Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

M&S Café

M&S 010Ok, lower the lights, cue soft sexy music, “because this not just a scone … its an M&S scone“. A very successful TV ad that has fallen into everyday usage to describe everything other than what it was supposed to, M&S food. But this is food and it’s M&S food so will it live up to the hype? No problem, probably the best self service scone we have had so far. There were a couple of problems though; the coffee was decidedly average and the butter was too hard to spread on a light fluffy scone.

The scones, however, were very good .. Pat had a very good cheese one. Now here is an interesting thing. In our last post you will remember that we were having to rough it at Gleneagles where everything was brought to us at our seat in front of the big open fire by a team of waiting staff. Everything was absolutely first class. M&S 03By comparison, for the rather spartan surroundings of the self service M&S scones we had to buy jam and cream separately so that, unbelievably, they ended up more expensive than the Gleneagles ones. In total, for exactly the same order, Gleneagles was just slightly more expensive because of the coffee. But the coffee was perfect, a hundred times better than M&S. Just goes to show! One scone experience was light years ahead of the other but both cost much the same. Just so as you know.

Paris and Beirut

Understandably the news is still dominated by the Paris catastrophe. However in its attempt to provide 24hr coverage the BBC has been reduced to wittering rather than reporting. If there were to be a scone disaster in Azerbaijan, we are sure the BBC would immediately be able to go over to their own scone correspondent in Baku. The day before Paris there were around 50 people killed in an IS bomb attack in Beirut  that went completely unreported, not a single cheep. Never mind what that says about standards of reporting, what does it say about us? Did they just not want to bother us? What is the difference between the Paris and Beirut? M&S 02It is also sad to see the knee-jerk responses from politicians. Declarations of pitiless war and increased security measures everywhere.

Double standards

Do they not understand that that is why we are in this mess and that a war on terrorism is about as futile as a war on drugs. Amongst all the talk there seems to be no cognisance of what appears to us to be the only way forward. Go after Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE who, directly or indirectly, provide funds and succour to IS and al-Qaida. Make them pariah states, freeze their assets, let them know that they are not welcome. Instead of feting them like royalty, send their diplomats home. Whatever it takes until they sort themselves out! But of course that way might harm the bankers and arms dealers and that would be unthinkable. For every bullet fired and every bomb dropped they whoop joyously.

Getting things in proportion

It would probably mean a drop in our standard of living but we think we could get by on just one scone every second day if it meant we could live without fear. Oh no, just remembered that the US standard of living is non-negotiable so that probably is not going to work. And, of course, our media all too often simply reflects the foreign policy objectives of our governments. If we may continue the TV ad analogy .. if Carlsberg made foreign policy disasters?  Just remember, as our government ramps up the terror alert to “severe” that as many people have been killed by bee stings in the last decade as in terror incidents. Maybe even as many people have choked to death on scones?M&S 07

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The Wee Blether Tearoom

Direction finder at the Wee Blether Tearoom, KinlochardBefore we start and for those of you who do not speak ‘pure Scots’ perhaps we should explain ‘wee blether’. It is when people get together and gossip about anything and everything. A blether can also be a noun. The act of blethering or someone who blethers .. tells stories not necessarily based in fact. You remember an earlier post about the MP for Shetland who mislead his constituents so as to get elected. In English you would call him a liar, pure and simple. However, in Scots, if we wanted to be less harsh, we might call him ‘a wee blether’ .. got it?

Meanwhile back in the real world, Russia is bombing Syria, the US is bombing Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia is bombing Yemen and Britain’s nuclear submarines patrol endlessly and uselessly. Fortunately, in the midst of this mess  the Wee Blether Tearoom is a perfect oasis of light hearted good sense. We had had it on good authority from a couple of local Kinlochardians (or whatever you call people from Kinlochard) that this place was worth a visit. They were not wrong.

Soup and bread

The menu reminds you that “we are not a fast food establishment, not even a restaurant, we’re a small family run tearoom, we strive to provide the best quality food as quickly as we can” .. a good start! Notice at the Wee Blether Tearoom, KinlochardIt is up to the minute with deals, in fact everywhere you look there are offers that have to be read with some care. However, for not taking themselves too seriously Ricky and Shona (the owners) do a great job of combining a lovely relaxed atmosphere and great food. Sitting in the sun looking out over Loch Ard it is not difficult to relax and the sweet potato and coconut soup accompanied by almost a half loaf of wonderfully soft brown bread was absolutely delicious.  A scone at the Wee Blether Tearoom, Kinlochard

When our scones arrived however we realised that the soup and bread might have been a mistake .. they don’t do dainty scones and they came fully loaded with jam and cream. Now  we have said in the past that we prefer to load our own scones. Make a scone of two halves then load and eat each half separately. In our opinion that’s the way it should be done. On this occasion at least we were provided with a fork and spoon with which to tackle them. They were fab!

Sweeties

Even although there was not a single kid in the place Ricky came round dishing out sweets to everyone. Like the big kids that we are, we dutifully took them. Nice touch though. We also took up their latest offer, pay double for one scone and get the second free .. great! This place is friendly and well named. If you came here on your own it wouldn’t be long before you were having a wee blether with someone. Well done to Ricky and Shona, great place and topscone.

teapot collection at the Wee Blether Tearoom, Kinlochard
teapot collection

FK8 3TL      tel: 01877 387337         Wee Blether Tearoom