Page 22 - Blog

In another life I once sent an inflatable sheep to the Greek Ambassador to the Court of St James. Explanation, I was looking for a quotable reaction, so I could publicise it in the national newspapers, but the canny Athenian didn’t make a squeak and the stunt died without a noise. You may ask me why I needed a quote from His Excellency, but my lips are sealed on a terrible TV show that sank without...

Do you have space for a six foot tall whisky bottle in your home, well a Vietnamese businessman does? Admittedly he’s already got more than the odd dram, with a whisky collection valued at some £150m, so you wouldn’t want to drop one of his bottles. The bottle in question cost £1.1m and was sold at auction last year in the Nation’s capital. The vessel was filled with about 311 litres or about 550 pints...

Now giant pandas are undeniably cute. They are the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund and they are the number one attraction at Edinburg Zoo, but they are also infuriating animals. The inflexibility of the creatures is well known. They aren’t the least bit interested in having sex, they live mostly alone and have the very devil of a job to reproduce, even when conditions are ideal. Their fertility cycle...

The issue of ferries in the islands around our shores has been a hot topic over the last few years, but for once there seems to be light down the tunnel, an electric light. There is to be a new trial electric ferry for the Orkneys. Let’s hope there are enough recharging points! The test is part of a £15.5m trial project which is part of the country’s bid to go carbon neutral and reduce our reliance...

Kilty Pleasures

I don’t know if you have been keeping tabs on the wondrous Sam Heughan, who very definitely is in the hero mould. He has transformed himself into a media star and all round entrepreneur and he’s come a long way in a short time, with his books, his whisky, his performances in Outlander, the well know TV drama. He’s also filmed another series of Men in Kilts with Graham McTavish, who...

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a slightly reddish haired Scot playing professional sport outdoors should have a sponsor that manufactures sun-screen. So I was not shocked to find that Sir Andy Murray has brought a British sun-screen brand under his brand umbrella, or should I say parasol! Slap it on Sir Andy.

Sir Andy Murray grew up in sunny Dunblane, Scotland and he has won the Wimbledon men’s...

A Venetian option is being considered to curb the influx of massive cruise ships into Orkney which are overwhelming the tourist destination.  La Serenissa is the locals name for Venice and these days there are only 60,000 Venetians still living in the world heritage spot, but there are 27 million visitors each year. I was one, but we didn’t arrive by cruise ship we caught a wonderful high speed...

Tongues have been wagging about the Lord of the Isles, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew and the heir to Scottish Throne. In case you don’t know they are all the same man, Prince William and the tongues have been saying that the royal has an allergy to the kilt and highland dress. The tartan kilt, jacket, sporran and sgian dubh is a visual demonstration of the much loved heritage...

How Scottish can you get, well the Lord of the Isles also known as the King found out when he visited a distillery in John  o’Groats just a few miles from his summer home at the Castle of Mey, which featured in the hit Netflix series The Crown, alongside Bridgerton the historical romp famous for featuring our classy glassy wine suites. The monarch was greeted by kilts and whisky galore and horizontal...

 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...