Page 40 - James Pirie News

Andy Gets the Elbow –

Murray in a Tear

The great Scot Andy Murray, tennis world number one, can't serve at the moment and it looks like an elbow tear may jeopardise his clay court season.  His brother Jamie says Andy needs to rest and give the elbow time to heal. Andy is out of the British team to play France in the Davis Cup and our hearts are in our mouths as we wait to see how our greatest sportsman...

A Bit of Old Tut

Shroud Lifted on Ancient Mystery

In the equivalent of finding stuff in granny’s attic the National Museum of Scotland have found some exciting relics from ancient days. They will be part of a new summer exhibition from March till September with the catchy title The Tomb – Ancient Egyptian Burial, my word if that doesn’t pack them in who knows what will.  The finds include a 2,000...

Salt Wives Not Just a Game of Thrones Species –

And a Reminder for Mother’s Day : If You Are Worth Your Salt

Now if you are like our family you are waiting for the next instalments of Game of Thrones with bated breath, or if you aren’t so good with the toothbrush, baited breath! I saw it is finally scheduled for July this year and is only 7 episodes, well that seems a bit mean. And worse to boot Ed...

Have You Got a Million or Two to Spare?

Then I have a House for You

A castle, one of the oldest houses in Scotland and outside Montrose in Angus, dating back to the late 13^th century is up for sale. For a while it housed the heart of Robert the Bruce and here Mary Queen of Scots plotted against the English queen Elizabeth I. The castle is called “The Craig” and it has been continuously occupied throughout...

The Trek to the Post Box –

Is it a Red Letter Day?

Well good news for some in that the Post Office, okay Royal Mail, are installing about150 new post boxes in Scotland this spring. This is happening despite the habit of writing and sending letters being in steep decline with the advent of the internet and texting by phone.  Royal Mail will target these new boxes on rural areas, new housing developments...

Whisky Galore for Whisky Maestro –

Job Opportunity for Lover of the Scottish Winter

Now not many job ads come with the kind of flourish and warning about our weather as does that for a new distillery on one of Scotland’s most beautiful small islands Raasay. Raasay is a 25 minute ferry ride from the Isle of Skye and it has only 170 inhabitants.  Raasay is famous for being the birthplace of John McKay...

Reluctant Readers Going to the Dogs –

Canine Therapy Works

It’s always been a pressure for kids at school who don’t immediately take to reading to catch up and after a number of overseas initiatives piloting the idea it is now being tried by a Primary school in Inverness where so called ‘reluctant readers’ are being encouraged to read books to dogs. The pupils at the Primary read to golden retriever...

Don’t Scuttle Off to Scapa –

New Interactive Site Map of Famous Shipwrecks

 At the end of the Great War, AKA WW1, the German High Seas Fleet scuttled itself at Scapa Flow making it the most famous shipwreck site in the world. It is also one of the most dived sites on the planet. And to make it all more available to divers and land lubbers like me it has been interactively mapped with new digital technology...

What Would William Topaz McGonagall Do for Mother’s Day?

You’ll Have Had Your Tay I Say

Reader’s of this blog will know my fondness for the doggerel of creation’s worst poet, and therefore one of its finest, William McGonagall and so I am always happy to report news of Topaz’s cunning rather than his blundering. WTM was an unemployed weaver who rose to national stardom on the back of his poem on the...

We Panda to Your Every Whim –

The Fight to Save the Species

Now I love wildlife and birds and so I am always excited to learn of new initiatives to preserve wildlife. Obviously I am a sucker for some super stars like the panda. And we are very lucky as the only giant pandas in the UK are in Edinburgh. The female is called Tian Tian (Sweetie) and the male is Yang Guang (Sunshine). Pandas  are...