Back safely from London ...

[Joan]

Joan, my family still live in Saltcoats and Stevenston, my mum lives in Adams Avenue, Saltcoats, my brother Clive stays at Campbell Ave, Stevenston.

They're not the most salubrious areas, I'll grant you, but we McGookins are common as muck.

Oh dear, Malc, I get the feeling that you know the history.  I wasn't referring to the areas when I said it had changed, it just made us sad to see the house no longer there and the grounds so changed.  We used to play there as kids - my sister was more affected than I was because she remembers more, being 5 years older.

[Joan]

Joan - do you realise how close to Bute you actually got?

I went over to Arran yesterday (from Rothesay, on The Waverley paddle steamer). It's good to get away from Bute now and again.

Yes, Peeps, I do.  I've never been, but had friends at school who stayed with relations there.  When I was little, we used to go to Dunoon, just up the water, quite a lot because my Aunt lived there.  The area was another one of our possible trips, but just haven't been able to fit it in.

Never been to Arran either - my sister was quite shocked.  My parents honeymooned there.

[Joan]

Hope I'm not boring you all stupid with my updates - find it quite good to write down what I've been doing.  Today I went into town and visited the "Impressionism & Scotland" exhibition at the National Gallery.  If you have any interest in impressionist paintings, this is well worth a visit.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting an old friend and we're going to wander down the Royal Mile, with the eventual purpose of visiting the new Scottish Parliament.  So quite a cultural couple of days.

[The Peepmaster]

I haven't heard of either of those pubs...

[Joan]

I haven't heard of either of those pubs...

That reminds me of the time a few years ago my husband, I and the two kids were driving down the Mile and I was saying "Oh, there's the World's End, there's the Shakespeare, there's the Yellow Carvel" and hubby remarked, "Note how your mother spent her youth in Edinburgh, children - the only places of note were the pubs." 

[Roger Kettle]

Wasn't "The Covenanter" around there? I seem to recall drinking in there with some guys from the C.I.D. once. Long, and innocent, story.

[The Peepmaster]

Who were you grassing-up, Roger? 

[Roger Kettle]

M---e.

[Joan]

   Yes, The Covenanters - there were several more, but I couldn't remember the names.  I could only make it about half way down on a pub crawl.

[Mince]

M---e.

You were grassing yourself up? Now that's real integrity!

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Stayed at Prestwick for the night.  Warning - if staying overnight on a Saturday in Scotland, have breakfast at your hotel!  We decided to look for somewhere else and by 11 am on Sunday and 55 miles further on, everything was still shut. 

Can I just point out that breakfast is available throughout Scotland from 6.30am, including a very decent coffee at a chain of convenient restaurants with the highly appropriate Caledonian name of McDonald's. I apologise for the late arrival of this announcement - being a native Glaswegian, I was a bit busy being gruff. 

[Joan]

Oh God, my foot seems to be permanently in my mouth at the moment! I love gruff, TT - I was using the term affectionately. Honest!!

Not a McDonalds in sight - believe me, we looked.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

  None taken, Joan - honest! I emigrated from Glasgow to Perth (via Fife) when I was two - before the gruffness set in.

There's one at Ayr, apparently.

[Joan]

Where?

[The Peepmaster]

Where?

HE SAID "THERE'S ONE AT AYR"