John Lewis

15 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

As department stores go John Lewis is just a little bit different. It began back in 1864 with a small drapery shop in London’s Oxford Street and has prospered ever since. Okay, but what makes it different? Its full name is the John Lewis Partnership because all of its 74,000 staff are partners in the company and share in its success. Part of their mission statement states “Driven by our ambition to make the world a happier place by leading with kindness and delivering integrity“. The cynic might say “Well they would say that, wouldn’t they“

Well we were a bit cynical as well but then we experienced it first hand. We’ve given up looking for hydrangeas and now we are on the hunt for an armchair. John Lewis has a huge furniture department hence we’re here at their Glasgow store.

A slip of paper

However, In spite of an amazing range we couldn’t quite find what we were looking for. One of the staff tried very hard to help us but eventually he apologised and gave up. Asking if there was anything else he could help us with, we asked “the war in Ukraine?” He just smiled and took himself off. A bit later on, however, he caught up with us again and handed us a slip of paper. He felt bad that we hadn’t found a chair so this little piece of paper entitled us to free coffee and cakes in their cafe. How kind was that? For us, the world was indeed a happier place.

Baristas?

Suffice to say, this little piece of paper forced us to find their cafe and eat scones and drink coffee. Otherwise it would never have crossed our minds … honest! Previously we have reported on The Cafe by Benugo which is an independently run restaurant on the third floor. This time we were in their own self service cafe ‘The Place To Eat‘ on the first floor. Like the store the cafe is huge. There was a bit of a log jam around all three coffee serveries (it takes a long time to make a coffee these days) but eventually we had what we wanted and were able to find a table by a window.

View down Sauchiehall Street from our table — View from our table up Sauchiehall Street on a rainy day

They have a large sign saying “Please leave everything on your table, we will clear it up“. And they did! There must have been about sixty or seventy tables but as soon as anyone left, the table was cleared and cleaned. It was diffucult to choose between looking out the window at everything going on outside or just watch all the comings and goings in the cafe. Dilemas, dilemas! It was all really good. Nice little pots of clotted cream and jam and the scone iteself was wonderfully textured with just the right amount of crunch. A topscone had it not been for the self-service nature of the place.

A happy place?

We were impressed, this place does do it’s best to make the world a happier place. Of course, there’s only so much they can do. Our young chap didn’t have any answers for Ukraine but then, no-one else does either. It’s impossible to see how either side can win. And now, with long range missiles in the mix, it seems to be in danger of escalating in to goodness knows what. In the Middle East, with the might of the US behind them, Israel cannot help but win the war … but they will never know peace. No winners, only unhappy losers. With their expertise in kindness and making things ‘happy’ perhaps a John Lewis management team could provide a few pointers?

G1 2GF tel: 0141 353 6677 John Lewis Partnership

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Ordinary, Scones

The Glen Café

8 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

In our previous post from Simply Sarah’s in Doune we mentioned that the village was famous for making pistols. The sort of weapon used by gentlemen who felt their reputation had been besmirched. Besmirching was usually done by gentlemen to one another and dueling was seen as an honourable way of resolving such situations. Common people couldn’t duel; a) they couldn’t afford a decent pistol and b) it would be unseemly for a gentleman to be shot dead by someone of lower social standing … perish the thought!

Quick draw

Today we are at the Glen Café in the little hamlet of Clachan of Campsie. Just a few yards from the cafe stand two ancient Spanish chestnuts, “the duelling trees”. They mark the site of a duel between a Tory and a Liberal politician in the 1600s. The Liberal chap, Malcolm Kincaid, lost the duel … and his life. The victor may have retired here (it used to be an Inn) for refreshment and to enjoy the congratulations of his admirers. When you think of the endless inconsequential arguments between politicians these days, dueling seems to take on some merit. Can you imagine the quick draw contests between our current world leaders? The problem is that self evidently all that duelling in the past didn’t actually solve anything. They’re all still arguing.

Do we need a dog?

This morning the weatherman said “go west if you want sunshine” so we did. Falkirk was decidedly cloudy when we left but by the time we got here we were bathed in glorious sunshine. Well done that weatherman! The café is quite big and virtually joined on to the historic St Machan’s graveyard. It’s a favourite place for people to access the paths onto the Campsie Fells and perhaps unsurprisingly is very dog friendly. In fact there were so many, at first we thought it might be a prerequisite to have a dog but luckily, it wasn’t.

It was still early so we decided on a light breakfast followed by a scone to share. Our coffees arrived first and we were delighted to find that they used our favourite coffee … Henry’s, fantastic! This is the way to start the day! Helpfully the staff had said that they would hold our scone until we had finished our breakfast. Then, when we were ready, they asked if we would like the scone warmed. Why not? No cream but they came with plenty butter and jam. Unfortunately none of it was locally produced, not even from Scotland. A bit of a black mark there. On the plus side the scone itself were really nice.

Who was St Machan?

We really enjoyed this place with its friendly service and beautiful location. We decided to visit St Machan’s graveyard next door and asked one the ladies behind the counter who he was. “Who?” was the puzzled answer. We would have to find out for ourselves.

Turns out not much is known about him. Firstly he was a Scottish 6th century bishop, educated in Ireland, ordained in Rome and spent the rest of his life as a missionary here in Campsie Glen. Secondly, how did he do all that back then without Easyjet or Ryanair? The chapel in the graveyard was built over his grave.

Luxury mausoleums

The Lennox mausoleum was built in 1715 by the powerful family who lived at nearby Lennox Castle.

In 1819 Miss Lennox had it restored and added another storey with a fireplace. She used it as a “sitting room” to receive guests between services. She, in turn, was buried here in 1832 and in 1884 it was sealed up permanently using ancient Kincaid tombstones from the graveyard. And we thought one of them might have belonged to our old duelling loser, Malcolm, but apparently not. It is fascinating to read the inscriptions on some of these graves. They shed light on what life was like centuries ago. However, some were unashamedly looking for an easy passage into heaven. Quite blatantly bragging about how saintly they had been during their time in Campsie Glen.

Other mysteries

Sadly, besmirching seems be a thing of the past. Perhaps there aren’t enough honourable gentlemen around these days? Vulgar insults and “see you in court” seems to have replaced it.

This was a beautiful day. We returned home via the Carron Valley, which supplies all the water to Falkirk. Seldom do we think, when turning on the tap or taking a bath, that this is where it all comes from. How does that work? It’s almost as mysterious as St Machan’s travels all those centuries ago.

G66 7AB tel: 01360 238258 The Glen Café FB

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Ordinary, Scones

Simply Sarah’s

2 September 2024 billpaterson1@me.com 7 Comments

Today we are in Doune at Simply Sarah’s tiny café. Usually when we are here we go to the Buttercup Café on the other side of the road. However, we didn’t come to Doune intent on visiting Simply Sarah’s, no no no, we came in search of a hydrangea. We need one to match another we already have in the garden. Pat suggested that we look for one here because there’s a teeny wee place that sells plants behind the Buttercup café. Coincidentally there just happens to be two of her favourite clothes shops here as well. The fact that we had to drive past several mega garden centres to get here didn’t make me in the least suspicious!?

Trevor Davis

Although you might not think so this little village is famous for making guns, pistols to be exact. The demise of highway robbery and gentlemen throwing down the gauntlet, of course, led to a drastic drop in demand. Now the village is just a nice place to live … and it has a couple of nice clothes shops. Doune Castle is a big attraction but in spite of the fact that many famous people have stayed there you would never know. They don’t do blue plaques here. That’s not to say that they don’t do any plaques. This one just outside Sarah’s is to Trevor Davis. A local hero and fount of all knowledge by the sounds of it!

Anyway, surprise surprise, there weren’t any hydrangeas for sale at the little plant stall. Did I mention that two of Pat’s favourite clothes shops are here? There was nothing else for it but to visit one of them, Doune Chic. They didn’t have any hydrangeas either but the did have lots of clothes. Suffice to say they don’t have as many as they had before we arrived. It was when we were on our way to second clothes shop (to see if they had any hydrangeas) that we visited Simply Sarah’s.

It’s very small, only two tables. Everything is home made by Sarah so we were keen to try their scones. No cream but we were asked if we would like butter and jam with the scone. However, we hadn’t expected them to preload them … argh! As you know, we like to do that ourselves. There was certainly no skimping on the jam. It would have to be a fork and knife job to avoid very sticky fingers. The scone was delicious and in other circumstances could have been a topscone.

This is a great wee place and very busy. Lots of chat so, in the absence of Trevor Davis, probably the place to find out what’s happening in the village. We left to go to the clothes shop next door, Woodlane of Doune. No hydrangeas but lots of other stuff.

It’s interesting to speculate on what pearls of wisdom Trevor would be dispensing these days while helping folks cross the road. We suspect that he would be so disgusted with the state of the world that he might mutter nothing more than “look left, look right”. Trevor would have known where to get a hydrangea. We miss you Trevor!

FK16 6BY tel: 01786 842304 Simply Sarah’s

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Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Monthly Archives: September 2024