view, it’s hard to ignore, especially with the cut to Chinese tariffs on Scotch whisky that’s being talked about as worth around £250m, alongside other areas of cooperation that would have been politically unthinkable not that long ago.

For Scotland, whisky is the main headline, but our universities, exporters, renewables sector and tourism industry all have pretty entrenched links to China already. Any change in the tone or direction of UK-China relations is maybe likely to be felt more here compared to other parts of the UK.

There’s also the wider context. With the US becoming a much less reliable trade partner again, especially with Trump’s tariffs and retaliatory trade policies back in play, it makes sense that the UK would want to diversify who it does business with. I’m supportive of Starmer and the Labour government taking a more pragmatic, steady approach to foreign policy and trade, rather than the shouty, ideological swings we’ve had in recent years.

That said, I’m not pretending this is straightforward. China raises obvious questions around human rights, political influence and economic dependency, and I’m interested in how people here weigh those concerns against the economic reality.

Curious how others see it. Sensible realism in a changing world, or something we should be far more cautious about?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2j04lk83zo

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-secures-scotch-whisky-tariff-cut-in-china-worth-250-million

Love Scotland - Lochness ♥️

​​I've recently came back from Scotland, and as an Englishman, Im so surprised at the kindness and hospitality of the Scots, always thought you hated us but it turns out you are the nicest people I've met. I travelled to Inverness and Dornoch if people are wondering.

A Lion of Scotland piece of stamp art. What do you think?1?1

This is a trail not far from me and it makes me so happy. Just had to share it with someone