Electric Halloween

There's something of an irony in the title of this blog entry as Halloween almost didn't take place at the castle this year due to a power cut. But if you like looking at electrical equipment, this is the Halloween blogpost for you. :-)

our Halloween storyteller - Eileen Budd

The Halloween storytelling event at the castle was scheduled for yesterday i.e. 10:30 to 12:00 on Saturday 2nd November 2024. On Tuesday a letter arrived through the post from Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSE) stating that the power would be off from 09:00 to 17:00 on the very day of the  event. Total sabotage!

I contacted SSE by email and was told that they could not reschedule the outage or supply a generator. I then phoned up and confronted the SSE chap with "You tell me what to do!" because SSE was entirely responsible for creating this problem. Anyhow, the chap relented and said he would send out a generator.

The SSE chap emailed later that the work at the castle was more complex than anticipated and would be postponed to the 26th November. Hurrah! Then the man with the generator turned up. I told him that it was a false callout as the power outage had been postponed. He left swearing! Then he came back. It was my mistake: in fact there were to be two power cuts: one yesterday and one on the 26th.

The chap talked about a transformer and pole upgrade. I mentioned that I might know the very pole as there is a transformer by the castle that looks like it came out of the 1950's!

old castle transformer

I discovered a modern transformer lying on the ground nearby on Saturday - no doubt the upgrade:

new castle transformer

There was also critical work planned on a castle gate lodge early yesterday. The delivery of the necessary materials from Wickes was scheduled for the day before, so there was no slack whatsoever in the schedule, and I was only able to confirm the delivery had taken place late Friday during a walk to the gate lodges in pitch blackness!

Needless to say I have been having kittens in the last few days about no building materials and no electricity! These panics aside, the story-telling event went ahead without a hitch, with top quality storytelling (courtesy of Eileen the storyteller); top quality refreshments (courtesy of Ryan the chef) and a top quality venue (thanks to Balintore the castle).

I met Eileen for the first time at a Burns Night at the castle in January of this year. She revealed she was a storyteller. Balintore is a perfect venue for story-telling of course and yesterday's event was the direct result of our conversation at that time. It's lovely when plans come through, and I am dreaming of the next story-telling event! The photo above gives her other storytelling gigs in November.

After the event, I went round to the take a photo of the SSE generator. This had just been switched off just a few seconds before the photo was taken. Thank you SSE!

the SSE generator that electrified our Halloween event

Some of the locals generally come over around Halloween for a suitably ghostly tour of the castle. This is always a total delight as the kids come too and everyone makes a great effort with their fancy dress. The following alarming spectacle met me on my doorstep late yesterday afternoon! :-)

the spooky Halloween castle tour

And finally, I am sure you would all like an update on our resident polecat Ko-Ko. :-) She has come to sleep with me every so often over the last few weeks. On Friday night, I was woken up by some rustling in my bedroom. This is the normal precursor to  Ko-Ko joining me in bed. But this time she climbed up behind my headboard which has metal bars, until her head was about a foot from mine. She gave out a ginormous "squeak" and then ran off with lots of elaborate tussling. It scared the life out of me, and I was so perturbed I put the light on by my bed so at least I could see what was happening.

I have no idea what was going on: was she just playing with me? Joe, Ryan and I heard a polecat fight under the floorboards of the basement kitchen. It was quite a stramach, with lots of squeaking and banging.  Was it polecat against polecat; polecat against rabbit; or polecat against rat? If the latter then I guess the disturbance is welcome i.e. for polecats to deter rats this must translate into physical action at some stage.

A last minute reminder to readers of the Balintore Castle Restoration Blog that a few tickets are still available for our spooky Halloween storytelling event. It takes place at 10:30 AM tomorrow (Saturday 2nd November, 2024). Refreshments are provided and I daresay tours of the castle will be available after the storytelling for those that are interested. :-) The main road to the castle was re-opened last Tuesday after a full year of closure, so please help us celebrate our first event in a long time! 

You can book your tickets here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ghosts-beasts-and-bogles-tickets-1026757418077

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ghosts-beasts-and-bogles-tickets-1026757418077

Going fast

Saturday, November 2

Ghosts, Beasts and Bogles

Join local storyteller Eileen Budd by the fireside at Balintore Castle for Halloween ghost stories of Angus. Refreshments provided.

By Dr. David John Johnston

23 followers

3 years on Eventbrite 📈

Date and time

Starts on Saturday, November 2 · 10:30am GMT

Location

Balintore Castle (undergoing restoration)

Balintore Castle Balintore near Kirriemuir DD8 5JS

I Took AirBnB to Court and Won

My Testimony

This is a pretty horrific story. AirBnB found me guilty of violating guest privacy, and in consequence removed money from my host account. AirBnB, despite my repeated requests for the nature of the charge, refused to provide any information, so I was left unable to defend myself. It was a Kafkaesque situation where I was accused, with no knowledge what it was all about, and after a stressful month-long investigation was found guilty.

I was only asked if I enter guest accommodation when guests are there
(no!) and if there is a gardener (no!). The two only caveats I could add

were

1. I was recently requested to remove a spider from a bathroom. (This I dutifully did without saying "Am I the landlord or staff?" )  :-)
   
   
2. If guests request an item such as firewood, or something they need while cooking, then I will bring this over.

i.e. only when I am explicitly invited into the accommodation.

The implication was that I was being charged with something like "voyeurism". I joked to friends that if I were to be charged with a sexual perversion then I should wish it to be something much more interesting that mere common or garden voyeurism. But the reality of the situation was horrific for my mental health, and I started to know what it was like to be falsely accused of rape.

I opened around 6 successive support cases with AirBnB to protest my

innocence. Each time the case was closed without my consent, and without

the matter being resolved.

I made a formal "Data Subject Request" to AirBnB. This is a freedom of information mechanism, to get all the personal data held about you. AirBnB refused this request. I reported AirBnB to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for this illegal act.

As the ICO timescale for starting to deal with any case was around 3 months,

I then made a formal "Simple Procedure Claim" against AirBnB using Dundee Sheriff Court. A friend with a legal training, very kindly and usefully explained to me that there had been a clear violation of contract law. The "contract" is that I provide accommodation,  and AirBnB pay me. If AirBnB refuse to pay me for a guest's stay, then they need to prove that I have broken the contract in some way by providing evidence.

In my legal claim, I said I would settle for the £250 accommodation fee plus costs provided AirBnB explain what this is all about, otherwise I was asking for £5000. The £5000 is the maximum you can claim with a simple procedure, and indeed this is nowhere near adequate compensation for the hell I have been through.

AirBnB then contacted me directly by email to try and settle out of court. A court case would require them to employ a lawyer. Sadly, this just shows they are defending their own economic bottom line and that this legal action was the only way to get AirBnB to listen to me. 

During the negotiations with AirBnB, the date of the problematic stay emerged - presumably in error as they previously told me that their procedures would not allow them to reveal which guests were involved. Anyhow, it was the guests I suspected. Obviously, I am discreet and professional but the basics are that the warning signs were there. The guests exhibited totally inappropriate and strange behaviour from the start, which I won't go into. 

What I can say, is that they requested a bottle of wine and then a second bottle of wine. I explained I could only sell this at cost price, and brought these over to their accommodation. When I brought over the second bottle they asked for a tour, but there was no sign they had unpacked or had had their evening meal so as it was that time in the evening, I suggested they might want to dine before the tour as it could take some time.

However, they wanted the tour straight away. I had a vague feeling at that stage that they were not planning on staying. Anyhow, they were really interested during the tour and it ended up being 3 hours long as they had restoration experience themselves.  They wanted a "sit down discussion" during the tour (armed with the wine) which seemed to go well. I enjoy talking to people from all over the world and one of my skills is making allowance for oddities as most people have interesting things to say in the right ambiance. :-)

Anyhow, it turned out they left that evening. I only spotted that their car was not around early the next morning and put two and two together.

It also emerged during negotiations with AirBnB that the complaint from the guests was that there were no window coverings such as curtains and this was the privacy violation ?!?!?!  AirBnB said they could not reveal the nature of the guest's complaint previously due to their policies, so presumably this is another mistake. 

The kitchen wing has shutters. There are visible is the listing photos, mentioned in the listing text, and I had even explained to these guests about using the shutters at night. The guest claim was clearly a "scam" as they wanted a tour but not to pay for the accommodation.

These were canny guests who were "gaming the system". I am perfectly sure they had done this before, and AirBnB had now got themselves into a complete mess: heading for a court case with a completely indefensible case because they would not listen to me. This is let alone the harm they had done to me.

They offered me £250 with "no admission of liability". I said that this was unacceptable because they were entirely liable for what had happened. They then offered me £500. How horrible to try to buy people out rather than attend to justice.

I gave then the following conditions for accepting an out of court settlement:

1. I need an admission from you that you finding me guilty of violating

guest privacy is incorrect and I need an apology in writing.

2. I need an admission from you that the guest claim is false and entirely

without foundation.

3. I need an admission that you have placed me under intolerable stress,

and an apology from you for doing so.

4. I need an investigation into how this miscarriage of justice occurred

within your organisation, and a set of policies that you will action to

prevent this ever happening again. These documents should be sent to me.

Not rocket science!

They sent me another agreement to sign, without the no-liability clause, but it included a gagging clause i.e. I had to keep the case confidential !?!?? I explained that I could not sign this as I had already told my friends about the case and the agreement was already violated.

I was then sent another agreement to sign, that gagged me in the future but excluded my blurtings-out to date ?!?!? I explained that I could not sign this either, because for my mental health I would need to continue talking

about this case into the future - and indeed this blog article is exercising this right  i.e. I had to fight to tell you this story so please realise the value of what you are reading.

Eventually, the gagging clause was removed, conditions 1, 2 and 3 were met but AirBnB kept defaulting on 4 despite my repeated attempts at clarification. I presume they were playing "dumb" as this is the condition which would publicly expose the flaws in their system. However, I did the most moral and generous thing, giving them the benefit of the doubt and repeatedly explaining that condition 4 was not met so I could not sign their agreement,

I was trying to hold AirBnB to account: they were not having it.

Eventually, the online "pre-trial hearing" came up at Dundee Sheriff Court.  This is where the parties try to mediate to avoid a trial, but this time inside the legal system. AirBnB did not even show up. I was rather back-footed as I had prepared my brief. The judge asked me what I wanted AirBnb to do. I said I wanted my conditions for an out of court settlement to be met. The judge said this was entirely between AirBnB and me, and what did I want to do? I had no idea of what I wanted to do, and said that I didn't understand. I was rather hectored by the judge at this stage. Eventually, I asked for a list of what my options were. These were:

(1) continue negotiating with AirBnB

(2) allow the court to find in my favour - the default for a no show

(2) was the no-brainer. So yes, I did win my case against AirBnB. :-)

AirBnB sent an email saying they would pay the £250 and send the information I required a couple of days later. They have done the former but not the latter. I will need to get back to  the Sheriff Court about this.

I then received the "Data Subject Request" information from AirBnB by email. They offered me a compensation payment of £250 for breaking the law. However, they have totally excluded all information about the investigation. AirBnB said that they can assure me that this contains no personal information. I beg to differ. It is likely this contains personal information about me but it would critically reveal either flaws in the AirBnB process or mistakes made in following the AirBnB progress.

I presume a privacy violation does not occur simply because a window has no covering. There has to be a "voyeuristic" act as well which presumably was discussed in reference to my person i.e. someone looking through the window. In fact, the kitchen wing accommodation is isolated at the north of the castle, and no-one passes the kitchen wing windows there anyhow. I need to get back to the ICO.

The horrible thing about litigation is that there is endless evasion in accountability, so cases can go on for years and years as you try to follow through.

The other non-sequitur is that if no window covering created a privacy violation for these guests, then it would have done so for every other guest, and in not pursuing a case for all other stays in the kitchen wing accommodation there is a logical inconsistency in AirBnB reasoning. How can they possibly not make this connection?

This incident is not isolated. There have been 4 other incidents where guests have submitted lies, and in consequence AirBnB have taken punitive action against me - twice removing me from the AirBnB system so no-one could book my accommodation. It has been a nightmare to get things sorted out.

The bigger picture is that these Internet companies have literally become a law unto themselves and act as judge and jury against innocent members of the public. They are not accountable and try to put themselves above the law e.g. ignoring freedom of information requests and not turning up at court. Reform is required. I have done what I can but this was very limited and I suspect this has not reformed this system in the slightest. However, what I can do is provide this testimony.

I have appended the apologies AirBnB eventually provided during our private negotiations. This is a result I guess. :-) At least AirBnB have admitted full responsibility, though I don't think I will be the last person that suffers like this.

AirBnB Apology

Thank you for your previous email dated 26 September 2024. As noted in our email dated 16 September, we sincerely apologise for every convenience caused to yourself as a result of this ordeal. More specifically we apologise for the miscarriage of the privacy claim made against yourself, the original result of the claim made against yourself was incorrect. The claim made against yourself was false and entirely without foundation. We sincerely apologise for the intolerable stress this matter has caused you.

The miscarriage of your privacy claim has been investigated, the result of which investigations determined that the original result of the claim made against yourself was false and entirely without foundation. We assure you that the results of the investigations made, along with feedback in relation to the same, have been provided to the relevant members of the Community Support team that dealt with your original privacy claim so as to prevent any similar miscarriage of Privacy Violations Inquiries in the future.

Sleeping with Polecats

Little did I think when contemplating the purchase of a castle, that it would ultimately result in sharing a bed with these delightful members of the mustelid family. This did not happen without warning. A long furry streak had been spotted in the castle for some time by Ryan the vegan chef and Joe the plasterer, but it was so fleeting at first that it could have been an imagining, very much in the way one experiences a meteor i.e. did I really see that?

I was reassured by the additional comment "I don't think it was a rat.", but I did not see anything personally.

Then one evening, around 11PM, I went down to the kitchen in the basement to switch everything off for the night. I could hear a noise in there. "Gosh Ryan is cooking very late this evening, but how marvellously dedicated he is!", I mused. As I went in I greeted Ryan, but could not see him. However, I could still hear very loud rustling noises. I took out my camera phone, and video-ed my hunt for the culprit. The little video below is the edited-down result.

In fact, Polecats are a strange mixture of nervousness and curiosity. They may initially run away and/or hide from you, but then they will come back into the room even though they know you are still there. They sometimes approach and look at you, perhaps only from the distance of a foot or so, but these moments are very rare.

I showed Joe the video footage and he was bowled over. He used the indigenous North American tradition of the first thing you see to name our furry inhabitant. This was "Ko-Ko", the brand name on a carton of vegan milk. I got the feeling Ko-Ko is a female, but have been told that he is a large dog Polecat. Anyhow, to Ryan, Joe and myself, Ko-Ko is a lady. When I closed a washing machine door one evening, an agitated squeaking came from behind the machine. It sounded like something was in pain, but just closing a door would not have squeezed a small creature. I am presuming these are Ko-Ko's kits. There is a smaller Polecat that also has been seen in the castle, but far less often,

Whenever I see Ko-Ko, I slow right down and make no sudden movements so as not to alarm her i.e. she realises I can see her and that I am not an enemy. I think she is becoming increasingly tame. It is easy to understand how Polecats became domesticated. DNA analysis indicates that Ferrets (the domesticated Polecat) were domesticated around 2,500 years ago.

By coincidence, the gamekeeper next door has just started keeping five Ferrets in an outdoor cage. These are also delightful, but clearly smaller than Ko-Ko, and only two of them have the "highwayman's mask" marking on their face, albeit in a less well-defined manner than Ko-Ko. Wikipedia tells me that Polecats are larger than Ferrets, and that they all have the mask marking. So what we are seeing in the castle is clearly a wild animal.

One of the major prey items of Polecats are rats, so I am only too delighted to house Ko-Ko. Happily no rats, and sadly no mice, have been spotted since her residence. In the past, I started to tame one of the castle's mice, but I made a sudden movement by accident while sharing a sofa with the mouse and it never came back!

Anyhow, I often hear Ko-Ko in my bedroom during the night, and in my head I was willing her to sleep with me. Be careful what you wish for, as one night I half woke-up and felt something moving between my shoulder blades. Half conscious, I thought "rat", and wriggled my shoulders to repel the boarder. When I fully woke up, I wondered if the sensation was just a dream, and then worried if it was actually Ko-Ko that I had frightened off in error.

However, surely a wild animal in my bed was incredibly unlikely? Anyhow, I then felt something very light crawling over my duvet slowly getting higher and higher on my body. The point of contact between wild animal and myself felt electrified, such was my excitement. I was very careful not to make sudden movements. I was awoken a number of times in the night by this sensation, each time convinced it would never happen again.

Finally I could hear the snuffling of Ko-Ko's snout near my face, feel her breath on my skin, and on opening my eyes could see the silhouette of her head moving against the blue-black gloaming of the night.

Then she bit me on the face, on the outer edge of my left eyebrow. I gave out a small yelp and Ko-Ko ran off. I then put my face under the covers as I did not want to be bitten again. Eventually, Ko-Ko turned up again but snuffling around the back of my head - digging her snout into my hair. There was a flicking sensation accompanied by a small "crack" every so often. Was she using her claws to investigate?

I suspect the "nip" is the way Polecats communicate socially, just a way of testing out the other party (does it feel pain?) and establishing hierarchies.

I then thought I might be able to feel Ko-Ko sleeping in the small of my back, but this could have been my imagination.

This all occurred on Saturday 12 October, but was this a Polecat one-night stand? Well, the following Monday night Ko-Ko was back on my bed exploring. This time knowing, I think, what she was dealing with and that I was not a threat.

To stop dogs biting as adults, I was once told you have to train them as puppies. Whenever they bite you whether through aggression or playfulness, you should yelp/squeak to let them know that you feel pain, and you shouldn't punish them. With my little yelp, I have trained Ko-Ko perfectly. :-)

I am not sure what the lesson is, but by treating fellow animals on the planet with respect, they will give the love back. My builders wanted to kill Ko-Ko (why?) but she is a champion ratter and she has enriched my life enormously.

I am not sure how often Ko-Ko is joining me in bed at the moment as, by definition, I am asleep! However, she is definitely around in my bedroom on a regular basis. A couple of days ago, I found that both laces of one of my walking shoes had been snipped off cleanly right by the eyelet hole. This was not material fatigue, as I found the laces on the other side of my bedroom. The next day the laces were snipped off from my other walking shoe, and again left on the other side of the room.

I had to buy new laces on Amazon!

So not only is Ko-Ko delightful, but she is a naughty little Minx: a Mink being, of course, another member of the mustelid family.

Further Bridge Progress

Yesterday, at the end of the working week I took a little walk to the Balintore Castle Gate Lodges to see how the rebuilding of the bridge there is progressing. Good progress has been made and you can see there is now a temporary navigable earthen bank, that will prevent pedestrians approaching from the east having to leap the chasm.

A friend has "corrected" me that what I have been calling a bridge is, in fact, a culvert. The Internet is ambiguous on the point, but many references say if the roadway is longer than 20 feet then it is a bridge; less than 20 feet and it is a culvert. I will be out with my tape measure, once the structure is rebuilt.

However, the point is moot in same way as the question "Is it a mountain or is it a hill?". If the nuances of language were less fuzzy, we would have far less fun.

With the opening now being a pipe it is assuredly more culverty than it was before. Relativism is more absolutely true than absolutism. :-)

stay of play 15:27 27th Sept 2024

The Bridge Arrives

Whether a bridge can arrive is indeed a philosophical question. Perhaps until the structure is installed in situ with a "over-pass" and "under-pass" that can be transited, there is no bridge?

Anyhow, the main component of the new bridge being built by the castle's gate lodges arrived on Tuesday 17th September and not a day too soon. This is a massive 1.5m diameter plastic pipe through which the water will flow. Perhaps, it is this "hole" that defines a bridge, but can a hole arrive? :-)

The pipe was off-loaded onto castle land, see below. As I write this I realise that permission was not asked, but this would have been willingly given. The insane year-long bureaucracy to get the old bridge repaired has been the problem, in total contrast to the lovely contractors who have gone above and beyond and kindly assisted with the restoration of the gate lodges, doing some lifts for us with their massive crane.

The contractors have also donated the stone which made up the old bridge to the rebuilding of the ruined rear section of the gate lodges. In fact, judging from the sizes and type of stone involved, my guess is that the rear of the gate lodge was demolished to build the bridge. So we will be rebuilding with the original stones!

The new bridge will be as ugly as sin, with stone caissons being placed over the pipe, and a tarmac layer on top of the caissons. The parapets will just be a wooden fence - as specified by Angus Council. I won't pass a comment on the obvious short-termism, but just say "Chappaquiddick". :-)

The final image (above) from today shows the pipe in place. The small pipe on the left is the current temporary diversion for the stream until the large pipe is commissioned. The opening of the new bridge, possibly late October, will be a day for celebration.

Closed Bridge September Update

The bridge by Balintore Castle's gate lodges has been closed to traffic for almost a full year now as it has been deemed unsafe. To say this has been inconvenient for me, my builders and my neighbours is a total understatement. Now you have to approach the castle via a 40 minute detour from the south, rather than approach it directly from the east.

One of my neighbours parks her car on the west side of the bridge, even though she lives on the east side - as otherwise her daily commute to Perth would be an extra hour.

The Council's timescale for fixing the bridge has already slipped four times. It's a public service mega-fail. Anyhow, I will document the full shocking saga in due course, but this blog entry is about today's visit to the bridge to examine the changes made for the "Ride the North" cycle event on the 24th August this year, when 1000 cyclists rode past the castle. Two days before the event, when I last visited the bridge to check, the concrete barricades were still fully blocking the road. However, just the morning before the event, a neighbour alerted me to Council activity.

Today's visit shows that the central concrete pipe sections were moved slightly out of line to allow passage for the cyclists. 

However, the main reason for my post is simply to rejoice in today's fantastic weather and to show you the resulting photos. One of the housekeepers ordered me away from my computer to take an evening walk in the sunshine. :-) Indeed, the sun beat down warmly from a clear sky all day. You get days in autumn, which can still feel like summer and today was a prime example.

view to east over closed bridge

You can see the Rowan trees on the right in particularly heavy berry. Indeed all the Rowans in the area are cropping much more profusely than usual. Gregor, my builder, tells me this is the sign of a harsh winter ahead as the bird will need a lot of berries. I am doubtful that mother nature's supply and demand is so well organised, but we shall see.

view to west over closed bridge

Looking "against" the light was so beautiful, that I even took a telephoto (or digital zoom).

view to west over closed bridge (digital zoom)