Tag Archives: South Africa

island, Ordinary, Scones

The Boathouse – Again

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The news that this coronavirus isolation business may last another year is extremely unwelcome. Although we have got into a routine whereby the whole thing has become quite pleasant and enjoyable we still want it to end. And the sooner the better! The weather, of course, has definitely helped. But another year? We miss our family/friends and this year, of course, we are missing the company of our wonderful guests from around the world. Worst of all, if it’s going to take that long, we are worried that we may not have enough scones to repost. Yeah, we hear you cry!  Okay, okay but you don’t get off that easily. It’s an unbelievable five years since we were at the Boathouse on God’s Island, the Isle of Gigha.

The Boathouse is a great spot near to the ferry terminal at Ardminish Bay on Gigha. External view of the Boathouse on the Isle of GighaIt has a wide range of food on offer and is open into the evening for dinner and drinks. Unfortunately, when we visited it seemed to be in a state of chaos with staff doing headless chicken impersonations. Although it was not busy we waited a long time before having to ask to be served .. not good! The situation only seemed to be resolved with the return of the manageress or owner, not sure which. It has won several awards and people we spoke to praised it quite highly. So hopefully, this was just a temporary blip. Gigha is not exactly bristling with fancy eateries so we sincerely hope so. A scone at the Boathouse on the Isle og Gigha

When they eventually arrived, our tea and scones were quite good and it was great to be sitting outside with the sun on our backs. They were nicely presented on a small breadboard with a wedge of butter but it was a pity the cream was not quite up to the ‘clotted’ standard.

Honourable?

Standards are not quite up to the mark in that disgrace of a place, the House of Lords. The honourable Lord in charge of standards has reportedly been found snorting cocaine off the breasts of prostitutes. All paid for by you and I. They set the bar that high so they can then decide what is good for the rest of us! The Boathouse, on the other hand, is a far superior House and, if time had allowed, we would have tried an evening meal because the menu looked very enticing .. next time!

One of the numerous beaches on Gigha looking towards Jura
One of the numerous beaches on Gigha looking towards Jura

PA41 7AA        tel: 01583 505123         The Boathouse

Back in 2020, with Trump having taken to issuing medical advice we are dreading what we might find when our local pub opens up again. Disinfectant beer pumpsThanks to our Trossachs correspondents for the warning. On a brighter note, we saw our first swallow the other day, just arrived from South Africa. Remember when we used to be able to do that?

GIGHA SHED

Shed on the Isle of Gigha
Disused pier at the north of the island where they park the Ardminish ferry overnight
foreign, Ordinary, Scones

The Scotch Tea House

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As you know from our previous post, Café 66, we have been following the swallows in their southerly migration. Unlike us, however, they probably managed to avoid French rail strikes.  As they continued blithely onwards to South Africa we had to contend with the vagaries of continental travel.

A sign in the toilet at the Scotch Tea House in Nice, France
No jeter in the toilet

As the officials kept telling us, the strike was a ‘surprise’, only announced overnight so there was nothing much they could do The answer to most of our questions was a gallic style shrug of the shoulders. There were a few trains running but no one seemed to know which ones. The French seem to accept such things fairly philosophically. And, in any case, they are fortunate to have Macron to blame for everything.

To cut a long story short we eventually arrived at my sister’s place about five hours late. The swallows were probably in South Africa by then. Never mind, we received a welcome like no other so all our inconveniences were immediately forgotten.

The carpet in the Scotch Tea House in Nice, France
The Tea House carpet

To make matters worse it was raining. It was raining a lot … a monsoon. It was warmer rain than we get in Scotland, however. Six years since we were last in Nice so there was much catching up to do and new things to see. My sister was keen that we see the new tram system which was still under construction on our previous visit. Also the new Coulée Verte, a beautiful green corridor that runs through the centre of the town. It’s a place for people to walk and take their ease.

Of course, France like the rest of the EU, is pretty much a scone free zone. A bit of a desert to sconeys like us. There are may culinary things France is famous for but scones isn’t one of them. However as we wandered through the Coulée Verte what should we spy in the distance … the Scotch Tea House! Was it  possible that a scone, a beacon of genteel civility, might exist in such a place?

Internal view of the Scotch Tea House in Nice, FranceWe entered into a cool dark wood paneled interior that must have given many delicate Victorian ladies refuge from the midday sun. It didn’t look as if it had changed much in the intervening years. And, sacre bleu, they had scones! This was indeed unexpected. We had thought that we would be scone free until our return to the UK. Once we had chosen our tea from the tea menu it wasn’t long before our scones arrived … toasted? No one had asked if we wanted them toasted, that’s just the way they came.

A scone at the Scotch Tea House in Nice, France
Presumably all scones come ready toasted in France

In spite of there being lashings of cream in some of the cakes on display, there was none for scones, c’est la vie. There was a selection of jam and a little pack of French butter … just like you get in the UK!?  The scones were different, not unpleasant – just different. They had a fairly dry even texture which may have been partly due to the toasting. We enjoyed them but thought they fell well short of a topscone. Good enough for a top ‘French scone’. though. Bravo, the Scotch Tea House, good attempt!

The menu in the Scotch Tea House in Nice, France
Specialités Anglaises’, a tad odd for a Scotch Tea House

One of the benefits of being here is that we are almost devoid of Brexit news. Suffice to say, the French are just as perplexed as the UK on the whole sorry fiasco. We may have to all learn the gallic shrug of the shoulders accompanied with a “Quels imbéciles!”External view of the Scotch Tea House in Nice, France

06000 Nice      tel: +33 4 93 87 75 62        Scotch Tea House TA

///eternity.trout.shrimp

Ordinary, Scones

1884 Bo’ness

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Today we are at 1884 Bo’ness. Readers will be aware that from time to time, we go to the cinema. More often than not we go to the Hippodrome in Bo’ness, Scotland’s oldest picture palace. And, more often than not, we go in the morning, just because we can! Logo at 1884 Kitchen and Grill, BonessWe are not quite sure why, because on the face of it it is a perfectly normal thing to do, but it still seems vaguely sinful. It’s not so much going in, it’s coming out when it’s not even lunchtime!

Anyway, us sinners went to see Mike Leigh’s Peterloo today and we had no worries about coming out before lunch. At two and a half hours, it’s something of an epic. It’s all about democracy in 1819 and the British government’s attempts to drown it at birth. They did not want common folk getting ideas above their station like the dastardly French. Four years earlier us Brits had given Napoleon a jolly good thrashing at the Battle of Waterloo and, sadly, our ruling classes looked on the Peterloo Massacre of its own people in a similarly triumphant light. This was amply illustrated by the fact that it actually took place at Petersfield in Manchester but was adapted to Peterloo as a warning to other potential upstarts. Internal view of 1884 Kitchen and Grill, Boness

Democracy

Anyway the take home message of the film was that we’ve not come very far in the intervening centuries. The UK is still the least democratic of all European states and, of course, democracy has yet to be discovered in Scotland.

After almost three hours of fairly intense viewing however, sustenance was definitely required. Just a short distance from the cinema we came across 1884 Bo’ness, a new café /restaurant. It had only opened a few weeks previously. The rather ancient looking exterior belies its nice modern welcoming interior. It does everything you would expect of a ‘kitchen grille’ but, of course, scones were the main attraction for us. When we asked why it was called ‘1884’, we were told it was because it was carved in stone on the outside of the building. It’s construction date. Date carved in wall outside 1884 Kitchen and Grill, BonessAs good a reason as any and for brother and sister owners, David and Kirstie Stein it’s become rather habit forming. They also run very successful businesses, 1807 in Linlithgow and 1912 in Bathgate.

We decided on a fruit scone and opted for their offer of it being toasted. It was wonderfully warm when it arrived and came with plenty prepackaged jam, butter and whipped cream. It would have been nicer to have had a dish of jam, a pat of butter and some clotted cream but that wasn’t to be. Sadly, no topscone but we enjoyed everything about 1884 Bo’ness and would certainly return on our next cinema visit.

1884 and all that

While this building was being constructed in 1884 there were other things happening elsewhere.

  • Here in Scotland, in scenes that must have been reminiscent of Peterloo, Royal Marines and police arrived in naval vessels at the tiny village of Uig on the Isle of Skye to help a landowner evict crofters from his Kilmuir estate.
  • Otto von Bismarck declared South Africa a German colony.
  • In the US, Alaska became a US territory and on Coney Island the first roller coaster went into action with a thrilling top speed of 6mph.
  • Batchelor, Grover Cleveland became President of America in spite of admitting to fathering a child in his youth. It gave rise to the chant used against him “Ma, Ma, where‘s my Pa? Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!”.
  • John Harvey Kellogg, patented “flaked cereal” (cornflakes) which he intended as a ‘healthy, ready-to-eat anti-masturbatory morning meal’!
  • In France the Statue of Liberty was presented to the US and Claude Monet painted “La Corniche near Monaco.”
  • In the UK, Greenwich was accepted as the universal time meridian of longitude though France refused to accept it for another thirty years.
  • The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in Ireland
Cornflakes

From this list we can reasonably deduce that the world has always been slightly mad. Though perhaps not quite as mad as it is today. The EU has sent Theresa May packing. Her attempts to bring about an acceptable Brexit deal  seem almost as futile as Kellog’s ambitions for his breakfast cereal.

Wall decoration in the form of a cows skull at 1884 Kitchen and Grill, Boness
wall decoration at 1884

EH51 0EA     tel: 01506 829946        1884 Kitchen and Grill FB

Scones, Top

The Corner Café

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You just can’t turn your back for a minute. We go down to London for a few days and come home to find a brand new café has popped up in the middle of town. Back in February we reviewed the Larder café which was a reincarnation of a previous one called Food Heaven. Both were pretty awful. Indeed this site seems to have been blighted by failed businesses over the years. Perhaps its because there is a big glossy Costa directly opposite. Maybe it’s the crowded market but mostly we feel it has been down to shoddy management. We said we would let you know how the Larder got on. Well it only lasted a few months after our review. That wasn’t the cause of its demise but probably didn’t help either.

Anyway, it’s now called the Corner Café and at long last it seems to have management that knows what it is doing. Young buck, Andrew, heads up a team that has gone right back to basics. Previously everything was bought in from a large cash and carry warehouse in Glasgow but now it’s all prepared fresh on site, scones included. Obviously, we had to visit. Internal view of the Corner Café, Falkirk

Hints of chocolate

The place has a clean fresh look and we were made to feel very welcome by the staff even though it was almost closing time when we got there. The menu is relatively small but big enough to have something to please everyone. We were particularly pleased to see that their coffee was from Henry’s Coffee Company. Not the Cat’s Pyjamas, but a blend made exclusively for the Corner by Henry’s.A scone at the Corner Café, Falkirk

They were sold out of fruit scones but the lady looking after us made a quick dash to the kitchen to see if there were any there, Sadly no, so one of the last remaining plain scones it was. It came with strawberry jam and cream in lovely little ceramic containers … nice touch. The scone itself was very good and their special coffee was deliciously smooth with subtle hints of chocolate, excellent. After some deliberation we felt that a topscone award was thoroughly deserved.

The Corner hasn’t even been open two weeks so we wish them the very best of luck for the future, hopefully they break the curse that seems to bedevil this site .. and we are not alone

Good luck cards at the Corner Café, Falkirk
Good luck cards from wellwishers
Tug-of-war

Everyone is fed up to back teeth of Brexit. If it inadvertently brought about a united Ireland and an independent Scotland it might have all been worth it … but otherwise?? The main news this week  is that Meghan Markle, Countess of a big chunk of England somewhere, closed her own car door. This was her first solo engagement and according to the media, with this one simple act she demonstrated how ordinary and down to earth the Royal Family really are. She has been showered with congratulations.

The other big congratulatory news was from South Africa. In the World Tug-of-War Championships in Cape Town, Ayrshire Ladies won gold in the 500kg competition. You are hearing it here because Pat and I used to be heavily involved in tug-of-war. And because you won’t hear it anywhere else. If you can do a good hop skip and jump you are lauded to the heavens by the media. You might even get a knighthood but in a serious sport like tug-of-war, not a dickie bird! Anyway, good luck to Andrew and his team, we are in your Corner … sorry!

FK1 1LZ.     tel: 01324 410949        The Corner Café FB

Ordinary, Scones

The Aizle Coffee Shop

Today, we are in Ballat. Ballat is a village in northern Syria not far from Homs. It has has a population of about 574 mainly Greek Orthodox Christians. That’s according to Google. Thankfully we are nowhere near there today because a) it’s dangerous b) it’s unlikely to have scones. Instead we are at Ballat crossroads about fifteen miles north of Glasgow because a) it’s dangerous b) it’s likely to have scones.

Let us explain! The A811 road forms part of our normal route over to Loch Lomond and at Ballat it crosses the main Aberfoyle to Glasgow road … not like a normal crossroads in the shape of a straight forward cross, but rather a cross that has been mangled and flattened … you have to cross at a very weird angle and it can all get a little bit hairy.

Probably fine when only used by carthorses but now with juggernauts thundering through at a rate of knots it is an altogether different proposition … the scene of regular accidents.

Internal view of the Aizle Coffee Shop, DrymenThe narrow sliver of land between the two roads is occupied by a complex of shops called the Aizle, one of which is the Aizle Coffee Shop. Goodness knows why anyone would call it that but apparently it is an old Scots word meaning ‘hot ember’ or ‘spark’ … it rhymes with hazel … whatever! Normally we are so thankful at just making it safely to the other side of the junction that we have never bothered stopping here. The only reason we are stopping today is that our tummies are rumbling and we still have a fair bit to go.

Problem, we had not realised the time. We were arriving just as they were closing for the evening. Nevertheless, although we were the only ones around, we were very warmly welcomed. A scone at the Aizle Coffee Shop, DrymenThey didn’t have any proper food left, just the odd cake … and the odd scone. Initially we thought this fortuitous however our scone turned out to be pretty awful … dry and hard … perhaps because it had been lying out all day? Serves us right for arriving so late. Our visit was brief but we felt sustained enough to carry on our way so it did its job. No topscone here however, nowhere near.

One nice thing about this place was that it provided some light reading material at each table. Rather than our usual political rant we will just let you read our table:
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A driver was stuck in a traffic jam on the M25 near London. Nothing was moving. Suddenly a man knocks on the window.

The driver rolls down the window and asks, “What’s going on?”

“Terrorists have kidnapped all members of Parliament, and they’re asking for a £100 million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them in petrol and set them on fire. We are going from car to car collecting donations.”

“how much is everyone giving on average?” the driver asks. The man replies, “Roughly a litre.“

Okay, not in good taste but then again it did match the scone! We actually felt a modicum of sympathy for politicians when we read that piece. Some of them must have a modicum of sense after all. But then we saw the pictures of Theresa May dancing with some black kids in South Africa and all sympathy evaporated. For years, she, along with David Cameron branded Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Now, in the face an impending hard Brexit caused by her own party’s stupidity, she is in Mandela’s country desperately kowtowing for business. Another litre?

G63 0SE        tel: 01360 440456           The Aizle FB

Ordinary, Scones

National Shooting Centre for Scotland

You’ve heard of shooting stars, but have you heard of shooting scones? No, let us enlighten you. As you are aware, we leave no stone unturned in our bid to bring you the latest scone news. However, the situation described in this post even surprised us. We knew that friends were involved in shooting but when they visited us, we had no idea they were competing at the European down-the-line Clay Pigeon Shooting Championships … eh?? Turns out that the venue was a shooting school half way between Falkirk and Slamannan and recently, having had a load of money spent on it, had been designated the National Shooting Centre for Scotland. Flags flying at the National Shooting Centre, Scotland

Hundreds of gunmen

Although it is only a few miles from our house (sometimes we can hear the guns if the wind is in the right direction) we were totally unaware of its new elevated status. In fact, we were pretty much unaware of anything to do with it. Out of sheer curiosity we decided to go along and see what it was all about. Imagine our surprise when we came to the end of a dirt track on the high and pretty desolate Slamannan plateau and emerged through some scrubby trees to find what must have been about seven or eight hundred folk milling around. Most of them carrying shotguns. Surreal or what? Strange for mere sconeys like us, who lead very sheltered lives and are not used to seeing guns. To see sooo many!Competitors at the National Shooting Centre, Scotland

The site is huge and the competition was in full swing with shooters shooting on numerous specially designed crescent shaped stands. Five competitors per stand each taking it in turn to shoot the ‘birds’ as they call them. The orange coloured clay pigeons.

Clay pigeon cassette at the National Shooting Centre, Scotland
Some ‘birds’ waiting to be shot
Eardrum fatigue

Although we are now conversant with all aspects of the sport,  suffice to say, at this point we didn’t have a scooby.

Scottish ladies team shooting at the National Shooting Centre, Scotland
Scottish ladies team … the ‘bird’ highlighted has only nanoseconds to live

We did know, however, with guns going off everywhere, that it was noisy … very noisy! Everyone had ear defenders on. Not so those who were simply here to eat the scones they had spied earlier in the clubhouse. Eardrum fatigue eventually drove us back in that direction.

Internal view of the National Shooting Centre, Scotland
Team strategy meeting for the Welsh in the clubhouse

 

The scones looked good but the lady who was serving was slightly wide-eyed and more than a tad frazzled. She was valiantly coping with multitudes of hungry gunmen on her own. Against all the  odds her sense of humour was still evident. Though when I asked if she had personally baked the scones. Oh, if looks could kill! To make matters worse she had to pre-load the scones using large catering packs of butter and jam. This slowed things down considerably. Perhaps it was just as well that we had decided to share a scone between us. A scone at the National Shooting Centre, ScotlandAt last we had two halves of a scone but, because our lady had been rushing, one half just had a dollop of jam in the centre. It needed spreading. But there was nothing around that bore any resemblance to a knife. Presumably, in a place with hundreds of guns, a knife might be deemed dangerous! I had to use my finger. There’s a first time for everything!

Are they mad?

The scone itself was quite good, almost finger lickin’ good. But you know our criterion for a topscone, so this one was never going to make the grade. Enjoyable enough though, especially on an wet windy day like this. What sort of people compete in a sport that involves shooting brightly coloured bits of clay in the rain? Do they have to be totally mad or just half mad? We asked a chap from the South African team. He replied curtly “you don’t have a life unless you shoot“! Are they mad? Well no more than a bunch of people trying to get a small ball into a tiny distant hole in the ground by hitting it with a stick.  Seriously though, these folks are completely dedicated and, because the level of competition is so high, extremely skilled. cartridges at the National Shooting Centre, Scotland

Berettas and Brexit

With our new found knowledge we could regale you with the differences between down-the-line, traps, skeets, over & unders, the handling properties of Brownings and Perazzis versus Berettas, and all sorts of other things you can’t even begin to imagine … however it is probably easier if we just explain the UK’s strategy for Brexit … yes, that would be much much easier because they still don’t have one! Huge thanks to A&C for letting us share this experience.

FK1 3AL     tel: 01324 851672     National Shooting Centre Scotland

UPDATES: Plastic K6 telephone boxes in Aberfoylethe couple we met on the Isle of Rùm who were making a holiday nettle cord eventually completed it and sent an update. It eventually included nettle from Camusdarach, Rùm, Arisaig and Mellon Udrigle and finished with bramble from the shores of Loch Maree … because they couldn’t find any nettles?? Our Trossachs correspondents are back in their natural habitat after their sojourn to St Kitts and Nevis and sent a picture of a K6 they spotted in Aberfoyle. Made in China we think. Many thanks to all for keeping us up to date.