No Scouts Deliveries.

We were sorry to hear that the Scouts will not be running their christmas card delivery service this year. This will be a sad loss for the village, particularly for many of the older residents who had found it a cheap and efficient way of getting cards delivered within the village. Hopefully, by next year the current problems will be overcome and the service can be restarted.

Far Flung Beer.

Its always been interesting to note the westcountry beers that you can find at branches of JD Weatherspoons in the west of scotland. Cotliegh, Exmoor, Butcombe and even Exe Valley ales have been sighted on occasions and Weatherspoons in Ayr were selling Skinners 'Cornish Knocker' when I was there. I believe that THe Lamb may well be stocking this one in the new year and a very decent pint it is too.

It was good to see that Scottish beers were not neglected and besides Deuchars, Weatherspoons were also stocking Orkney Breweries mighty 'Dark Island', the only stout worth drinking in my view.

Edinburgh.

I was in Edinburgh last friday, the day after large parts of Scotland were hit by snow and ice. Those who know Edinburgh will know that it can be a very cold city in winter and last friday was no exception to that rule. Nice to see therefore, that people wee not put off visiting the German and Highland markets in the Princes street Gardens and interesting to see that the cold weather was not putting off a good many tourists who appeared to be from the far east. I suppose that Edinburgh winters cold as they may be on occasions dont compare with what you might find at this time of the year in Beijing.

Carlton Hotel.

Once again, thanks to the staff of the Carlton Hotel in Prestwick for the excellent service given during my stay there.

Hopefully, I will be back before too long.

The changing face of Glasgow.

Glasgow has been an immigrant city , probably since the beginning of the 10th century. Tens of thousands of Gaelic speaking highlanders moved down into the city at the time of the highland clearences, partly due to being driven off the land and partly in order to take advantage of the opportunities crreated by the expansion of shipbuilding, coal and steel production in Glasgow and the central belt of Scotland. In Glasgow, they iintermingled with tens of thousands of Irish from the north and west of Ireland driven by the effects of the famine and again, by the opportunities cresated by industrialisation. Later in the centuary, Protestant Ulstermen came over to become the skilled backbone ofshipyards like John Brow'ns and Jews from Lithuania settled in the Gorbals and the south side of the city. Also, Italians settled widely in the west of scotland vecoming small shopkeepers, some of whose descendendents have found fame as actors and musicians such as Tom Conti, Daniella Nardini, Sharleen Spitari and Paulo Nutini. More Lithuamians came at the time of the first world war and since then Glasgow has seen the \arrival of a large Pakistani community, Chilieans at the time of the Pinochet dictatorship, Kurds, Iraqi's and most rtecently, Congolese and other african refugees.

All this goes to show how one dimensional much of the english view of modern Scotland tends to be.

Christmas Clannadonia.

Nice to see the mighty Clannadonia with their christmas bunnets on for their sunday afternoon performance in Buchanan Street in Glasgow last week. Photos wil appear here soon.

Sunday Morning In Ayr.

I was walking down ta quiet street in Ayr on sunday morning close to the ornate county buildings when I heard a shout from ahead of me. Two burly policemen had soezed a youth, thrown him part way over a garden wall and were slapping handcuffs on him. Onr policeman then leans over to the fetained person and roars in his ear.

'now will you f****** calm down'

before hoisting him into a police car and driving him away.

A but different then community policing in Silverton, I suspect.

Working Away.

Often, if you are out and about in the highways and byways of Ayrshire you will here the following conversation when two women meet.

Mary. 'Hi, Margaret, how are you doing'.

Margaret (in a resigned toms of voice) 'Hi Mary, Working away...Theres nothing else for it'.

Giving the impression that Margaret is totally enxlaved to whatever form of work it is that she does.

In reality, of course, Margaret probably was boogieing the night away at the local 'Grab A Granny Night as soon as she got her last pay.

Apologies.

Apologies for the non appearence of the blog over the last few days. I swtayed on a few days extra mainly to continue visiting a friend who i s currently in the Ayr hospital awaiting a hip operation. Normal service will now be resumed.

Spiked

No, not the website run by the institute of ideas ctowd who now sem to be the latest fans of Boris Johnson, bit Spike is the name of the Hedgehog rescued by Louise from the jaws of a dog. Spike is alive and well and living in Louise's shed on a diet of wet catfood. Photos to follow soon, hopefully. Spike has now been designated the hedgehog on the blog.

Blog Back

The Blog wil be fully operational again later today. Sorry for the delayed restart.