Monthly Archives: July 2023
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Posted: July 24, 2023Categories: James Pirie News
Read more »The people in the picture are the missus’s grandparents cutting their cake in a post Second World War ‘make, do and mend’ wedding in the 1940s. The cake is tiny and likely it was only one real tier. The second tier was likely have been a cardboard empty shell because of rationing. But nowadays the cake is likely to be an immense confection, often vegan, and you will probably have to order it a...
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Posted: July 20, 2023Categories: James Pirie News
Read more »The wedding season is in full swing and kilt hire companies are swamped with orders. But what do you give to those getting married when there is a squeeze on all our spending?
I did some research on wedding gifts through the ages and celebrity presents in the recent past. When The English King Charles II and the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza married the dowry was pretty immense. It included trading...
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Posted: July 14, 2023Categories: James Pirie News
Read more »For £200 I got a view of a man’s head.
Regular readers will know I am nuts about watching tennis that involves Sir Andy Murray the Flying Scotsman on a grass court. So I was greatly pleased to get Wimbledon Quarter Final tickets, despite their huge price of £200 each, thinking I would see the great man himself, but I was grievously disappointed when he was knocked out in the second round. But tickets...
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Posted: July 11, 2023Categories: James Pirie News
Read more »There is a tiny speck of rock 230 miles or 370km west of North Uist. It’s way out in the middle of nowhere in the ocean and it’s called Rockall, and indeed there is rock-all there. But it attracts adventurers who want to break the 45 day record for living on that tiny speck of granite. Just above the water level, Rockall is only 100ft or 30m wide and 70ft or 21m long that’s a lot smaller than most...
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Posted: July 10, 2023Categories: James Pirie News
Read more »Ferry Nice
If life on the Ocean wave calls you, but you are just a tiny bit of a landlubber, then have a think about buying yourself a ferry rather than a deep sea sailer. And it’s not just any ferry it's the one between John O'Groats in Caithness and Orkney, one of the ferries that until nowe hasn’t been in the news. Buy this ferry and you can be independent yourself, just as the islanders themselves...
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Posted: July 09, 2023Categories: James Pirie News
Read more »Well Wimbledon has begun and as we approach the second week even the redoubtable flying Scot Sir Andy Murray has met his Waterloo. So I content myself with thinking about nature and its beauty and difficulties. It’s been breeding time for Britain’s biggest type of grouse, the capercaillie. Forest clearings in the Highlands are their grounds and the hens sit in the trees watching the mating rituals...
