[Bit of background here. I’m Scottish, but I live in Toronto. Canada is big, Scotland isn’t.]
There’s this thing I like to call The East Dunbartonshire Conspiracy. I used to live in Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire. It’s a small central Scotland town, rapidly becoming another suburb of Glasgow.
Since coming to Canada, most of the expat Scots I have met are from East Dunbartonshire:
- The LCBO guy in Toronto Union Station is from Kirkintilloch, about 100m from where we used to live.
- Another LCBO guy on the Danforth is from Bishopbriggs, where I used to work.
- The GO Train customer relations person who called me about the new proposed train station at the end of our street (yay!) grew up in Bishopbriggs, and has relatives I think I worked with when I was at Collins, the publishers.
So what’s this all about? Why are so many people leaving East Dunbartonshire for Toronto? Is it the horror of living at 56°N, with dark, windy wet winters? Who can say?
Thanks for a lovely recipe for making tablet. My daughter looked it up on spec – guess what – she was born in Kirkintilloch, her dad still lives there – of all the web sites in all the world, she had to jump into yours. Still haven’t tried the tablet, but here’s lookin at you kid. Love Isobel and Vicki in Glasgow, Scotland – near Kirkintilloch.