Scottish Business Sense

29 November 2011 23:32

We had intended going to Edinburgh on Saturday to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia but the weather has been terrible for about a week now with howling gales and I didn’t fancy going over the road bridge. It was closed to high sided vehicles which means that our wee car would be buffeted about on the bridge – scary!

So eventually we ended up in St Andrews, just to get out of the house really. I have a horrible feeling that we’ll be battening down the hatches soon when the ice and snow get here so we might as well go out while we still can.

This window sign amused me. Surely only in Scotland would a barber try to get your custom by offering you free whisky. Mind you, I think it’s a brilliant idea because not only will they probably get more customers – they’ll also be less likely to complain if they don’t like the haircut – because of course they’ll be ‘half-cut’ or semi drunk!

Whisky Enticement

The long things in the window are golf clubs – well it is St Andrews!

The Other Guys – University of St Andrews Students

29 April 2011 00:16

Some first year students from the University of St Andrews have been having some fun making a spoof video and declaring their love for Kate Middleton. If you want a bit of a laugh have a look!

It’s all filmed in St Andrews but I have to say that I’ve never seen the North Sea look as manky as it looks in this video! If you look closely you’ll be able to see the second-hand book shop which I should be banning myself from entering for the rest of the year.

William and Catherine at St Andrews

25 February 2011 23:24

Well the town was taken over by the media and security people and I was told by a certain son of mine who works at the uni that they wouldn’t be doing a walk-about, so I didn’t bother going. To be honest though I would have had to get on a bus and I’ve already been on one this week. Believe it or not at 8.30 this morning it was chucking it down with rain and that was the clincher in my decision not to go to St Andrews.

Anyway, if you’re interested in William and Catherine’s visit and launch of the 600 year anniversary celebrations and appeal there are 50 photographs of it which you can view here.

St Andrews – Golf and Books

11 July 2010 13:47

We had a day out in St Andrews last Tuesday and as you can see the preparations for the British Open, which starts later this week are well underway.

The lawn shavers were out in force but I honestly couldn’t see any grass being trimmed off at all. Amazingly, members of the public were just wandering around the fairways, or should I say the hallowed ground. Previously I had thought that someone might have taken a pot-shot at you if you did that. Mind you, I find it very difficult to walk on grass when it is that well tended green velvet sort so I kept to the path.

This photo is from nearly the same place as the one in a previous post, showing the difference.

We had a nice lunch at The Central pub after we had been around the book shops. At first I thought it was going to be slim pickings but I ended up getting quite a book haul.

1. Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham
2. The Harsh Voice by Rebecca West
3. The King’s General by Daphne du Maurier
4. The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
6. The Mystery Mile, The Crime at Black Dudley and Look to the Lady – a Margery Allingham omnibus.

I’m fairly sure that I read the du Maurier one in the year dot but possibly not, so I want to read it to complete her works.

Coincidentally I read in The Guardian on Thursday that their columnist Deborah Orr had just finished reading the Chesterton book and had really enjoyed it.

I’m probably the last person in the reading world to get around to The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society Book but as it is set during the German occupation there, I think I’ll be reading this one soon.

I don’t want to know how many books I have in my TBR queue now, but it isn’t anything like 600 – I hope!

The Old Course, St Andrews

8 April 2010 16:00

We had a day out in St Andrews yesterday, making the most of a fleeting visit by that big orange thing in the sky.

I decided to take a photograph of the beginning (and end) of the Old Course. It really tickles me that there is a public pathway cutting straight across the fairway and people wander across it all the time. I suppose it must be a right of way otherwise it would have been got rid of long ago.

This place is a Mecca for golfers but it always embarasses me as I think it must be a horrible disappointment for them as the course itself is far from being a thing of beauty. It is really boring looking. I suppose if you are into golf then it is the history of the whole thing that gets to you. There is a museum of golf on the road behind the course.

I don’t play golf as I am strictly in the ‘Why ruin a good walk?’ camp, but local golfers of my acquaintance are equally unimpressed and have assured me that the best courses are around Gleneagles in Perthshire.

If you happen to live in Fife though you have plenty to choose from. Even teeny weeny villages have their own golf course.

Snowdrops

8 March 2010 23:38

You wouldn’t believe from looking at this blog that gardening is my main hobby. It certainly hasn’t featured much and that is mainly because the weather has been so awful, even the so called summer didn’t make an appearance for the third year. But for the first time since before Christmas we are without a hard frost – for three days in a row – amazing. It’s beginning to feel a bit like spring but I reckon my garden is about six weeks behind where it should be.

There isn’t much sign of life except for the beautiful snowdrops which we bought ‘in the green’ from the Cambo Estate at Kingsbarns near St Andrews. I’ve planted lots of snowdrop bulbs before but they always failed to come up. Someone told me that mice eat the dry bulbs. The Cambo snowdrops are really unusual ones and they are actually multiplying in our garden, which is a great bonus.

Cambo is well worth a visit if you enjoy plants and woodland walks.

The photos in this post are from my own garden.