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Document 1386

Conversation 30: Male and female talking about Western Isles and music

Author(s): N/A

Copyright holder(s): SCOTS Project

Audio transcription

M959 So whereabouts in Edinburgh you stay anyway?
F958 Easter Road, there.
M959 Where's that?
F958 It's in Leith. //Like.//
M959 //Oh right, I thought you stayed in the city centre of Edinburgh.// //[cough]//
F958 //It is. It's like a mile away from Princes Street.//
M959 What?
F958 It's like where the Hibs stadium is.
M959 Oh right.
F958 [?]Leith town's[/?] the Easter Road bit, but.
M959 Yeah, I should have clicked on that. //[throat]//
F958 //It's like just kind o parallel to Leith Walk.// //It's a cool place to live.//
M959 //Oh.// [noise from a lighter] //So do you stay with Alistair [inaudible]?//
F958 //Yeah.//
M959 At least you're in the same place.
F958 How long have you stayed here for?
M959 Too long. Ehm, three and a half years. Don't know, be more, be four years.
F958 A long time, I've never stayed in a flat for more than a year,
M959 Or is it three years? //I can never remember. [laugh]//
F958 //I think.//
M959 [inhale] Ach, it's quite nice here in a way, well although the place is small and all that, it's actually in quite a good corner. [inhale]
F958 That's what where I live is like. It's like kind of a wee village more than part of a big city, like. Just the atmos- just the kind of the way the people are an stuff. It's really nice.
M959 An people here are like, some like, big city people but, it's just the area itself, sort of quieter, you don't feel you're stuck in the middle of the city. [cough] //[exhale]//
F958 //mm//
M959 You kinda feel safe when you go out the door at night, you can go out for a night out without worrying about being attacked [laugh] or anything like that.
F958 I don't know how safe where I am is, but it's like kind ofwhere "Trainspotting" was set. [laugh] //Yeah [laugh] but I don't know, it's, it's cleaning itself up//
M959 //Oh right, oh well.//
F958 quite a lot, like. It's really posh down by the water and stuff. //So it's nice down there.//
M959 //Mm// You reckon you'll stay there for a while?
F958 Yeah, it's definitely my favourite place, like I've lived in Morningside and Marchmont an, ehm South Clark Street. An they all felt like a, a, street in a city but this feels like //more of a//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 community feel about it, //which is nice.//
M959 //So much better like that.//
F958 It's a bit like being at home, like you recognise people on the street and stuff an. //Yeah.//
M959 //People say hello to you instead o just puttin your head down and walking past.//
F958 An I worked in a pub there so like I know a lot of kind of old men [laugh] an stuff who went drinking in the pub. So that's good as well cause they all remember me.
M959 Aye They're nicer to you as well //[laugh]//
F958 //Mm.// Some of them. //[laugh]//
M959 //[laugh] Aye, right enough, guaranteed to be grumpy old men// [?]there all day[/?]. Are you going up home for Christmas or are you just staying down?
F958 I'm going home for Christmas, and then I'm going to Barcelona for New Year.
M959 Lucky for some!
F958 [laugh] With, but I don't know, it's me an mam an dad an Anna an Graham an Alistair in a two-bedroom flat for eight days. So.
M959 Chaos.
F958 I know, I think there'll be carnage. //I'm sure we'll all grow together, but I don't know. I've never been abroad with//
M959 //[laugh]//
F958 like my kind of close family, I've only been away with my Granny and my Auntie so,
M959 Oh right. Be an experience //anyway.//
F958 //[laugh]// But ehm my wee sister's the only one who kind of, she's doing Spanish at school. None of us, the rest of us have any idea, and she doesn't talk to anyone, so we might have some. But I don't know, do they speak Spanish in Barce- or is it //like Catalan?//
M959 //Yeah.// Oh it might be Catalan.
F958 Mm, Barcelona I think it is.
M959 I think, I'm not sure, to be honest with you, my geography isn't brilliant. //I know, the north, the north of Scotland and that's aboot the height of it!//
F958 //[inaudible] [laugh]//
M959 Erm I'm not sure, I think I think if you can speak Spanish, you'll get away with it, erm but I think it's mostly Catalan.
F958 It's quite exciting like, I don't know what kinda happens for New Year there, so it might be different from
M959 Whatever it is I'm sure it'll be different from just being //completely plastered. [exhale]//
F958 //[laugh]// Mm
M959 Same faces, same as every other year. I don't have a clue what I'm gonna do at all. I go up for Christmas and come back for New Year, an just lock myself in the flat for the New Year. //[throat]//
F958 //I think that's the best thing, I've done like,// [inhale] street parties an, working an stuff ehm over New Year. I think just being with people you like with lots of alcohol [laugh] somewhere is probably the best way. //Everywhere is so busy it's just not wor-//
M959 //Yeah.// Yeah
F958 being out really, and so expensive, so. //[laugh]//
M959 //S-S- so are you taking ehm Alistair up to Uist with you first//
F958 Not for Christmas, he's going home, like he //lives in//
M959 //Oh//
F958 his parents live in Clarkston,
M959 Mmhm
F958 so, he's going there and then we're flying out on the thirtieth. An back on the sixth I think. //So, uh-huh.//
M959 //Bit hectic. Has he ever been to Uist?//
F958 Yeah, he was there last summer.
M959 Oh right.
F958 He went I was teaching at the Fèis for the first couple of days of him being there so I just left him with Granny. And he'd only br- And he'd only taken one pair o jeans with him, an it was raining, //it had been raining.//
M959 //[laugh]//
F958 An he went out for a walk, well he just went to the shop an it started raining really heavy on the way back an ehm [cough] he got soaking wet and Granny wouldn't let him keep his wet trousers on but he didn't have //any others.//
M959 //[laugh]//
F958 So she got her grey jogging bottoms out, that she uses for the gardening //and, [laugh]//
M959 //Oh,// //no way! [laugh]//
F958 //Granny's, Alistair's obviously a lot slimmer than Granny and a lot taller so they came halfway up his legs an// he had to pull them up. I came back an [laugh] didn't know what he was wearing! //It's funny, isn't it?//
M959 //[laugh]// That is a pretty good first experience of the place, isn't it?
F958 Yeah. [laugh] //No, he really liked it, he liked just kind of going out an//
M959 //Oh//
F958 just l- meeting loads of people an them buying him drinks an stuff an, people that he'd never met and then seeing the same people over the //nights and that.//
M959 //Yeah, it's// quite strange, so friendly compared to what he'd be used to, just complete strangers not really caring.
F958 I know
M959 Oh So how long have youse being going out now? It's quite a while, isn't it?
F958 Eh two and a half years. Just gone two and a half years.
M959 Uh that's a while.
F958 How about you two? you have been going out for [laugh] ages.
M959 Aye, a long time, eh I can't remember. [laugh] //Four or five years?//
F958 //That was like,// yeah that was just before Ellen went away the first time, wasn't it? That you started goin out.
M959 Yeah. It was.
F958 That's like //five years?//
M959 //Four, five, five years aye, over five years.// //It's a while.//
F958 //[laugh]// You'll be getting married soon! //[laugh]//
M959 //Nope [exhale] definitely not.//
F958 I don't really fancy it either.
M959 I don't see why people bother with it to be honest.
F958 No, I'd, I'd like, I'd kind of like to have a wedding and be the centre of attention for a day. An get loads of presents an get to wear a nice dress, but I'd probably wanna wait until I've got enough money to do it //kind o properly an not be//
M959 //Yeah, although I th- the// amount it costs now, like, I think it's something like //twenty grand or something for your average funeral it's like//
F958 //Mm// //[laugh] you just said funeral!//
M959 //I'm never going to have that amount of money.// Did I? //[laugh] Wedding, same thing!//
F958 //[laugh]// //[laugh] That's a bit dark!//
M959 //[laugh] Yeah!//
F958 [laugh] Okay I guess you //shouldn't get married then!//
M959 //Like I say,// erm.
F958 Aw
M959 They say your knife- your life's never complete until you get married and then //you're finished! [laugh]//
F958 //Mm// I really like, I don't know, I'd like to get married at home, like in the church at home, but then I don't really fancy having a reception like in Carinish Inn or //Carinish Hall or anything like that.//
M959 //[laugh] Lochmaddy Hotel.// //I know, imagine! It would be brilliant oh!//
F958 //I know, the D.I. that would be.//
M959 Everybody seems to have their reception in the D.I.
F958 Such a horrible place, it smells so bad, the car-, well I haven't been there since it got flooded actually, has chan-, have you been //there since it?//
M959 //I have not been there, last time I was in there it just stank of bleach// an lots of other stuff.
F958 Just the carpets up at the back in the public bar smell so bad. [laugh]
M959 I know, it's a horrible place. You could always have it in Westford.
F958 You what?
M959 You could always have it in Westford. //[laugh]//
F958 //Ah yes!// If I invited twenty people.
M959 Uh-huh. Don't know what's happened to that place, either the people have bought it or they're gonna sell it on again.
F958 They seem quite nice.
M959 Yeah. I think they bit off more than they could chew though. I think they were expecting a nice wee quiet village pub and not realising that ther- what they were gonna end out with. //Mm//
F958 //It's such a shame, it could be// such a nice place like, you know what I mean, if it was //done up a wee bit.//
M959 //It was kind of a hub for// erm it was kinda the social hub really, when you think of it. //Iit's where everyone goes, you know, it's?//
F958 //[?]Through[/?] that side.//
M959 An if it was done up, and all, it would be a lot nicer. You're looking forward to heading up home for Christmas, aye?
F958 Yeah, I am, I've, well, I haven't been home sin- I was home fo- for all of August actually. I ended up being, I didn't mean to but, //I was.//
M959 //[laugh]//
F958 I went to, like I was teaching at Fèis Tir an Eorna. An then I went to Ceòlas. And then had a week off and I then I was teaching at Fèis Tir a'Mhurain.
M959 Oh well.
F958 So, it was really nice, it's the longest I've been home for since I left. //It was good kind of//
M959 //Aye.//
F958 I don't know.
M959 I think I've managed a week there. Since I left.
F958 I think, I think I only managed it because I didn't intend to be there for so long.
M959 Yeah, it just creeps up on you, I suppose. Uh I suppose if you were in no rush to get back either eh?
F958 Mmhm. //No.//
M959 //You've not got, a kinda deadline to get back to work cause then it makes it a wee touch easier.// //[throat]//
F958 //I know.//
M959 Oh [?]my hands[/?]. //So you're not planning on moving south or to Glasgow, are you just gonna stay//
F958 //[inhale]// //I don't know ehm//
M959 //out Edinburgh way?//
F958 it's a wee bit, Edinburgh's really wee, like for a city.
M959 Mmhm.
F958 Like it feels, when I moved there I thought it was like the biggest place in the world, but like, I don't know, it's really small,
M959 Yeah, it is.
F958 an it's maybe gettin a wee bit too small, like, I quite fancy, I don't know, mo- moving somewhere bigger.
M959 Uh-huh, //ha- have you seen all of//
F958 //But I don't know it's such//
M959 what's there, although, although you think it's really small or whatever, have you seen everything there is to see there? //[inaudible]//
F958 //Ehm// I don't know, I think so, well I've seen a lot, like,
M959 No.
F958 it's really, like it's really really pretty, like I forget how nice it is. Today, I just like went to Princes Street at like nine in the morning an it was really sunny in //a cold kind of wintry way an//
M959 //Mm.//
F958 like, the German market's all just been set up an,
M959 Ohright mm.
F958 kind of the big wheel an that, against like the castle. An at night when during the winter when they've got the wee fairy lights on all the trees
M959 Yeah. Beats here, it's all grey buildings, skyscrapers an //people wanting aw!//
F958 //An all the new buildings are all really like obscured, kind of// //along the river an that really.//
M959 //It's daft.// [exhale] Can't complain really. [inhale]
F958 So you don't fancy moving back home then?
M959 I would, aye, //but not yet. Retiring there//
F958 //I fancy retiring there [laugh].//
M959 the same as everybody else, get a holiday home and retire there. Problem is there is so many people buying holiday homes and retiring there that //there's no houses left for anybody else to go back to!//
F958 //I know. [laugh]//
M959 Not within a reasonable price anyway. [throat] Yeah I would like to go back but not soon. There's nothing there, the place is dying, it's a pity really, [cough] no work or anything. If there was work there, it'd be, it would thrive a lot better, but eh, a week at Christmas will do me I think for another year.
F958 No, I've kinda been going during the summer an then at Christmas time as well. But, ehm.
M959 You were at that ehm, [tut] White Stripes gig, weren't you? //What did you think of it?//
F958 //Yeah, [?]how[/?]?// It was amazing. It was the third time I've seen them. //An it was probably the best.//
M959 //Aye.// It was the first time I'd seen them, I was there the night before so
F958 Were you on the //Monday night?//
M959 //J-// Aye, standing there with ma mouth open, wow! //It's amazing.//
F958 //It's incredible.// The first time I saw them was in the Carling Academy, an then I saw them in the SECC. [cough] An then back to the Carling Academy. So much better in like the smaller venue //than the SECC.//
M959 //Yeah,// //definitely.//
F958 //Cause// you had almost got tickets for that hadn't you? Did you not get them off eBay but they never came?
M959 Oh that was Ellen last time, I think in the SECC, she got tickets, [cough] but they came a day late. //Which was great.//
F958 //That's rubbish.//
M959 But erm I got tickets this time for it, couple of month in advance. //Ehm//
F958 //Yeah, I know, we got them as well.//
M959 yeah it was really really good. I really enjoyed that gig.
F958 The backdrop was amazing, it was just like, kind of you know what I mean, the big, //canopy thing at the back an//
M959 //Aye.//
F958 like, just all the little details like,
M959 Bandstands an all the little ornaments an stuff //on them, it was weird. Yeah.//
F958 //Uh-huh the stage lights were all shaped like clam shells an,// //an,//
M959 //Ah it was pretty// amazing. I didn't expect that, I expected them to be good, I didn't expect them to be that good, that was something else. //Kind of, I've taken a new interest in them now, cause I liked them anyway//
F958 //Yeah.// //Oh I loved them anyway.//
M959 //but it's, looking at it from a different angle now.// The Carling Academy is a pretty good venue anyway, so it's like you, no matter where you are in it you're close to the //front.//
F958 //Mm// I know it's good how it's kind of different stages //to stand on, like.//
M959 //Yeah.// You're not looking over the top of people's heads. I was right up at the back where the the bar area is, right up at the top and just up against the rail there.
F958 Mm. //Aye, I was just like next to the//
M959 //So you just see over the top of everybody.//
F958 sound booth, but that's what it's like. Quite near the back as well. //But.//
M959 //Aye, I was// behind that, but looking down on top of the the guy that was doing all the sound stuff.
F958 Even all the roadies an that, like usually you go to a gig //an roadies are all, like,//
M959 //[laugh] Roadies!//
F958 got big beer bellies an //beards and long straggly ponytails,//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 [laugh] but they were all immaculate an like matching suits, even all the lighting guys an //the sound guys and all that.//
M959 //Yeah, black shirts and red ties.// //I noticed that, yeah.//
F958 //[laugh] Yeah!//
M959 Oh it was something else.
F958 I think Jack White's like I don't know, I think he's, I think he's the new Jimi Hendrix.
M959 Hmm.
F958 I can't think of anyone since Jimi Hendrix that's kind of done the same thing with a guitar.
M959 Um very original and a lot of it's improvised. It's just made up there //and then a lot of//
F958 //Yeah.//
M959 it is. It's really interesting to see. I thought it would just, a lot of the sound, the music would just be ehm sound the same as ehm [cough] like the stuff they put out for the radio and CDs an stuff. I didn't realise that it would be a wee bit harder and darker, so to speak.
F958 Have you heard the first couple of like ehm "The White Stri-", "The White Stripes" and "De Stijl" like the first two albums they're a lot more kind of raw bluesy, like //than//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 than the other three. Well the other, the last two especially. //But ehm.//
M959 //Yeah.// aye, [inaudible] well, the same as everything when you get famous. //It's like everything's just//
F958 //Mmhm.//
M959 made to suit all tastes. //[cough]//
F958 //I don't know, I think, I think// I don't think that they've done that, I think people have kind of changed to suit them, rather than I mean, they're not, the whole concept of just like a guitar and drums //isn't//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 very, you know what I mean, not many people do that. //An like the way they do it.//
M959 //Aye true, aye s- simple.//
F958 I think it's amazing.
M959 More noise that your average five-piece band. It's it's weird how it's done. Very talented.
F958 He's so charismatic as well, he's cool.
M959 I'd imagine the last night would have been slightly better than the other two, but then again, maybe not, I suppose it's just their job //every night's the same//
F958 //Yeah.//
M959 to them, doesn't make that much of a difference but, [inhale] I wasn't going to buy three tickets to find out. [laugh] //[laugh]//
F958 //I know, we kind of// I know it was weird the the first night was the first one to sell out. //How, I would always want to go to the last one.//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 I don't know why, I don't know if it makes any difference but.
M959 Don't know. I tried tae get hold of tickets and they were sold out, I tried tae get hold of them, but I had to go on to eBay to buy them //but.//
F958 //Mm.//
M959 Erm, didn't have to pay too much over the odds for them. I think it was an extra fiver or something
F958 Oh.
M959 I was quite happy with it.
F958 I went to see "Harry Potter" today.
M959 I haven't seen that yet. Ellen went to see it, couple o oh no, a couple o days after it came out. But I had to go and do something else so I never made it. Any good? //What happens in it? [laugh]//
F958 //Eh//
M959 [laugh]
F958 I don't know, I'd read the book so I knew what was gonna happen //but,//
M959 //uh-huh//
F958 I, I just can't st- like I really like the films but I just can't stand Daniel Radcliffe, like the guy //who plays Harry Potter, I think he's, I think he's awful, he has//
M959 //He's supposed to be quite a bad actor and everything.//
F958 two facial expressions, like, he does this stupid crooked wee smile, or he just grinds his teeth for anything else. //An//
M959 //Yeah.// I've heard that, aye. //[throat] [laugh]//
F958 //I like Ron though I think he's funny.// //But.//
M959 //Is this film as good as the others, you've seen all the others, aye?//
F958 Yeah, but it was well it was really really long. It was a lot kind of, I don't know it's a twelve A and the others have all been //PGs.//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 An kind of they say "Piss off" and things in it [laugh], like, //it's a bit more grown up.//
M959 //Wow!//
F958 But then I think that was the whole point, like, each book kind of, becomes more grown up, like, //the language an everything in it.//
M959 //Yeah it's supposed to get darker and,// sort of more serious.
F958 Mm.
M959 I suppose, when you think she started writing those books a while ago and the fan base that she's built up's actually getting older themselves.
F958 I know, I really think that was the point of it.
M959 Idea behind it. I'll have to go and see it.
F958 It was good though I wouldn't not go and see it but, it was really, really long. //I wasn't//
M959 //Aye.//
F958 really prepared for that.
M959 Might just get it on DVD when it comes out and just sit in the house. [laugh]
F958 It's really good as well there's so many kind of more famous people each time, like now there's well, I don't know, they're not hugely famous, but I, they're kind of some of my favourite actors in it, like //Brendan Gleeson, you know like?//
M959 //Oh right, aye.//
F958 He's got a big part in it an //David Tennant, you know the new Doctor Who?//
M959 //Aye.// //Is he in it too?//
F958 //I think he's brilliant, like, did you watch "Casanova"?//
M959 No I never watched "Casanova" //at all but,//
F958 //Oh I think he's really, really good.//
M959 Er no, I was a bit disappointed when I heard he was going to be the new Doctor Who cause I really like ah Christopher, like, Eccleston he's the Doctor Who.
F958 I never saw any of them but, he's from Bathgate, David Tennant, I didn't know that. //Everything I've seen him in//
M959 //Really?//
F958 he's kind of had a different accent on but, well actually he's on some ITV thing just now an he's got a Scottish accent, but he kinda looks like he's playing a psycho in it so,
M959 Oh well. //A Scotsman//
F958 //doing the whole// //Trevor from "Eastenders" thing an like//
M959 //Psycho! [laugh]// [laugh] Och aye.
F958 Well I think he's just like really likeable, like he's got a really kind of winning smile or something. //He's not even that good-looking but he just,//
M959 //Mmhm.// See I've not seen him in a lot at all. [inhale] Yeah, there's not much to do really apart from go and watch films when you think about it, go to the pub and go and watch films. I haven't found anything else to do in the city apart from that.
F958 [laugh] You're not trying very hard then, what about like I don't know, you went to see a band.
M959 Yeah but there's nothing you can do every week.
F958 I do that every night.
M959 Oh lucky for some!
F958 [laugh]
M959 Um I wish I could but,
F958 Well no not like big bands every night. //I go and see big bands quite often but//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 that's why I could never live at home probably, cause I like just, music's like my main thing. And it would be so gutting reading like NME every week //and seeing all these//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 gig listings and not being able to go to them.
M959 Uh-huh. //I'm, I'm kind of new to it,//
F958 //It would be horrible.//
M959 something I've mm never really done before but the few I've been to I've really enjoyed so.
F958 I think, I, I just don't think you can really beat the feeling of just like going to see a band you really like //and then them playing a fantastic gig.//
M959 //Yeah.// Then you've got other problems, you've got to wait for it, cause you know it's coming up, you buy your tickets then you've got to wait three month //for it, oh that's just.//
F958 //I know, but I think// it's good as well because [cough] it's not kind of as expen- well, I don't know, a lot of bands I like are quite small. //But like even//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 like the White Stripes, what were the tickets for that like twenty-five pounds. //But//
M959 //It's not a lot really.//
F958 if you buy that in advance and then you go on the night and then, it's just like a night out, you know what I mean?
M959 Yeah, that's true.
F958 But you get so much more out of it. //[laugh]//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 I think it's great.
M959 Makes a change than just wasting it down the pub I suppose. //[cough]//
F958 //But ehm Alistair like,// plays in, it's kind of most nights that we're not working an even I play sometimes, but I'm not very good. [laugh] //I just play open mics but,//
M959 //Oh right.//
F958 he pla- like he, kind of has regular gigs an //gets paid for them and stuff.//
M959 //So the guitar he plays then?//
F958 Yeah and sings, like, just by himself but,
M959 Oh right. Take it he's pretty good then if he's.
F958 Yeah, he is quite good.
M959 Is he not in a band or anything?
F958 No he just likes just kind of not having to rely on anyone else, //so or anyone rely on him.//
M959 //[inhale] Yeah.//
F958 So he just does his own thing like that.
M959 Well you should get into busking, make some money.
F958 [laugh] He doesn't get up early enough.
M959 Oh well, there's that. This time o year you don't wanna be doing it anyway, frozen. [laugh]
F958 I know.
M959 vocal desc="Tut"/> anyway.
F958 During the festival I would imagine that would be really good money, just, //I know.//
M959 //Aye with the amount of people loitering around.//
F958 I keep trying to get Anna to come an like play her fiddle cause she's really good an //she's really young so//
M959 //Aye.// //[laugh] It would be aye!//
F958 //I think it would be a great [laugh] money-making thing just put her on a corner on the Royal Mile,// //playing like all her tunes an I think//
M959 //[laugh]// //Aye, cause it is something different, an people always give money to young people.//
F958 //I don't know I think.// Yeah, I know just put a kilt on her an
M959 Yeah!
F958 I think she'd get loads of money.
M959 Worth a try next time //she's down.//
F958 //She wouldn't do it though.// //[laugh]//
M959 //No?// //Ach.//
F958 //She's too shy.// No sh-I think she would do it, now.
M959 Wait till she leaves Uist and comes down to the big cities to go to Uni or whatever. //[laugh]//
F958 //She has left Uist.//
M959 Has she?
F958 [car horn] She's at school in Plockton. She's been there for a year. //Well this is her second year.//
M959 //In Plockton?//
F958 There's like a a Tradition- no National Centre for Traditional Music, [car horn] or something, Oh! School of Excellence for Traditional Music. //And it's in Plockton.//
M959 //Oh right.// //Ah.//
F958 //And so she// went away last year, and she like, she kind of like, they just like go to Plockton High School but then, it's also, they also kind of do, loads of music, like where they would do like short //courses and//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 after school an that they're kinda filled up doing that. There's about thirty of them I think. An eh so she'll be, well hopefully be there until she finishes sixth year and then that's like a r- an amazing platform for kind of,
M959 Yeah.
F958 to go on for other things she's //okay.//
M959 //So she's just boarding over there in term time?//
F958 Yeah.
M959 Oh right.
F958 And she eh like she gets kind of long weekends and stuff to go home. Cause it's not like, I mean Kyle's only //a few miles away in the car and then//
M959 //Mmhm.// //Th- through Skye aye?//
F958 //you know like she just gets the bus and the ferry home.//
M959 It's not that far away really when you think //about it's//
F958 //No.//
M959 beats [inaudible]. //[laugh]//
F958 //But ehm I know, I, I'm// //kind of, apparently it's a really nice school an,//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 Ehm the music part of it's really good like they do they play, they've played in loads of places like, she's she played in the Scottish Parliament recently, and on Saturday there's like this like tradi- er awards for Traditional music, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards or something,
M959 Aye.
F958 traditional music an she's playing at that as well, well like with one of the people from her school.
M959 Sounds like she's getting a good start anyway. //Might go places.//
F958 //And it, it's so good for her it's like// bringing her out of her shell loads as well.
M959 Yeah, good to see a bit of the world [laugh] but then again being in Plockton, I take it you've been to Plockton? //There's nothing there! [laugh]//
F958 //Mm. [laugh]// I know but, I think it's, it's maybe more, I don't know, where I, like, //in [?]Tigh a' Gearraidh[/?] like obviously like Ellen was//
M959 //Mmhm.//
F958 my closest friend and //she was like,//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 a couple of miles away so it's not like I could just //go over and see her whenever, like it//
M959 //That's right, yeah.//
F958 I kind of had to walk or cycle most of the time so. It's quite far but ehm I mean, I would love, I would have loved to have gone to boarding school when I //was young,//
M959 //Yeah.//
F958 just the whole idea [laugh] of it just like //living//
M959 //Suppose.//
F958 with your friends an kind of having midnight parties and stuff, like, it would have been brilliant. //[laugh]//
M959 //Wonder if it works that way though?// //[laugh]//
F958 //Everything that I want though, Anna got, I wanted braces,// and went to get my teeth seen and was told that my jaw would get bigger and I didn't need braces or teeth out or anything. So Anna go the braces anyway. //Or I don't know if she actually got them in the end, but she was meant to get them, and then I wanted glasses.//
M959 //mmhm// //[laugh]//
F958 //Cause,// I thought that I looked good with glasses on so I got my eyes tested, and mam got Anna's eyes tested at the same time just in case, an Anna needed glasses but I didn't, and now Anna's got these really nice thick-rimmed glasses that I //would love to wear but I have no need//
M959 //[laugh]// //[laugh] Yeah.//
F958 //for so nobody will buy them for me.// An then, I wanted to go to boarding school an had no skills which required me to be sent to boarding //school to kind of develop, but,//
M959 //Unfair.//
F958 Anna was amazing at the fiddle so she got sent to boarding school. //And,//
M959 //When you said braces// I just had this picture of like the //trouser braces, you know, big red ones!//
F958 //Uh-huh.//
M959 [laugh]
F958 No, I don't know why I wanted braces and glasses [laugh]and boarding school, I'd probably be pretty miserable //if I got them, but//
M959 //Yeah!// It's the exact opposite of what everybody else wants! Oh well. //Nowt wrong with being a wee bit individual.//
F958 //Just trying to be different.//
M959 [laugh] Change from the norm.

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APA Style:

Conversation 30: Male and female talking about Western Isles and music. 2024. In The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 20 April 2024, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1386.

MLA Style:

"Conversation 30: Male and female talking about Western Isles and music." The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2024. Web. 20 April 2024. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1386.

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Information about Document 1386

Conversation 30: Male and female talking about Western Isles and music

Audio

Audio audience

Adults (18+)
For gender Mixed
Audience size 2

Audio awareness & spontaneity

Speaker awareness Aware
Degree of spontaneity Spontaneous
Special circumstances surrounding speech Participants asked to chat to each other informally

Audio footage information

Year of recording 2005
Recording person id 746
Size (min) 26
Size (mb) 128

Audio setting

Private/personal
Recording venue In the flat of one of the participants
Geographic location of speech Glasgow

Audio relationship between recorder/interviewer and speakers

Family members or other close relationship
Friend
Speakers knew each other Yes

Audio speaker relationships

Known via mutual acquaintance

Audio transcription information

Transcriber id 689
Year of transcription 2006
Year material recorded 2005
Word count 5392

Audio type

Conversation

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 958
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1980
Educational attainment Highers/A-levels
Age left school 18
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Bartender
Place of birth Inverness
Region of birth Inverness
Birthplace CSD dialect area Inv
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Edinburgh
Region of residence Midlothian
Residence CSD dialect area midLoth
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Engineer
Father's place of birth Bovington Camp
Father's region of birth Dorset
Father's country of birth England
Mother's occupation Primary Head Teacher
Mother's place of birth Glasgow
Mother's region of birth Glasgow
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes All circumstances
French Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic Yes Yes Yes Yes All circumstances
Swedish Yes Yes Yes Yes

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 959
Gender Male
Decade of birth 1970
Educational attainment College
Age left school 16
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation CCTV engineer
Place of birth North Uist
Region of birth Western Isles
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Glasgow
Region of residence Glasgow
Residence CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Joiner
Father's place of birth North Uist
Father's region of birth Western Isles
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Factory worker
Mother's place of birth North Uist
Mother's region of birth Western Isles
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic Yes Yes Yes Yes At home

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