Page 53 - James Pirie News

Pheasant on the Track

Passengers Grouse

A train in Aberdeenshire was derailed from its schedule by a pheasant caught under the wheels. The game bird was hit by the five fifty-four Inverness to Aberdeen service and was brought to a standstill between Huntly and Insch near Kennethmont. The incident left the passengers stranded and they had to be taken off the train by first a ladder and then a train...

Easter Isn’t Far Away – Mother’s day in Our Rear View Mirror. Phew!

Giant Rabbit off to North Ayrshire

Well we’ve made it through Mother’s day and Easter is looming ahead. I am not sure I can live with the excitement. Especially as today it is absolutely freezing and the daffodils are blowing wildly in the wind. So what I need to take my mind off it is a story about a giant rabbit called Atlas, presumably...

No  to Extended Sunday Trading Think Again!

Sunday Preserved on the One Hand and Freed on the Other

As Scotland’s MPs prepare to vote down the Westminster bill on extending Sunday trading we can safely have our cake and eat it here at James Pirie. It’s a truly Marie Antoinette state of affairs. We don’t only say have your cake and eat it we say eat off super luxurious Spode plates, as they are on...

Baby Blues and Pinks

Celebrate a New Arrival in Style

If you haven’t yet been introduced to the joys of Eurosport broadcasting then you aren’t a fully clued up Murray brothers fan. Because I was watching the round of the Davis cup on that channel , GB against Japan when the Braveheart Scottish brothers once more came up trumps to seal a quarterfinal against the dreaded Serbians, in Belgrade.

Oh No...

 Is this the way to Amarillo? No - Lost Scottish Village Pops up Again

Not Lost Just Mislaid - Medieval Village Found Once More

 When the white heat of modern technology came to Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s it wasn’t without cost and amongst the stuff we lost was a medieval village from a thousand years ago. It wasn’t on any A-Z mark you, but Cadzow as well as being a cracking score in Scrabble...

Camping is Dead Long Live Glamping

The Horrors of Camping Banished

I have just had to explain the concept of “Glamping” to my missus, who is definitively against the ordinary sort of camping in Scotland’s pre Spring chill. But maybe I have changed her mind with the pleasures of log cabins as Hobbit retreats, or gypsy caravans without the wheels and log fires and recharging places for her iPhone.  ...

The Sweet Scent of Success – For the Woman in Your Life

It’s a Modern Invention

Did you know that perfume is a fairly modern invention and has only been around since the late nineteenth century? Before that only simple scents like lavender water or rose water were available. A century or so earlier some kindly soul had invented Eau de Cologne which was designed to disguise the smell of unwashed bodies...

Mary Somerville Gets a Tenner

Scots Scientist First Woman

Scots scientist Mary Somerville was the mother of six children, but found the time to become a world famous mathematician and scientist and she will be the first woman whose image has adorned the Royal Bank of Scotland’s banknotes, other than the queen.

Mary Not so Contrary Was a Great Scot

Mary played a pivotal role in the discovery of the...

Mother’s Pride – Early Mother’s Day Present

Woman Gets Parking Ticket Gift

With a sick child having difficulty breathing Mairi Holden wasted no time worrying about parking when she dashed her son Oscar aged 4 to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. She gave no thought to anything except the well being of the kiddie, but when she got back after a long fraught night at the hospital she saw she had been...

Goggle at Google Cheek

Scotch Defence for Embattled Internet Giant

Now you and I can’t fathom the comings and goings of the tax authorities and the corporate monsters that by and large control our daily lives. But sometimes we can raise an eyebrow at their cheek. The government in London are in hot water because they haven’t kicked the HMRC sweetheart deal with Google into touch. No, instead they initially...