Evening Jazzer
I speak as a glider pilot of a quarter century standing. Firstly, the £250 offer from SGC is highly unlikely to get you to solo standard - you should reckon on 50 to 100 winch launches, less if you're mixing it up with aerotowing. But the good news is that Portmoak is seen as a bit of a Mecca for us southerners given its standing as a "Wave" site with spectacular mountain wave lift to ridiculous heights on good days. On the downside, gliding is highly time consuming, as we all muck with getting gliders launched and running the ground operation, so if you have a young family this might be a concern. But hey, give it a go and see if it's for you - the £250 deal effectively gives you 3 months membership and flying and you'll know by the end of that whether it's for you. By way of comparison, in gliding you can apply for a LAPL(Sailplane) once you've got your Cross County Endorsement, which clears you to fly cross country tasks on good days. It ought to be possible to get that far after a couple of years or so at your age. And you'll find that glider pilots are some of the nicest, mutually supportive people you could hope to meet. Let us know how you get on, whether power or gliding.
Cheers
Pegpilot