Hello there! I am just visiting Scotland from Canada (been here 4 days and am here for another 3). It has been an incredible time, and the scenery is on another level and that is from someone who hasn’t even been into the Highlands anyway (not properly). I drove up from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, going through Fife through into Dundee/Angus/southern Aberdeenshire. I adore the Fife landscape. After Aberdeen up to Thurso, whereby I got the ferry over to Orkney where I am as I write this. On the way to Thurso I stopped off in Elgin. I am not the observant type, but aside from the absolutelt ‘lovely’ nature/friendliness of the Scottish people, one can’t help but notice the difference in height! I say that because people in Moray/Caithness/Orkney seems noticeably taller than those on the east coast, despite that area being the wealthiest region of Scotland. Seriously, the folks up here could give the Scandis/Dutch a run for their money. The average woman here seems to be 5’7/5’8”. But then I read threads where people are talking about Scots NOT being very tall/being rather short, but I guess no-one has come up here! Do you ‘native’ Scottish users agree with me? Also, is ‘Scots’ dying out because up here everyone just says ‘little’ and ‘yes’ rather than ‘wee’ or ‘aye’?

I took a dna test and saw I’m 6% Scottish, and my dad is 12%. On my dad’s side a lot of his family have the Dickson surname and I saw online that might be a clan name. Could this possibly be where the Scottish comes from in our DNA. We are also going to Scotland soon and thought it would be cool to know this

I’m in Scotland for a few years of uni and was wanting to apply for a job as a summer camp leader. I’m usually always wearing long sleeves for formal events or interviews but I imagine if I get a job as a summer camp leader I’d be wearing short sleeve tops and shorts. I have a bunch of tattoos but nothing that would be deemed offensive or inappropriate. Do I need to declare that I have tattoos during an interview?

Hello everyone! I am thinking of moving to Scotland for work and although I’m a fluent English speaker, I want to learn Scots or maybe even Scottish Gaelic. For the context, I will probably live in Edinburgh but am willing to travel to other cities. Will people be okay with practicing Scots with me and will they generally speak it? What about the service industry like restaurants? Is it okay if I try to order food in Scots? Thanks in advance!

First time dad, was quite hopeful about the baby box having read about it when it was first introduced. My brother never bothered with it either time he had a baby and I can't think why.

They are genuinely amazing bits of kit. Filled to the brim with so much useful stuff, especially the thermometer and the fact that it doubles as a bed too, is quite remarkable. If you are expecting or know someone who is, make sure they sign up.

Has anyone had any experience of this? A few new build schemes where I live are offering this, and it looks so tempting, but I’ve read a few things online and I’m not certain. Can anyone offer their own experience?

I’ve already got a nursing degree from Napier (did not do honours) funded by an NHS bursary as I was working for the NHS at the time. Am I correct in thinking SAAS offer four years of funding to undergraduates?

I want to do another degree in Anthropology and hoping I can secure SAAS funding for this. Does anyone have any experience doing this? Am I pushing my luck hoping to get 2 uni degrees for free?

TY

Hello. I am finding it difficult to navigate the healthcare system here in Scotland. I've been here for just over a year from America to close the gap in a long distance relationship of 5 years. Obviously America's healthcare system is completely different than the NHS and I'm just trying to get some general advice as my wife doesn't have many issues that ever require a specialist aside from one requiring a gynocologist and all I know is that the NHS Scot is not in good shape with that with a waiting time of 80+ weeks.

I'm not too concerned about waiting times myself, I'm just not really sure who handles what here in Scotland. For context, the last six years of my life seemingly out of nowhere without any brain injury, trauma, anything significant happening, I started sleeping less and less. I was only 29-30 at the time and I really didn't think anything of it as sleep often fluctuates. At any rate, this evolved into a serious sleep disorder. On average after doing a sleep log for 30 days straight. I have found that I sleep approximately 2-6 hours at a time and often times require two to three sleep periods per 24 hours.

Now I do have sleep apnea, but that has been managed well in the states and now that I was able to get an appointment at the Royal and get a UK machine and have had my first follow up, they say it's well managed as well so we've sort of crossed that off the list. They gave me a rather comprehensive list of blood tests to provide my GP as if to sort of say, this is the end of the line with us, you'll have to figure it out. Blood tests were ran, and hormone levels were low. The test was repeated right before I switched surgeries, and again hormone levels were low.

So anyway, just recently I waited a week or so to let all of my records transfer to the new GP (closer to home, no real issue with the previous GP) and went in for my first appointment on 15/4 and asked so what's the next step? Where do we go from here? The doctor I saw asked what the sleep clinic had to say about this. I explained that they gave the list of bloods to run, and that was pretty much all they had to say about it, but that I did have a telephone appointment with them on 16/4. The doctor said, okay well let them know that the hormone levels are low, sort of implying it's their job to figure out what's going on.

So I wait for the appointment thinking it'll be a sleep doctor or something because when I went to the sleep clinic I provided this 30 day log of really messed up sleep and they said a doctor would phone me back within 10 days. The appointment was in February but I figured if it took almost a year to get in there, then maybe a 10 day phone call wait turned into a couple of months. I digress. The phone rang, it was a sleep nurse who stated she was just checking in to see how things were going, assessed my sleepiness based off their standard questionnaire, and I asked her something to the effect of what the plan is going forward? She said that there is no plan, they handle apnea and that's about it. This contradicts their website to be fair, but I really don't push back much because my wife has told me not to.

So now I'm planning on going to the GP today if I can get an appointment now that the sleep clinic at Royal has told me this isn't their issue, and the GP may need to refer me to a hormone doctor or neurologist. I don't realistically see any tests a neurologist can run in real time while I am conscious to determine what is going on that causes me to wake up and then not be able to stay awake like a normal person, and also there is a huge impact that sleep deprivation has on hormones and vice-versa. So in a way, by going to a hormone doctor and getting HRT or whatever we may end up doing, we may be causing more issues that we are solving, or we might just be treating a symptom of a larger issue. I really don't know.

I'm writing this out of genuine interest of how one is meant to navigate the NHS in Scotland. I find far too many NHS links that only apply to England and I am just generally confused at this point. Not having access to lab results, collecting urine at home and bringing it in a container rather than collecting it at the surgery, if the nurse cannot draw blood and the phlebotomist happens to be out then you may have to wait another two weeks for another blood draw, and just so much more that has happened in 2023 has left me kind of perplexed on how it works here.

I signed up for this by moving here, I'm not really trying to come across as an entitled American, I'm just trying to make sense of what I should ask for, who I should ask it from, when to accept the answer, when to push back, etc. It is very concerning to me that at the first surgery I went to here it says essentially right on the receptionist window to not be an ass or we'll just drop you as a patient. That doesn't exist in America, not that I ever have been one, but it feels to me like I have to walk on eggshells with that sort of a notice, I don't even know if I'm allowed to disagree or argue alternatives so I've been going with the flow.

But at 36 now, I need some answers on this sleep thing. I need to be a good husband. I need to figure out if a child is a realistic thing with our combined health issues. Wait times cannot be helped, but at least getting a starting point of how to work within the system would be of great help.

Welcome to the weekly what's on and tourist advice thread!

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