It has been two weeks since my last post, sorry !!!

As the title of this post is "a busy couple of weeks" you might understand that I've just not had the time to get organised. I have gone from full time employment, (I was the senior audio visual technician at the RBS conference center, Gogarburn), to being freelance again and I'm busy but enjoying the work.

I have managed to fit in a few visits to a brewery and some pubs over the last two weeks. One of the highlights was a visit to  Stewart Brewing, at their brewery in Loanhead on the outskirts of Edinburgh. I was visiting another company in the area about freelance work and took the opportunity to pop in. I  met Jo Stewart, co owner of Stewart Brewing, and she was kind enough to give me a guided tour of the brewery, which I filmed. Check out the clip below:


Last weekend was the start to this years six nations rugby. Scotland were playing France, (in France), so I decided it was a good excuse to go for a few beers with my mate John. We decide not to  go into Edinburgh this time as there would be no rugby supporters there, so we went to South Queensferry. This small town has a lot of history behind it, with some of the pubs dating back to 1683 and others being mentioned in famous novels by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson. We started at one end of the old high street and steadily, (well steadily at first), made our way to the other side. The first pub we went to was the "Hawes Inn". Check out the clip below:
After the dissapointment of the Hawes Inn we moved along the high street to a small pub, (its a snug really), called the "Anchor Inn". This bar was small, its about the same size as a large living room from an ordinary house, but I liked it. It was full of locals talking, reading the paper and relaxing. There was no music but it had a decent sized screen for watching the sports and the bar maid was very helpful. I ordered the round, spoke to john and just as I was taking my jacket off she brought the drinks over to us. We only had one drink here, (I wanted a few screens to watch the rugby), then moved onto the "Ferry Tap". Check out the clip below:
The rugby started, we watched the first half, Scotland were not playing well - at all. We then decided to go to a bar with smaller screens as we didn't want to see the game in any detail. We went to the bar at "Orocco Pier", (this is also a restaurant which is well worth a visit). It was a different atmosphere all together, more up market and aimed at coffee drinkers during the day and couples at night. It was also by far the most expensive round of the night - not a problem to me as it was John's turn to buy !!! Check out the clip below:
We stayed here for a while then moved onto two other pubs in the high street, the "Stag Inn" and the "Moorings". The Stag is very much a down to earth locals bar with the standard range of drinks and a friendly enough feel to it. The Moorings was OK but a bit run down. I believe it is about to close for refurbishment. There are clips filmed in both of these pubs, but as it was now quite late in the evening they were not very good, even I can't make out what I was saying !!!

I am looking forward to next weekend as Scotland is playing Wales at Murrayfield - Anybody fancy a pint in Edinburgh ?  
Add Comment
 
 
It's Sunday, the working week is over, family commitments have been fulfilled. I have an afternoon that I can enjoy !

So I went into Edinburgh with a good friend, John, and we spent the afternoon in four great pubs. They Were - "The Halfway House" - "The Guildford" - "Cafe Royal Bar & Buffet" and "The Voodoo Rooms". We had a great afternoon just chilling out, drinking some great ales and soaking in the atmosphere from these beautiful, traditional Edinburgh pubs. To help show you more a bout the pubs We took along a video camera and filmed a little in each of them, the films are below. There is also a pub review page for each of them on the Pub Reviews page.

The first pub we went to was "The Halfway House". This is halfway up the steps, ( that's why its called the halfway house ), on Flesh Market Close, just across from the Waverly train station. I have passed this pub many times and wondered what it was like on the inside, especially as it has a large sign outside telling us it was "Edinburgh pub of the year 2009". Well I can tell you it is SMALL ! but cosy and serves some great real ales from Scotland's new breweries. It also serves traditional Scottish food such as haggis, oatcakes, etc. I can see why it was pub of the year as it makes a real effort to provide an excellent selection of food and drinks which is constantly changing.

Check out the video:
We then moved onto The Guildford Arms, which is on West Register street. This is on the other side of the Waverly train station, behind the Princess Street Burger King. We came here because I had been in contact with the person who writes the web site www.goodbeergoodpubs.com and they were astonished that I didn't have it on the site already. This gave me a brilliant excuse to come back here, (not that I needed much encouragement). This is one of my all time favourite Edinburgh pubs. It has been family owned for over a hundred years, it serves great cask conditioned ales, a large selection of whiskies and I have never had any bad service, even when the bar is full to bursting. Today however it was quite quiet and me and John just chatted over A couple of pints of Exciseman's Ale and took in the surroundings. I took a small video, (which is now on the pub review page for the Guildford Arms), then we tried to take another little video, have a look at what happened below:
Round the corner, still on West Register Street is The Cafe Royal Bar & Buffet. This is a beautiful bar and is more than worth a visit for the decor alone, never mind the excellent service and great selection of food and drinks. This is a great place to take your wife, girlfriend, or in my case, John. It is just a great place to be, although I felt that we were a little under dressed. I've been here many times before, the last time I was here I was with my mate Donny and we both had the oysters - they were fabulous ! Check out the pictures on the pub review page, (the link is highlighted in brown above), and the video below:
If you keep going round the corner on West Register Street then you come to The Voodoo Rooms, (as this was the fourth pub of the afternoon we were getting a little merry). The Voodoo Rooms is more than just a bar, it's a music venue, a cafe restaurant, a club, etc. The decor is black and gold and hits you like a wet leather glove, especially if you've had a few. Apart from that, I like this place and have seen many comedy shows here and spent a few nights at this bar during the festival. Well worth a visit, for many different reasons. Check out the video.
We really enjoyed the time we spent that afternoon and no doubt will do it again some time soon.

Cheers !

Alastair

P.S. If you know of some good pubs, Please tell me !!! - I'm always on the look out for new places to go.
1 Comment
 
 
It's the second day of the New Year and I find myself locked away in my garage, thinking about the last few days.

My garage isn't that bad, I probably forgot to mention that it has a small bar, a digital progector, screen and 5.1 surround sound system and a lock on the door to keep my children out. This is where I usually write this blog, work on the web site and generally hide from the world.

The last few days have been a mixture of really quiet, too much drink, large crowds of people and family get togethers.

On boxing day we, (Christine, my two daughters and me), headed to Christine's family farm for a few days and spent time there eating too much, playing with lots of nephews, playing board games and watching lots of TV. On the Monday I decided to leave the farm and go for a walk, so I headed into the local town, Howwood, and met up with a old friend of mine, Andy. As you have probably guessed, we went for a few beers. We went to The Railway Inn, there is a review on the pub page, and settled in for a few drinks and a catch up. Unfortunately I didn't have much to eat before walking down to Howwood so the drinks went to my head almost straight away, you can probably hear me already begin to slur my words in the video below.   
Andy likes the occasional drink and always drinks faster than me. I should have learned by now not to try and keep up but I did exactly that and by the time I left the pub I was quite merry. I should have gone straight home but I decided to review a few more pubs so I got a taxi to Lochwinnoch and headed to the Corner Bar. I was a bit more unsteady on my feet than I thought so I only had one drink here and headed to the Garthland Arms. I had a couple of drinks here, talked with a few locals and then headed to the Brown Bull. At this point in the evening the amount I had had to drink, and the short time that I had drank it in, were really starting to make me feel quite drunk and I was having real difficulty walking properly. If you were in the Brown Bull last Monday at about 6.00pm then I apologise for drunkenly walking in, taking a few photos, not speaking to anyone, (that I can remember), and staggering back out again without even buying a drink. Sorry

Unfortunately thats not the worst of it.

I then decided to try and walk  off the drink by walking back to Howwood, by castle Semple Loch, by the river, through the trees, along a completely ice covered cycle track, in the dark. As youve probably guessed, this didn't go too well. I got lost quite quickly and ended up in some fields, got stuck on a barbed wire fence, (completely ripping my jeans), and was very disorientated. Luckily I saw a land mark that I recognised, (it was an old folly on top of a hill), I knew that this was close to the track I wanted and I was heading in the right direction as it is also close to the Howwood road. At this point my phone went and it was Christine asking where I was, I told her, at first she went mad at me and then she calmd down and said she would drive along the road towards the cycle track. Half an hour later I was in the car being taken back to the farm, where I was sent to bed. The following morning I had a lot of apologies to make, I also had a hangover that could kill a horse.

We left Howwood on the Wednesday afternoon and headed home. We had a restfull day on the Thursday as I was working on the Friday, hogmany. I am an audio visual technician, but I also work occasionaly as a camera man at large events. Edinburgh has the largest hogmany party in the world and I was working as camera operator No1 on the Waverly stage. There were four bands on this stage including "The Coral" and "Newton Fauklner".  I love working at this event as I think I get one of the best seats in the house ! Check out the video below, this is how I brought in the new year.
It Is a great way to bring in the new year and I really enjoyed working at this event. Although, I didn't get home till about 3.45 am and was tired on new years day.

With the festive holidays nearly over and people starting to get back into a working frame of mind, I decided to go for one more night out. In my home town of Broxburn, at my local, The Masonic. Check out the video below, which was filmed at closing time just as we were leaving. 
Have a great start to 2011 !!!
1 Comment
 
 
About 10 years ago Christine, me and another two couples decided to go for a Christmas night out. It was to be a proper dress up occasion with a meal and an over night stay at a good hotel. A real chance to be grown up and enjoy Christmas.  I can't remember where we went that first year,but I remember that we really enjoyed it, we told all our friends about it and vowed to do it again next year.

We did do it the next year, and the year after, and every year since then ! The only difference now is that there are about thirty of us that now go and the only rule that has been added is that all children remain at home and us adults get some quality adult time !!!

This year we battled through the snow and ice and went to the Queen's Hotel in Perth. Saturday 4th / Sunday 5th Dec.
Queens Hotel - Perth
We arrived at about 4.00 pm and went straight to the hotel bar, which is where I was sure we would find a lot of our friends, I wasn't disappointed !!!
Picture
Picture
We had one drink here then I headed into town with David to catch up with some more friends at  the "Sandeman". Christine decided to do some last minute shopping and said she would catch us there later. The hotel is quite close to the town center and the "Sandeman" is in the town center, so we thought it wouldn't take long to get there, but with deep snow and ice under foot we took about half an hour, slipping, sliding and cursing the weather all the way. However when we got there we were rewarded with a great pub !
Picture
Picture

In the picture above me, David, James and Kenny had had a couple of drinks and were joined by our wives. In the picture to the left Christine has joined us after her shopping trip, ( I still don't know what she bought but I'm sure I will be shown something expensive soon !)
Sandemans itself is a great pub. It is a wetherspoons and is set in a large old ornate building with lots of space and light. It has a good selection of beers and spirits and the bar staff were friendly and helpful. As with all weatherspoons there is a large selection of food at reasonable prices. I also think it won Perth's pub of the year last year - there will be a review on the web site in a couple of days with more pictures.

Christine and the other wives all headed back to the hotel. The boys however made one more stop, at The Perth City Sports & Social Club. This club was on our way back and we couldn't resist going in for a drink and a look at the place.
Picture
Picture
I would describe it as a Perth Institution ! I loved the old school atmosphere of working man's club with a jukebox that time forgot, (the only songs I heard being played were "Lady in Red" and "Come on Eileen"), and Tartan Special on draught. There will be a full review of this pub with lots of pictures on the web site soon.

We only had the one here and headed back to the hotel for the party night.
Picture
Picture
The party night was great ! With lots of good food, dancing and great drink !

The next morning a lot of us met back in the Sandemans pub and relaxed with a few drinks and some food. Again the girls went shopping and the boys propped up the bar, then we all met back at the pub before heading back home 
Picture
Picture
Picture
When we got home we picked up our children from my mum and dads then went to James and Gillian's for an India. The children played together, we ate, and had a glass of good Rioja. It was a great end to a great weekend.

I'm already looking forward to next year !
Add Comment
 
 
It's Monday night and I'm watching "around the world in eighty days" with Rachel and Hannah as Christine is out. The weekend is now long gone, but it was good one !

Christine and I went to the "Scotland - All Blacks" rugby at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. We went with some work mates and started our day out at the Corstorphine Inn, (there is a review of this pub on the pub page), where we had a few drinks and some lunch.
Picture
Christine and me at the Corstorphine Inn
Picture
The gangs all here !!!
Later we moved on and headed to the Murrayfield hotel. We started to walk but ended up getting a bus as we wanted more time at the bar. When we got to the Murrayfield hotel there was no chance of getting to the bar as the place was absolutely packed ! Neil suggested we go to the bar at the Ice Rink so we moved on there.
Picture
The queue to the Bar at the Murrayfield Hotel
Picture
Neil, (on the right), at the bar in the Ice Rink
A couple of drinks later the time had come to get into the stadium. The ice rink is right next door so it took us all of 5 minutes to get in and find our seats. It was very cold day and the wind in the stadium didn't help, but the atmosphere more than made up for it. For me, the best part of the day was before the game started, when the crowd sang "Flower of Scotland".  
Picture
Kate, inside the Stadium
After the game, (I don't want to tell you the score, too embarrasing), we all went our separate ways. Christine and me headed into the center of town, walking up the main road surrounded by thousands of other supporters. We went to one of my favorite bars in Edinburgh, Teuchters in William Street, (there is a review on the pub page of the web site). It was packed ! we had to try a few rugby tackles to get to the bar, but it was worth it. 
Picture
Teuchters
A little later we wanted a quieter pub so we moved onto The Oxford Bar. This is an old traditional Edinburgh pub that was made famous by the Inspector Rebus books, (written by  Ian Rankin). We stayed there for a while and talked to some of the locals and had a few laughs then hunger kicked in and we moved on. I'd show you a few photo's of this bar but I forgot to take some, sorry.

We went to All Bar One on George street and had a meal, it's an OK pub with reasonable food which we enjoyed. We were lucky to get a table as it was very busy but the service was still quick and friendly.

After the meal we headed home via the bus, running along Princess Street to catch a No 22 !!

A great day, which was followed on Sunday by my birthday and a family get together at home.

Roll on next weekend and the next adventure !!! See you there - Alastair
1 Comment