Page 8 - James Pirie News

In the week that the President of the United States of America visited his golf courses in Scotland the topic of whisky has been on everyone’s lips.  For the distillers of the amber nectar, Scotch, the USA is a remarkably important market. The internet tells me that it accounts for about a quarter of all Scotch export sales by value. So when POTUS started talking about increasing tariffs on goods...

Do you want an A Listed modern house or studio to live in for a mere £18,000 then your chance is just around the corner?  It’s in what they call in the Brutalist style. You might have seen the Oscar nominated film The Brutalist  which won the best actor award this year but they didn’t explain that the origin of the term comes from the French words for raw concrete.  Now the A listed beauty is...

I don’t know if you saw that couple cuddling at the Coldplay concert in the USA, but they were caught by what the Americans call the ‘Kiss Cam.’  When they saw themselves on the stage screen they flung themselves to the floor as front man Chris Martin heckled them saying, “ they are either shy or having an affair,” and guess what- they weren’t shy.

But at Glasgow’s newest festival the kiss cam didn’t...

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece as white as Snow,

 And  everywhere that Mary went , the lamb was sure to go

If like me you’ve have wrestled with a full size sheep, or large lamb you will know that they are amongst the most cussed animals for not doing what you want them to do. And their hooves are nasty weapons. My experience was with an escaped hogget, or yearling lamb and she was a wrong ‘un,terrified...

 The Granite City Aberdeen this week is the home to the biggest free tourist attraction in Scotland , it’s The Tall Ships Races where some 50 tall ships will be taking part with their 2,000 crew from distant place like Oman and Uruguay. It’s such a big event, despite the inclement weather this year that it will attract some 400,000 visits, which doesn’t mean that many individuals as they count return...

Are you allergic to cats, or allergic to the people who complain about cats? These days the missus just thinks of animals as a tie, stopping us travelling, but we all need animals in our lives I think and that seems to be the case with Mo the cat , a popular female in Newtongrange, Midlothian, who was recently banned from a local supermarket after a complaint. It’s somewhere I know well as I used to...

If like me and the missus you have enjoyed an Aperol  Spritz , the last time was in a Venice – but not at Jeff Bezos’s  wedding, you’ll be surprised to hear that the fave drink of many folk during the hot months isn’t Aperol any longer.  It seems that the booze is a bit too strong for today’s younger drinkers who want a longer cooler drink. And you might ask what is the on-trend drink of the...

When I was working for a national Sunday I was  once offered drive around a Formula 1 racetrack in a Ferrari. This I quietly refused as I did not fancy having my eyeballs bulging with G Force around bends at 150 mph.  But the lure of high speed is for many as it is for the residents of Dunoon  where once a year their town turns into a racetrack.

No it’s not kids in souped up cars messing round...

In the week when Andy Murray became a chat show personality on stage and the face of shortbread it’s fantastic to see the Great Scot can still pull in the crowds, with sold out venues for his Evening with Andy Murray tour in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. I was gutted when I realised we had missed the opportunity to see him and of course we will miss him when we make the long pilgrimage to Wimbledon...

Don’t know if you’ve been watching the new detective thriller  Department Q on Netflix which  is set in Scotland and features the world’s most unpopular copper Carl Morck. He is  English, and a Detective Inspector in the capital’s police.  It’s a pretty gripping and based on a Danish series.  Morck has Akram a sidekick from Syria, where’s he’s been involved in various nefarious goings on...