We’re delighted to say that our new app is selling like the proverbial hotcakes. Thank you everyone for supporting us – and if you have missed out click here.
To celebrate, we’re updating the app-exclusive visual tour map with new photos (like these lovely daffodils) and a new class of marker – videos. The first video we’re including are shorts that we have already posted, but make sure you keep an eye on the map as we’re intending to load more and more content!
… and of course we are still adding content and material, but finally dear old Apple have given the go-ahead for our app, which is on the iTunes store as I type.
To download one or the other for a nominal fee, please go to our app page here.
The app brings news, photos, video and tweets directly to hand, with tour booking, audio tours, virtual tours and the tour calendar all included. We’ve also shoe-horned the shop in to enable easy tartan purchasing, as well as more details about how to reach us, how to save money on your bills and contribute to the restoration at the same time, how to locate your plot and how to find our geocache (The Laird’s Purse).
We’re now looking at a tablet app – a completely different challenge!
Sometimes it takes a new eye to see a new angle in a new season to really show how wonderful this place looks. Alex, TWTC’s intern, took these wonderful panoramic images on Saturday …
Tipsy Towers is a Murder Mystery tribute to one of the UK’s most infamous 2-season, 12-show TV comedic masterpieces from the 70s. Starring John Cleese and Prunella Scales, Fawlty Towers has a legendary status and a huge fan-base. TWTC’s version recreates the atmosphere and hilarity of the original in an actual hotel and makes it a sublimely funny murder …
I made this trailer as a tribute to the tribute and it has great performances from Karen, Sadie, Andy, Rebecca as well as the Audience. Camera, editing and production was all down to me of course, and I am very happy with the result.
Incidentally, the bit I was amazed to find I got a real kick out of doing was the incidental music, written on an app called Figure – the software was developed by the Swedish group Propellerhead and is a joy to use.
Here’s the vid:
Well, we got tired of waiting and being restrained and tonight have pushed the big red “Go Live” button on our Shopify and Facebook stores which are presently in beta testing – actually its more of unchecking a password protection check box, but you get the idea. All our favourite Lairds and Ladies on FB can buy our titles and merchandise directly on Facebook as well as at our superb new Shopify store here.
In fact there’s a great discount on the Shopify store, as well as some delightful products and new payment methods – we can now take CCs independently of Paypal (“Hurrah!” I hear some of you shout).
By the end of the month the old iteration of ScottishLaird.com will be sidelined and the Shopify store will be our main online outlet. Exciting times!
Here’s a screen grab of the FB store, and above is a banner from the Shopify store …
Here are a couple of images of one of the products we are developing. This one is for a new decorative title which will only be available for the folks who visit us – it has been requested so many times that we’ve finally found time (and inspiration) to get the project going. This title will be available nowhere else … !
And now you’ll be asking what is New Product #1 – and that is a tip-top secret … we’re hoping to launch in the next 6-8 weeks, but more than that we’re not able to say!
I’ve just spent three-quarters of an hour reading the Church of England’s (CofE) letter “Who is my neighbour?”, and what struck me most forcefully was how many of the CofE’s recommendations were embodied in the debate around the referendum last year – whichever way you voted – in direct contrast to the way the General Election seems to be panning out.
In its conclusions the CofE recommends:
Halting and reversing the accumulation of power and wealth in fewer and fewer hands, whether those of the state, corporations or individuals.
Involving people at a deeper level in the decisions that affect them most.
Recognising the distinctive communities, whether defined by geography, religion or culture, which make up the nation and enabling all to thrive and participate together.
Treating the electorate as people with roots, commitments and traditions and addressing us all in terms of the common good and not just as self-interested consumers.
Demonstrating that the weak, the dependent, the sick, the aged and the vulnerable are persons of equal value to everybody else.
Offering the electorate a grown up debate about Britain’s place in the world order and the possibilities and obligations that entails.
Always enjoy designing posters for TWTC, especially when its for the company’s new tour, this week visiting Norfolk and Suffolk, and later in the year Wales. Both Basil and Dorothy will get lots of outings and introduce the good “folks” to a new brand of form of gently interactive theatre – well aside from being harangued by Basil Fawlty …
The top shot is in Glendaruel during a performance of A Wiz Around Oz
Another one of those thought-provoking ecosystem observations, this time from Ireland, which if taken up could see the grey tree rats exiled from these islands altogether. I kid you not!
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/30/how-to-eradicate-grey-squirrels-without-firing-a-shot-pine-martens
Something perhaps to consider and debate with the community forest at Stronafian …
Should it be Grey or Gray – given the source of these pests? I am not sure …
Not sure we need to say much more, except that our sensational selection of six Scottish chocolates were made as a special commission for us by the excellent Caramiche Chocolatiers who can be found in Dunoon in a gorgeous haze of chocolateness … Chocolates helping restore a castle in Scotland – wonderful!
There’s the Dunans Dram, the Castle Cranachan, Wild River Raspberry, Highland Honeybee, the Laird’s Retreat and the Lady’s Secret …
Now at our website, ScottishLaird.com, but hurry, we have only very limited stocks!
