Just before we left for Scotland I managed a trip to Halifax, the beer capital of the world. But I couldn’t find my notes, till this morning when I realised that Mrs RM had bought me a new phone for Scotland and my ‘fax facts were on the now abandoned Huawei. But here they are,… Continue reading NEW ‘FAX EMERGE
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RUMINATING ON SCOTTISH BEER QUALITY
“Of all the beer you had in Scotland, what proportion of it came up to the standard you would expect in the Good Beer Guide? And how does that compare with south of the Border ? ” asks Pub Curmudgeon. What a good question. Let’s see the evidence; BEER SCORING I scored 28 beers (a… Continue reading RUMINATING ON SCOTTISH BEER QUALITY
BUYING A HOE IN LONGTOWN
On the way back from Wishaw we had to divert off the M6 at Gretna to avoid a hold-up, probably a spill of peanut butter stout, and stopped for 20 minutes just over the border in Longtown. It’s only a couple of months since we were walking this part of the world. Some weird stuff… Continue reading BUYING A HOE IN LONGTOWN
When you Wishaw upon a star
And so our Scottish sojourn come to an end at Wonderful Wishaw. Or “AnyWhere but Wishaw” as it’s affectionately known. Only the Good Beer Guide brings English people to post-industrial steel towns like Motherwell and Wishaw, and we should thank it for that. Mrs RM was less convinced as we drove through the challenging streets… Continue reading When you Wishaw upon a star
FORGETTING THE WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AGAIN
I expect you imagine that Mrs RM and I share a glamorous lifestyle punctuated by glitzy celebration of life events. Well, we spent our 29th wedding anniversary in a campervan parked in the far corner of Blairgowrie’s unglitzy car park, whose sign I checked seven times to ensure it didn’t prohibit overnight parking. We left… Continue reading FORGETTING THE WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AGAIN
TWO OUT OF THREE (NBSS >3 SCORES IN SCOTLAND) AIN’T BAD
I just went through the Blairgowrie photos with a fine toothcomb and there’s eighteen I want to use, so I’m afraid it’s two posts, but the second one features a Peanut Butter stout so that’s something to look forward to, I guess. Back to Sunday night, when I left Mrs RM with her second mini… Continue reading TWO OUT OF THREE (NBSS >3 SCORES IN SCOTLAND) AIN’T BAD
BLAIRGOWRIE – PICKING THE LOW HANGING FRUIT
Fear not, dear reader, I near the end of my A Scottish Life diary; epic landscapes, exotic dishes and unfathomably bad beer. Our last overnighter, back in the campervan, came in bucolic Blairgowrie. If you’d never heard of Blairgowrie, you’re not alone. Type “Tell me something interesting about Blairgowrie” into your search engine, and you… Continue reading BLAIRGOWRIE – PICKING THE LOW HANGING FRUIT
KEEP THE ENGINE RUNNING
After Cromarty we headed south, powered by the fumes of a fuming Mrs RM. For a while it looked like we’d run out of fuel before reaching Aviemore, having failed to spot a single service station on the A9 from Inverness down. But Mrs RM’s spotless directions led me to the BP garage just past… Continue reading KEEP THE ENGINE RUNNING
“And send them home, tae think again”
Mrs RM said she’d divorce me if I didn’t tell THE TRUTH about the Cromarty Arms, and since I also observed that truth I have no choice but to tell it. But I will preface this by saying, for the record, most Scots are lovely; see this post on Inverness. But having overdosed on loveliness… Continue reading “And send them home, tae think again”
AN EMOTIONAL RETURN TO CROMARTY
30 years ago, in the weekend that it looked I might be conscripted to fight the first Gulf war (we really did think that), I flew up to Edinburgh to meet a girl called Siobahn (i.e. Shivawn) I’d met on the Christian dating site. We drove up to Cromarty the next day, the furthest I’d… Continue reading AN EMOTIONAL RETURN TO CROMARTY
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