Page 16 - Blog

Last year  in July when me and the missus went to see the unlikely double header Barbenheimer, Barbie and Oppenheime, the film theatres  were  full of wet, steaming people as the weather was appalling. We had horizontal rain for days. We went to one barbeque conducted entirely inside with gazebo islands in the garden lashed by rain. If you got stuck in one of those islands you had to get soaked...

Not far from Ullapool and Lochinver  home of Highland Stoneware is the Monro rich area of Torridon in the Highlands which was the home of Callum the red deer who became hand tame and a popular favourite with tourist. However, it was this friendliness that was his downfall.   Callum was a wild animal who became a bit of a local legend and would haunt Torridon’s Beinn Eighe car park eating snacks...

Well I was thinking about James Pirie and our long history of service, since 1890 by the way, and I thought, well who knows us best?  So I thought let’s have a look at a few reviews and see what they say about us. So here are some unedited reviews for your information. On the web page they come across as stars, but when you cut and paste they appear as percentages. So FIVE STAR is 100% and FOUR STAR...

Avid readers of this blog would know that I almost entirely focus on good news from Scotland and the rest of these isles, but sometimes there is a story that pulls at the strings of the heart and warms the spirit. Late last year we went to visit friends in Carcassonne and they organised a wonderful day out. It was a day out with rescue donkeys. You paid the sanctuary owner a smallish fee, 70 Euros...

Well Swifties did it. They made Edinburgh jump in the rip roaring Taylor Swift concerts at Murrayfield where each time 73,000 highly energised fans made so much impact on the ground that it registered with seismologists 6 kilometres away. Altogether there were 220,000 fans over the three days of the concerts and it is official that they made the earth move. According to the boffins the maximum amplitude...

Well if you’ve got half a million quid burning a hole in your pocket I have just the present for father’s Day.  it’s an island with a small house and 89 acres of wild scrubland. You won’t be troubled by neighbours,  but you will see plenty of great skuas, kittiwakes, shags  and seagulls.  And you might get a bit thirsty as there is no natural drinking water on the island and the wind can get...

Switfties are up and at it. The fans of the immensely popular Taylor Swift are about to get Swiftified as the star kicks off her Eras tour of these isles with three nights at Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh. The city is agog with excitement  and I am told that fans are draining their bank accounts to buy Swift merchandise. And each night almost 73,000 fans will fill the Scottish Rugby home ground...

Now as regular readers of this blog know I am a massive fan of the Great Scot Sir Andy Murray and it is with a heavy heart I have to say that the end of the road now looks to be in sight.  He was set to face his old adversary Stan Wawrinka the Swiss three times grand slam winner in the first round of the French Open tennis and Andy was blasted off the court.  I saw them play each other just before...

You’ll most likely remember that last year that a  tree by Hadrian’s Wall which  featured in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves way back in 1992 was cut down by some nasty so and so. Well someone has now been charged for the crime. Trees are a highly significant part of our natural heritage and many people described the chopping down of the Sycamore Gap tree as “murder.”A bit strong...

For those of a romantic disposition the arrival of the long-awaited third series of Bridgerton was the event  they longed for and  it landed on Netflix this last week. If you haven’t already binged your way through the first two series then we here James Pirie can sincerely recommend it, but mostly for selfish reasons as I will talk about shortly. The series is a  rom-com  and it follows two...