Tag Archives: Brexit negotiations

Scotts at South Queensferry

31 January 2019 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Just when it seems that our government is hell bent on making everyone unhappy we find a place that specialising in doing exactly the opposite. Perhaps we should explain.

Port Edgar gets the Edgar bit from Edgar Aetheling, the brother of Queen Margaret from whom Queensferry get its name. In my mind, however, it is always associated with my powerboat license. It’s where I got it.

View of Forth Bridges from Scotts at Port Edgar — Road and rail bridges from the terrace at Scotts

Lots of ‘man overboard’ and James Bond type manoeuvres conducted under the two Forth Bridges. At that time the Queensferry Crossing wasn’t even a gleam in the eye of the Scottish Government. That gives you an idea of how long ago it was.

View of Queensferry Crossing from Scotts at Port Edgar — Queensferry Crossing from the terrace at Scotts

First impressions

The last time we were here it was at the Canadian/Scottish themed Down The Hatch, all maple leaves and Saltires. This place, Scotts at South Queensferry, was yet to open. They add ‘South Queensferry’ because no one, except yachties and powerboaters, has ever heard of Port Edgar. Eight years ago Buzzworks Holdings started out in Largs marina with their first restaurant. This is now their eleventh and most recent.

Internal view of Scotts at Port Edgar — Part of the ‘bookable’ restaurant area

Mission statements

Approaching from the car park it doesn’t look too promising. Once inside, however, the somewhat austere industrial exterior gives way to a wonderful warm and beautifully decorated interior. All centered round a large horshoe bar. It’s really busy. Outside there was not a soul to be seen. In here there are tons of folk all eating drinking and generally enjoying themselves. The sound of multiple conversations, the clink of glasses and the buzz of staff quietly going about their business.

Their stated mission is “to make people happy”. Well we would see about that, wouldn’t we! We’re also on a mission and, at the end of the day, it would all depend on the scones whether this duo were happy or not.

Kiwis

The person looking after us was Kasey, a kiwi, spending some time working in Scotland. She had already spent five months working in Elliots in Prestwick but while it was undergoing a £1m refurbishment the company had arranged for her to work here. Hotel and travelling expenses all taken care of. They obviously know how to retain their good staff because Kasey was a delight. When we asked how long she was planning to stay in Scotland she said “until my visa runs out at the end on 2020”. Welcome Kasey, great to have you here.
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Unbookable

We had noticed the scones on the way in, They looked quite big. As we ordered lunch we asked for a scone to share with our tea. Kasey told us. “All scones come with butter, jam and cream but would you like the scone just as it is, gently warmed or toasted?” Never been asked that before! Fab, toasted it was. As we waited for our scone to arrive we could see that all the staff, even though they were very busy, took time to chat and have a laugh with the customers. This is how customer care should be! Scotts even has an area for people who book and another which is unbookable. It’s for people like us who just turn up out of the blue. Genius!

Fish at Scotts at Port Edgar — Scotts’ aquarium

After our lunch our toasted scone duly arrived. Nicely presented, wonderfully warm and with plenty of everything to go with it. Delicious, we were delighted to award a topscone. You might think it was expensive however we had a delicious lunch, tea, coffee and a topscone for under £25, not too bad at all.

If indeed their mission is to make people happy then it certainly worked for us. We were happy, happy, happy. Not something we could say about the current political outlook. As Theresa May goes off to Brussels to flog the horse that died months ago you do feel for the horse. It must be thinking “I’m dead for goodness sake, stop the flogging!” There’s a wonderful irony in Northern Ireland being the obstacle to progress on Brexit what with Northern Ireland being a purely Westminster construct.

Happy again?

At least Corbyn, who has led from the back throughout Brexit, has decided to talk again. Presumably because no one was talking to him … hurragh! Maybe they can just forget the whole Brexit thing and, like Scotts, make people happy again. Even the most ardent Brexiteers might be happy to see some return to normality. Perhaps Buzzworks Holdings should be put in charge of the whole thing.

Nothing changes

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Battle of George Square in Glasgow. In 1919 about 25,000 striking workers, who had petitioned for a 40 hour working week, gathered in the Square awaiting the result. Westminster sent troops and tanks to quell what they perceived as the beginning of a Bolshevik style revolution. No Scottish troops were involved for fear they might side with the strikers. There was huge fear that access to Scotland’s resources might be lost. Gosh, one hundred years on and nothing’s changed!Many thanks to Scotts and our new kiwi friend for a very enjoyable visit. Consider your mission accomplished.

EH30 9SQ tel: 0131 370 8166 Scotts

Ordinary, Scones

Mariners Coffee Shop

26 April 2018 billpaterson1@me.com

If you were asked to name a village in Scotland which is south of both Carlisle and Durham you might be more than a little perplexed. However, if you were a bit of a smartypants, you might have said, Drummore, at the southern end of the Rhins of Galloway. And you would have been right! We’re here because we decided to visit the lighthouse which is just two miles further south and as far as you can go without ending up in the sea.

Mull of Galloway lighthouse on a misty day — Mull of Galloway lighthouse … almost!

As you can see it wasn’t a great day for visiting lighthouses, or birdwatching or anything else for that matter. Even driving was difficult. We found out later that it was only this little area that was under a cloud, about 15 miles away the whole country was bathed in sunshine … c’est la vie! Hence we ended up at the Mariners Coffee Shop hoping to brighten our mood if not the weather. Not sure about brightening our mood but it certainly changed it. This place is a tad different!

Bike enthusiasts

A veritable cornucopia of what might otherwise be justifiably called ‘junk’. It’s soooo bad, it’s good! There’s a drum kit as you come in and behind that a motorbike in the window. Not just any old plastic replica but an actual full sized motorbike. Goodness knows why it’s there, it’s not on display or anything. It’s just there taking up room. Given the motorbikes outside you begin to understand that this place may be owned by bike enthusiasts. As if further evidence was needed the ceiling is completely covered in old speedway progammes from all over the UK.

Fred Wedlock greatest hits

Music enthusiasts as well! One wall was decorated with old vinyl LPs. Not the covers but the actual records and they displayed somewhat diverse tastes … Elvis, the Beatles, Santana, Chopin Nocturnes, Bob Dylan, Elaine Delmar and, of course, Fred Wedlock’s Greatest Hits.

Southerly scones

The amount of stuff in here is slightly overwhelming, everywhere you look there is something else. In amongst it all though we did notice some scones. Pat decided on cheese while I went for my usual fruit. Unfortunately they did not live up to their exotic surroundings. Or maybe they did? Mine was okay but nothing special while Pat left half of hers … disappointing. No topscone but this would have qualified as Scotland’s most southerly scone had it not been for the fact that there was a scone bearing cafe at the lighthouse. It was a typical touristy kind of place, however, so we decided to give it a miss. This place had much more in the way of quirky character but probably has to settle for second most southerly scone.

Likewise the prize for Scotland’s most southerly telephone box would have gone to a Saracen foundry K6 in the village but we accidentaly deleted the photo, sorry! The eagle eyed Pat however spotted this K6 at a farm not far from the village, so maybe it should take the prize … it’s a bit on the small side and might even be a K2. Difficult to tell sometimes when they are manufactured in China, no attention to detail. No idea why it’s there either!

Big scare

Outside the village there was an interesting map in the sand dunes showing Luce Bay with a bit outlined in red which is designated a danger area by the Ministry Of Defence. They use it to test weapons. For some reason the most southerly bit is labeled “Big Scare“! Ooooh, that should keep Putin at bay! What with the Facebook, Skripal, and Windrush scandals still going strong and, the ultimate distractions of Royal babies and weddings, Brexit has all but vanished off the radar. Among all the clutter in the Mariners however was a sign which probably sums up the ongoing Brexit negotiations.DG9 9PS tel: 01776 840550 Mariners Coffee ShopTA

Scones, Top

Inchture Hotel

29 June 2017 billpaterson1@me.com

If you ever find yourself running the mile or so from the Inchture Hotel to the train station, don’t bother! The railway is still there but the station closed in 1956.

The railway bus, Inchture — The Inchture Railway Bus – from a picture in the hotel

In a bygone age however you would not have had to run at all. You could have been transported in some style on the Inchture Railway Bus. A horse drawn tramway which ran for over 60 years up to 1917 between the village and the station. Inchture is on the north side of the Firth of Tay. It is now bypassed by the A90 which means it is relatively quiet and peaceful. We are normally in this area looking for marsh harriers and bearded tits in the reed beds on the Tay estuary. In spite of relative success, however, with the harriers, to date, we have never seen a bearded tit. They are there though … annoying!

This is our first visit to the family run Inchture Hotel … it’s nice, in a calm unpretentious kind of way! Weddings seem to be a speciality. Since we have done all that, however, scones were the only things in our thoughts. Presentation was good and service was very attentive. Profuse apologies were offered for the late arrival of our coffee even though it wasn’t that late. The scones themselves were delicious, not crunchy at all but the fruit turned out to be a lovely mix of currants, raisins, cherries and peel … different! It was kind of borderline but eventually we decided they were worthy of a topscone award … well done Inchture Hotel.

Magic money trees

No awards for Theresa May however. She condescendingly explained to a nurse that she could not get a pay rise because there was “no magic money tree”. She then suddenly found one so that she could give a bribe of one billion pounds to N. Ireland’s DUP for their support. That’s £100m per MP. The “magic money tree” of course grows in Scotland. However, Scotland, as usual, is to get zilch! If this is indicative of her negotiating tactics for Brexit, the UK had better have deep pockets. Or rather Scotland had better be prepared to fund even more of her ludicrous decisions.

PH14 9RN Tel: 01828 686298 Inchture Hotel

ps: As we mentioned in our last post, our Trossachs correspondents have been conducting a scone search on St Kitts & Nevis! Unfortunately, is spite of their considerable efforts, we have to report that the Caribbean, to all intents and purposes is a scone free zone. Bermuda triangle and all that! Unless someone knows differently, of course!

Fountains in the Gorbals

Happily though they had their handy allaboutthescones telephone box identification guide with them when they visited the Ballahoo restaurant in Basseterre, the capital of St Kitts. With it they managed to identify a K6 … they even sent a photograph of the manufacturers badge … well done them! Interestingly the large green clock/drinking fountain in the foreground was also made in Scotland – in the Sun Foundry in Glasgow to be precise. It commemorates one Thomas Berkeley Hardtman-Berkley a local estate owner who died in 1881. Even more interestingly it is an exact copy of an identical fountain which stood in the Gorbals area of Glasgow until it was dismantled in 1932.

Today the plan is to reinstate the fountain and a team from Glasgow Caledonian University has been sent to Basseterre charged with producing an exact 3D image of the fountain using lasers and digital photography. The new fountain will then be produced using their imagery … you see how mind expanding scones can be! Once again, many thanks to our correspondents for their unstinting dedication.

Ordinary, Scones

Bridge 49 Cafe Bar

19 June 2017 billpaterson1@me.com

You will never guess how this place got its name – Bridge 49 Cafe Bar? Okay we will tell you. It’s right beside bridge 49 on the Union Canal … imaginative, or what?

External view of Bridge 49 Café beside the Union Canal — Bridge 49 Café from Bridge 49

What’s in a name?

The instantly forgettable bridge is only a stone’s throw from the extremely impressive 26m high Avon Aqueduct. Built in 1821 to a Thomas Telford design. It could have been called Ristorante Aqueducti. Or something a bit less prosaic than Bridge 49 Cafe Bar! Not to worry, we take our hats off to the folks who have built this enterprise in the middle of nowhere and obviously taking a sizeable gamble with a big investment. So they can call it whatever they like, we just eat scones after all. It has a large inside restaurant but, with today being absolutely beautiful, we opted for an ‘al fresco’ fruit scone overlooking the canal while watching the boats drift by. Life can be tough, but not today. In fact, it has seldom been so toughless!

Service could best be described as ‘adequate’ and our coffee was good but the same, unfortunately, could not be said for the scones. We like them a little bit crunchy on the outside but these were just hard and dry. They were either over-baked, or, they were yesterday’s. One of the worst scones we have had in a while. Shame really because, with its outside play area for children, this is a good place for families to come and enjoy a relaxed meal without worrying too much about the kids. So don’t let us put you off. Based on our experience however the scones need a bit of a rethink.

Trump says

A rethink is exactly what’s needed after the Grenfell Tower disaster. Theresa May’s lack of empathy during her unfortunate visit to the site only served to make people angry. It reminded Conservatives that she should not be allowed out in public. Though, to give her her due, in recent times, she herself has done everything possible to avoid meeting the public. This is the third scone since the General Election and she is still desperately hanging on. It is also eleven days since the election and she is still trying to reach agreement with the ten MPs of the DUP. What chance the Brexit negotiations starting today? Perhaps she should simply restrict herself to that most wicked of pastimes – running through fields of wheat when no one is around. As Trump would say, “bad”. Or maybe his other word “sad”. The latter is probably more appropriate?

EH49 6LW teL: 01506 846536 Bridge 49

ps Readers will distinctly remember the excruciating excitement as we reported on the highest scone in the land (1531 feet) at Wanlockhead in the Leadhills. Little did we know that we were throwing down a gauntlet. Recently we received a report from happy wanderers, our intrepid Trossachs correspondents, on a 38,000 feet high scone …eh? That’s not just a mile high scone, that’s over seven miles high!

Fluffy interiors

Of course they cheated, they were on a plane heading to that Caribbean idyll, Saint Kitts & Nevis … poor dears! After several glasses of champs and having just finished watching Ken Loach’s highly poignant film “I, Daniel Blake”, about life under the Tory benefit cuts, this happened. “Flying at 38,000ft with an outside temperature of minus 56 Centigrade, and 53 minutes before Antigua the moment arrived. Afternoon tea was served – not just sandwiches and cakes but also scones! We cannot possibly formally judge the scones but they were warm, crisp on the outside with fluffy interiors and were served with Rodda’s Classic Cornish Cream and Wilkin & Sons strawberry jam. As we enjoyed them we could not but think of how fortunate we are in contrast to the next generation of Daniel Blakes”.

Intergalactic scones

Fortunate indeed! But when will our correspondents learn? If they want their scones judged formally they have to to take us with them?

Scone at 38,000 feet — A seven mile high scone

We were tempted to go one better and book a Virgin Galactic space flight. We’ve had some nice light scones but never completely weightless ones. At over 60 miles high that would have to be a new record! When we phoned them however they could not give a definitive answer on whether or not they would be serving scones. Heyho, we won’t bother! In the meantime we eagerly await further reports on Caribbean scones being filed.

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

The Wee Big Shop

9 June 2017 billpaterson1@me.com

Well … the morning after the night before … devastation. Who is going to have to do the decent thing and get hitched? Guess it could be said that the Tories in their never ending quest to sort out their internal party politics, have led us directly towards the “coalition of chaos”. That’s they were banging on about throughout the election campaign. Here’s us thinking that they were advocating voting for them to avoid that. Silly us. Harsh reality means that Theresa May must now seek some sort of marriage with an equally unsavoury bunch in the DUP. Itself a damaged party in a damaged parliament. It remains to be seen what sort of dowry will be extracted by the DUP. Whatever happens it is liable to be an unholy alliance.

Maybe the answer is for Theresa and Arlene Foster to hook up here in Gretna Green and undergo an ‘unconventional’ marriage. Given the current state of British politics nothing would surprise us. When we visited Gretna we had a scone here in the Wee Big Shop. It’s a kind of tardis, hence the name. The place is swarming with tourists, Chinese, American, Japanese, you name it. They are all here rushing around buying tat before getting back on their buses and heading off to buy more tat in Edinburgh.

Runaway marriages

The café here is big as well and obviously caters for busloads all the time judging by the number of scones on display. The picture above is just a small selection. You are faced with a battery of different machines from which you know you can get tea or coffee in all its various forms but just no idea how to do it. Eventually some of the serving staff arrive to salvage the situation. Even for them it takes a while. Why not just serve the stuff in the first place? It would be so much easier and pleasanter.

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It started because the law in England allowed parents to stop a wedding if either of the participants were under 21. Whereas in Scotland, they could get married without parental consent. Also, provided there were two witnesses anybody could conduct the ceremony. Usually the blacksmith. Gretna was the first place over the border so this where the youngsters would come for their “runaway marriages”.

Strong and stable

As you can see, even though we are over 21, we tried out the blacksmith’s ceremony. Romantic or what? As far as we are concerned though this would be the last place on earth to get married unless you really, really, really had to. Oh yes, Theresa and Arlene really really really have to. It will not end well. Next week, as the promised “strong and stable” UK enters into EU Brexit negotiations looking like complete plonkers, we don’t imagine that will end well either. DG16 5EA tel: 01461 339912 The Wee Big Shop

Scones, history and a dollop of politics