My twopence worth,
I bought my house in Cradlehall about 14 years ago while I was still in the army with a view to settling here on retirement. At that time Inverness was like a seaside resort to me. I used to get excited about coming up here as if I was going on my hols. There used to be a friendly buzz about the place. You could walk down the main shopping precinct and feel the atmosphere. Unfortunately that has all gone IMHO. Now when you walk down the precinct you are likely to be mugged by a foreigner/crackhead or run over by some loon on a scateboard. I feel that it has lost that seaside feel and become like any other city. My wife, neice, her boyfriend and I went down town recently for a night out. It was the first time I had ventured down for many years, normally not getting any further than the Fluke. The 1st pub we went into was Gunsmiths because of the karaoke (can't help myself), now some of you will say why there it's a dump. We didn't know that then, I do now. There were lads parading with no tops admiring themselves in the mirror as if on a catwalk. They were so obviously off there head on something. Some of the jailbait running around should have been in bed hours ago. The place just had a manacing feel about it and we left after one drink/song. We then looked at a few other bars which showed varying degrees of neanderthal like people both on the doors and going through them. We did enjoy ourselves in Hootenannies but that was about it. All in all not a very pleasant night out. I can see why youngsters are leaving to better themselves elsewhere but that may change when the new university is built. It will give some a reason to stick around a little longer but if there are no prospects after UNI how long is the question. I still love it up here but do my best not to go into the center unless I have to.