Almost a year...

Hiya
The 8th/9th May is coming up very, very quickly indeed -- that's when it will be a year exactly since I arrived in Oban to stay.
It has been an excellent year, by and large, and I do not regret having made the move.
Oban is a great place to live and I have made a number of excellent, caring and helpful friends, and have some of the best (and some of the worst -- maybe more about that later) neighbours one could wish for.I have yet to find a Creative Writing Group that meets when I can best spare time -- I understand one is being created locally that will meet on a Tuesday afternoon, which is when I've picked up an ESOL class for immigrants in need of English tuition.
I do miss some people from back in Switzerland, which is natural, I suppose.
The one big gripe I still have is lack of night-time peace and quiet one should expect. One set of (tenant) neighbours have alcohol (and other drug?) issues and have been awful. I don't like saying this but it is true, unfortunately. Mind you, I'm getting lots of support from the Housing Association who own the building my flat is in, as well as from the Council and from the Police, who have encouraged me to keep phoning whenever I get disturbed. But I'm still woken up twice or three times a night, almost every night, and there is one dog that has difficulty learning not to bark at night.
So I could really do with peaceful, restful, quiet nights and that's what I wish and hope for.
The irony is that I live in a fantastically tranquil, peaceful neighbourhood. Yes, it has its moments – but on a good day, all I can hear is the murmur of the burn at the bottom of the garden, the keening of seagulls or the kyacking of jackdaws, the occasional quacking of mallards, and the cries of children playing.