Tag Archives: David Cameron

Orange Pekoe – Revisited

12th December 2018 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

The last time we reviewed a scone at Orange Pekoe the mighty David Cameron was in power. He had just bored a small child half to death with one of his storytelling photo opportunities. It was only a month to go before the EU referendum he had called to resolve all his political problems. Oh, if he had just waited for the result, what a story he could have told then! Except he mysteriously vanished and hasn’t been seen since?

Plonkers

We have come to the conclusion that the subsidies that schools like Eton, Harrow and Westminster enjoy should be withdrawn. They are supposed to produce fine upstanding leaders to rule over us and set an example to us ordinary folk who cannot afford such an elite education. Their primary purpose, of course, is to maintain the system whereby the country’s wealth is retained by them. In recent years, or perhaps always, they have failed completely in this relatively simply task. Instead they have produced a long line of plonkers. Plonkers or not, credit where credit’s due, they have managed to retain their wealth. Stop the privileges for the privileged we say! Radical or what?

Anyway, enough of that. London is awash with eating places. Sometimes, however, in such cosmopolitan surroundings, a simple scone can be surprisingly difficult to find. As you know we have reviewed upmarket Claridge’s and top of the range Connaught but our favourite remains this tiny tea house in Barnes. It’s friendly and informal atmosphere is very reassuring. It’s always nice to be greeted with “just the usual” when you walk in after not having been near the place for months. Naturally it serves wonderful food and, of course, a wide range of teas. We come here a lot for breakfast but, since the last review was three years ago, we thought we should check the scones again on your behalf.

There was no need to worry our fruit scone came just as it had the last time, deliciously warm and with lots of everything to go with it. Ten out of ten for consistency and absolutely no problem awarding a topscone.

Panto

Orange Pekoe revisited means we are just a short hop up the Thames from the Palace of Westminster and coming up to Christmas it’s panto time again. Never mind Aladdin and Cinderella though the best pantomime this year is definitely here at Westminster … “will she, won’t she?”, “they’re behind you”! Our politics is all happening in typically chaotic pantomime fashion, only with none of the humour! No matter what the result is of tonight’s vote of no confidence in Theresa May, the Brexit pantomime looks set to continue indefinitely. Thank you Orange Pekoe for providing a strong and stable oasis of calm.

SW13 0PX tel: 020 88766070 www.orangepekoeteas.com

Ordinary, Scones

The Aizle Coffee Shop

29th August 2018 billpaterson1@me.com

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.

The 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. They 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:
The precaution one needs to take when buying standard pills is that the pharmacy one is cheap online levitra dealing with should be authorized. For those adversely affected by tadalafil male sexually enhancement levitra india price http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/11/13/claire-in-autumn/ pill, they should avoid it altogether. How to control premature ejaculation? Premature ejaculation is climaxing levitra generic cialis thought about this remarkably quickly either before or shortly after sexual penetration. PE accounted one of the most general aspects of sildenafil canada pharmacy deeprootsmag.org male sexual dysfunction & has almost exaggerated every man at particular stage of life.

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

Pâtissier Maxime

20th March 2017 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Here we are in Edinburgh again and this time Pat is treating me to afternoon tea at Pâtissier Maxime … yeagh! In 1985 when Didier Meyer won “best Puff Pastry in France” it encouraged him to set up his first Pâtissier Maxime in Haguenau near Strasbourg. He probably never dreamed that one day there would be one here in the west end of the Scottish capital, but here it is! It specialises in macaroons, cakes, tarts and loads of other pastries but they also make their own ice cream and chocolate. Their window display is a glorious confection of colour and deliciousness. The burning question, of course was “what do the French know about afternoon tea” … it’s such a British institution. This very French establishment might struggle to pass muster?

Raised pinkies

Once seated it all started in a terribly civilised way with a glass of prosecco but when we saw the afternoon tea arriving we knew it was going to be a little bit different … in presentation at least. Normally afternoon tea comes with a fine china cake stand and equally fine china tea cups in order to engender the refined atmosphere necessary for genteel conversation. Raised pinkies and all that!

Not in Pâtissier Maxime. Here it comes on a huge heavy multi-tiered wooden construction covered in fake grass. Tea comes in thick coffee cups … sacrebleu, mon dieu, help ma bob!! Three girls at the next table got an even bigger one that the waitress could barely carry. At least there was a nod to British sensitivity with the savoury stuff at the bottom and the sweet delicate cakes up at the top. Once we had recovered from the initial shock we noticed that, as well as the copious amounts of food, there were several ‘fun’ items like easter eggs, bunny rabbits … and a sheep?? The sandwiches and cakes were all absolutely delicious of course but the crème de la crème for us was always going to be the scone.

Désolé monsieur!

They were big … much bigger than they should be for an afternoon tea so we were a bit nervous about tackling them. In the end we decided to share one between the two of us. If we had eaten one each we would never have got anywhere near the goodies on the top tier. They turned out to be quite good, a tad on the dry side perhaps but just toooo big. Fine on their own perhaps but not as part of a very generous afternoon tea. No topscone for Didier … désolé monsieur!

Everything else was excellent and the service we received was wonderful. So did Patissier Maxime pass muster? Well, yes and no! The food definitely did but the presentation, flamboyant and fun as it was, lacked that certain British reserve. But then they are all French in here, what did we expect? Scotland is not particularly noted for reserve, quite the opposite, but these days even Scottish reserve lies head and shoulders above the British variety.

Stiff upper lip

Can you imagine the furore if David Cameron had had to ask the EU for permission to hold a referendum on Brexit .. and then to be told “no, you can’t”! Nicola Sturgeon’s reserve is astounding in the face of the hypocrisy of Theresa May who, up until recently, was lecturing us on what a disaster Brexit would be for all nations of the UK. Margaret Thatcher, of all people, said “Scotland does not need a referendum on independence she just needs to send a majority of nationalist MPs to Westminster to have a mandate for independence”. She obviously never envisaged that happening, far less that 56 of the 59 Scottish MPs at Westminster would end up being nationalist. In these circumstances, Sturgeon’s patience, dignity and reserve could be used as a lesson to any self-respecting Englishman in stiffupperlipness.

Thanks Pat for treating me at Pâtissier Maxime. You know I’m worth it!

EH2 4PA tel: 0131 225 6066 Pâtissier Maxime

Scones, topweird, weird

Living Water Satisfies Café

19th September 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

You are all aware of the Bermuda Triangle. That mysterious area of ocean on the other side of the Atlantic where things simply disappear without trace. Today we are in the Crystal Palace Triangle, a relatively small area enclosed by three streets. It’s famous for an eclectic range of vintage furniture and clothing stores, in south London. Like it’s Caribbean namesake things go missing here as well. Scones, for example! It’s not as if there are no cafés, there are loads of them. Venezuelan cafés, Nepalese cafés, Polish cafés, Sudanese cafés. Would any of those have scones?

View from Crystal Palace towards central London — Crystal Palace, on Sydenham Hill, is one of the highest points in London.

Just as we were about to declare the Triangle a ‘scone desert’ we came across the Living Water Satisfies or LWS Café. No idea where it gets it’s name but it is situated on the outer extremity of the Triangle where the influence is obviously weaker. Lo and behold … scones. Admittedly there was only three left and they were all the same … gruyère and chive! LWS turns out to be a charity dedicated to helping those who suffer domestic abuse so all the proceeds from the café and bookshop go towards providing shelter and comfort to abuse victims. Well done them! The café itself is pretty basic but is obviously well used for functions and meetings as well as folk just dropping in for something to eat. They also make everything, including the scones, on the premises.

Life on the Edge

As you know we occasionally like to live life on the edge, adrenalin and all that … and besides, this place was worthy of our tiny little bit of support. Also, you readers obviously need to know about such things, so gruyère and chives it was! What a surprise, what a pleasure. Really cheesy and the chives just gave them a certain je ne sais quoi. For sure, they fell into the ‘weird scone’ category but definitely one of our top weird scones! Coffee was good as well.

In the short time since our previous post there have been other disappearances. We think that David Cameron may have moved too close to the epicentre of the Crystal Palace Triangle because, having laid waste to the UK, the EU, Libya and even brought perfectly honourable pigs into disrepute, he has now vanished completely. He told us himself that he is “no quitter”, so the Triangle seems the most likely explanation. He will be remembered fondly. In much the same way as Tony Blair.

SE19 3AF tel: 020 8653 4011 LWS Café

Ordinary, Scones

Henderson’s Salad Table

26th June 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 2 Comments

Life, after the result of the EU referendum, seems somehow surreal. To make matters worse, in escaping from a boiling hot auction house in Edinburgh, we find ourselves here in what is, for us, almost some sort of parallel universe .. a vegan restaurant. Henderson’s, to be precise. Now, we are the sort of people who will eat pretty much anything without thinking too much about it. And thoroughly enjoy it. So coming face to face with a vegan scone made us realise that our understanding of veganism was somewhat sketchy. Google to the rescue!!

Vegan s defined

Apologies to those who already know, but the Vegan Society definition is “A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.” Great, all very laudable so long as they understand that that approach is a luxury. It is afforded to them by modern day living where supermarkets provide a ridiculous variety and range of just about everything. If they had to apply that principle in ‘Scotland of old’ their state of health would be best described as ‘dead’.

Anyway, apart from all that, this is a nice place with very friendly staff. Our one regret is that we chickened out on the vegan scone and opted for a cheese one. Our duty as sconeys should have been to try the vegan variety and report back to you, the reader. A mistake, one we will rectify in due course. This place was started in 1962 by Janet Henderson to provide an outlet for produce from her East Lothian farm. It is still owned by the Henderson family and has expanded over the years.

Square meals all round

We were in the ‘Salad Table’ on the corner of Hanover and Thistle Street but there is also a dedicated Vegan restaurant at the opposite end of the block (joined by an underground tunnel). There’s also a shop/deli in the basement. Our cheese scone was very good, not quite a topscone but pretty close. The coffee was excellent and, in keeping with their health philosophy, water is supplied with everything. Maybe it is just our prejudice coming to the fore but it seemed to us that most of the people coming and going, including the staff, just needed a good square meal to cheer them up.

Where did David go?

Back to the real world. Ah yes, everything is broken … the EU, the UK, the markets. To try and solve a rift within the Tory party, Cameron gambled big time on ‘remain’ winning. They didn’t and now he has crawled off under a stone and left the resultant mess for others to clear up. The ‘Leave’ campaign obviously did not expect to win since they have no strategy whatsoever for the way forward. The Labour party, useless as ever! The EU does have a strategy though. They want rid of us as soon as possible and who could blame them? The UK has always been a shabby member of the EU. After we leave, vegans will probably thrive on the diet of baked beans we will all be on. Maybe we should all think about converting?

EH2 1DR tel: 0131 225 2131 Hendersons

Scones, Top

The Butterfly & The Pig

9th June 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 4 Comments

In what now seems like another life, we actually used to work for a living. Much of it in Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In 1896 the Infirmary was the first in the world to have an operational X-Ray department and that was down to a chap called John Macintyre. He leapt on Röntgen’s invention, just a few days after it was announced, and put it to practical use for the benefit of the people of Glasgow. He even produced the world’s first X-Ray movie of a moving frog’s leg.

We mention this simply because he lived almost next door to where we are today at The Butterfly & The Pig Tearoom in Bath Street. As well as being a bit of a clever clogs Macintyre was a well known bon-viveur. Famously throwing soirées for the likes of Dame Nellie Melba, Paderewski, Thomas Edison, Joseph Conrad to name but a few. When you walk into The Butterfly & The Pig, you get the feeling that, if he were here today, he would feel instantly at home in it’s quiet, comfortable atmosphere.

Down to business

Recently we have been avoiding Glasgow because of the disruption caused by the electrification of the Edinburgh/Glasgow railway line. However, unable to throw off some of the doctors we used to do work for, we were in town for a little business. A scone seemed like an obvious optional extra. We loved this place! It has a large restaurant/bar downstairs, a drawing room upstairs. For our scone we were here in the tearoom on the ground floor.

We were made to feel very welcome by two girls who genuinely seemed to be happy at their work .. wonderful! There was a choice of, plain, fruit, apple and cinnamon, or berry scones. Pat opted for fruit and I for berry. While we waited, an afternoon tea was delivered to the next table and it looked fabulous.

They certainly don’t hang about with their portions here. It was very much on the generous side. Our tea and scones came nicely presented and the scones … also of generous proportions, were fab. Even the berry one was beautifully light and fresh. Little touches like the red currant berries with the cream, the mixed and matched china, the embroidered tablecloth, make all the difference. They combine to create a really nice experience. Great selection of home made cakes as well. Anyway it was good to be back in Glasgow and doubly good to find this place. May even come back for dinner sometime.

Brexit

We cannot quite make up our minds but watching the contortions both sides are going through in the run up to the EU referendum … is it sad or comical? We are sure most folk are completely befuddled. Scotland is well used to it, hence there is not nearly so much excitement up here as there is down south. We have seen all the antics and heard all the lies before … quite recently in fact. Of course, we had Macintyre to help us see through it all .. get it? Like most of Scotland we are probably ‘remainers’ though it is a knife edge decision. The very fact that Cameron, who just a few months ago, was threatening to take us out of the dastardly EU, is now telling us how calamitous that course of action would be, almost makes you want to vote ‘leave’.

According to the brexiteers, of course, we are supposed to vote ‘leave’ so that we can have our democracy back. Never mind all the Scottish Lib Dem MPs who were seen as unfit to be MPs by the voting public at the last general election and voted out of office. Now they sitting in the House of Lords, still ruling over us. If that is UK democracy then we may as well just have the crappy EU version. We think that David Cameron would like it here. By all accounts he has a fondness for pigs and judging by his flighty stance on the EU he may like butterflies as well. Whatever happens it won’t make a whole lot of difference. There is always this oasis of calm to retreat to for a topscone.

G2 4SQ tel: 0141 243 2459 The Butterfly & The Pig Tearooms

island, Ordinary, Scones

Felicity’s at Eden Lodge

18th May 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Kings Cross Point looking towards Brodick and Goatfell, Holy Isle on the right

We are at beautiful Kings Cross Point, just opposite the buddhist retreat of Holy Isle. After a morning spent bird watching and exploring Viking forts, we were well and truly in need of refreshment by the time we reached Felicity’s at Eden Lodge in Whiting Bay. We have decided that all tourists to Arran should have to go on a course. It would explain when things are open on the island. Some are closed on Mondays, some Tuesdays and others are closed on Wednesdays … confusing!

Having tried some places that were closed we ended up here at Felicity’s at Eden Lodge. in a way, we were happy because this place was probably the nicest. The couple who run it have only had it a year and don’t have the hotel side of things operational yet but when they do it should be good. They did their training at Gleneagles. We were looked after by a young chap from Rockhampton in Northern Queensland. He had been on Arran for about three months but was struggling with the heat!!

We got ourselves a table beside the bowling green … and, away from the sea breeze, it was scorchio! When our scones arrived, complete with jam and clotted cream, it was obvious we would have to scoff them pretty quickly before the cream melted. This we did, and they were very good, but once again not quite topscones. Would we ever get an Arran topscone before we had to leave the island? Worrying!

Pretend birdwatching

As dedicated bird watchers, we have discovered something. When you are sitting there, replete with scones and coffee, the gentle sound of waves on the shore, shades on, faces pointing to the sun, you can pretend you are earnestly looking for golden eagles. Though snoring does tend to give the game away.

Dirty tricks

Cameron has also been caught out with his back-door dealings with big businesses, like Serco, to back his ‘Remain’ campaign. We are not backing ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ yet but we don’t like the tactics. Just as we didn’t like them in the Scottish referendum. Oh, and joy of joys, the world’s largest oil field has been discovered off Shetland. Did you know that? Barely a word about it in the press or on TV. On the basis that nothing remotely good for Scotland can be reported it is hardly surprising. It might make us more uppity than we already are. Anyway, besides all that, is that a golden eagle or a swallow?

KA27 8QH tel: 01770 700357 Felicity’s

Ordinary, Scones

The Butterfly Inn

14th May 2016 billpaterson1@me.com

This is just one of the restaurants servicing what is probably the biggest and busiest furniture store in the country. Sterling Furniture warehouse in Tillicoultry was set up in 2001 in what was originally a woollen mill, one of many lining the southern edge of the Ochil hills. In 1921 Samuel Jones Ltd converted it to a paper mill which specialised in coated papers. They marketed these under their Butterfly trade mark. They used the image to promote the idea that they could print more than one colour onto a single sheet of paper. Ludicrous nowadays but, at the time, it was obviously a bit special.

The butterfly in question was the Camberwell Beauty a rare visitor to the UK from Scandinavia and first seen in the London burgh in 1748. Anyway this is simply a long winded way of saying how this place gets its name. Although the restaurant itself does not make it obvious. We think they should.

Medication

There is soooooo much furniture around in Sterling. Unless you are careful, ‘furniture blindness’ can set in, a common complaint in these parts, especially amongst men. The symptoms (everything starts to look the same) can only be relieved by a cup of tea and a scone. It was almost closing time when we arrived at the Butterfly Inn. At least one of us was in fairly desperate need of medication. Just closing and probably could have seen us far enough but we were made very welcome. The scones were okay but a tad on the firm side and jam was charged as an extra which always makes the overall deal expensive .. and there was no cream. All in all, not a great experience.

Views on Europe

‘Butterfly’ could be used to describe Cameron’s stance on Europe. One minute he is threatening to pull us out unless he gets his way on renegotiation; next minute, after a few totally inconsequential adjustments, he says leaving the EU would be an unmitigated disaster! Not so much a rare Camberwell Beauty as a common Westminster Plonker.

FK13 6NS tel: 01259 751596 Butterfly Inn

Ordinary, Scones

The Ceilidh Place

12th April 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

We had stopped off in the township of Elphin, in the shadow of Stac Pollaidh, on our way to Ullapool because, after many miles of driving, there was a signpost for a tearoom .. but it was closed.

The local market was open however and the lovely people there recommended this place when we reached our destination. The Ceilidh Place bills itself as “at the end of the A835 and the centre of the universe”. It probably is for many people because it’s a hotel, bunkhouse, café/bar, music venue and bookshop. Someone once said “I often stay here because it’s the only bookshop I know with rooms”. Ullapool is a major destination for tourists and music lovers, with many festivals throughout the year.

Each September they have the Loopallu Festival (wonder how they came up with that name) which the Guardian said was “the only music event anywhere in the world to feature both Franz Ferdinand and the Ullapool Pipe Band.” As you might imagine there are not too many airs and graces here but everything is good quality, there is a big central log burning stove and they make you very welcome. What more could you want? You get the feeling that many good nights have been had in here. We had a good lunch then thought we would try the scones. When they arrived they did not look too promising. We have had scones that look like this before and they were decidedly underwhelming. However, looks can be deceptive. They were actually very good, nice light consistency and with plenty butter and jam. No cream unfortunately … pretty close to a topscone award, but not quite … pity.

Tax havens

Ullapool and Panama have much in common .. they are both many miles from anywhere and both have infestations of blood sucking parasites, but in Ullapool’s case it’s only midges. The brouhaha about Cameron’s tax affairs is largely irrelevant. The fact that they all knew that tax havens (usually British ones) were being used on an industrial scale, is what matters. From that point of view the Labour party, in the shape of Gordon Brown should also have much to answer for. He devised a tax systems so complex that he was almost the only one who could understand them. Tax havens must have been very familiar. Anyway, besides all that, we notice that ‘Scotland The Best‘ author, Pete Irvine, notes amongst the 2,500 places listed, The Ceilidh Place as one of his favourites .. can’t be bad!IV26 2TY tel: 01854 612103 The Ceilidh Place Ullapool

Ordinary, Scones

Johnston’s Bar Bistro

11th January 2016 billpaterson1@me.com 3 Comments

When I was a mere sapling. Long before I met Pat and long before I realised that not all the scones in the world were baked by my mother, this place was a favourite hangout for us cool dudes. At that time, however, it was called the Temperance Cafe.

In about 1920, as was prevalent at the time, the proceeds of a will had been used to buy the Crown Hotel in the Lint Riggs. The intention was to turn it into a temperance public house as an alternative to the plethora of licensed premises all through the town. A couple of years later it famously became the scene for the first ever television broadcast by John Logie Baird.

Politics and girls

Baird was born in Helensburgh but his family were local farmers at Sunnybrae in Camelon. Little did he know that that single brief event would change the world forever. The equipment Baird used to broadcast a live image of a colleague from one part of the building to another, became known as ‘the Falkirk televisor‘. As an impressionable youth, however, my personal abiding memory of the Temperance was when four of us were sitting round an upstairs table, talking about girls, politics and the price of milk. Maybe not the last two.

Memories

We watched a man walk to the top of the stairs. He stopped, then to our astonishment, fell, like a felled tree, face first down the steps. Shocked, we jumped over the banister (these were the days) and caught him just as he reached the bottom. The management ask us to carry him to the kitchen until help arrived. However we could not get him through the door because his arm was sticking out rigidly to the side. It turned out that he had had an epileptic fit, something none of us had heard of at the time, so it made quite an impression. Especially the intense deliberations over what to do about the arm that refused to bend. We had to turn him on his side so that it pointed straight up. No mean feat for four puny wastrels.

Anyway, the whole temperance thing never really took off. After several other incarnations, it has been Johnston’s Bar & Bistro since 2012. One of the town’s favourite meeting places. We decided to share a fruit scone because they were quite large. When it arrived it was accompanied by the biggest pot of cream we have ever come across. Probably enough to do twenty scones. Needless to say, almost all of it was left, but the scone itself was very good. Their strap line is ‘Food, Drink & Service as it should be‘. A strap line delivered, because we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Taking things for granted

When you think about it it’s really quite amazing. We sit watching pictures beamed directly into our living rooms. Strictly Come Dancing. Johanna Lumley crossing Siberia. Cameron trying to look as if he is negotiating something massive with the EU. Osborne pretending to have some sort of control. Children being starved to death in Madaya. We take the means by which these pictures reach us completely for granted but it all started here. Sending pictures between two rooms in this building.

FK1 1DG tel: 01324 637299 Johnston’s Bar Bistro

Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Tag Archives: David Cameron

Orange Pekoe – Revisited

Plonkers

Panto

The Aizle Coffee Shop

Pâtissier Maxime

Raised pinkies

Désolé monsieur!

Stiff upper lip

Living Water Satisfies Café

Life on the Edge

Henderson’s Salad Table

Vegan s defined

Square meals all round

Where did David go?

The Butterfly & The Pig

Down to business

Brexit

Felicity’s at Eden Lodge

Pretend birdwatching

Dirty tricks

The Butterfly Inn

Medication

Views on Europe

The Ceilidh Place

Tax havens

Johnston’s Bar Bistro

Politics and girls

Memories

Taking things for granted

by Bill and Pat Paterson and is about finding good scones throughout the world, with a little bit of politics