March on........ 03/07/2012
 
This is March and time is marching on........  The first thing I must do is apologise for not updating the blog in February, but when you see what I've been up to you'll probably realize why ! 

Work is incredibly busy, I've been working away from home a lot over the last six weeks. The first trip was to Liverpool where I was working at the ACC arena for a week. This was a great conference to work on and I had a number of chances to go out and see what Liverpool has to offer. I went to the Cavern pub on the Sunday night with a good friend, J.B., and we saw an excellent band and had a few Guinness and some more local ales. Over the course of the week we went to various other pubs around the Mathew Street area, including the oldest pub in Liverpool, "Ye Hole in Ye Wall", where I had a pint of "Silver Moon" which is a porter and was beautifully smooth. At the end of the week we went to the Cavern Club, (you know the one - where The Beatles used to play), and saw another band, it was a good night out but not as lively as the Cavern pub across the road. The picture on the right is J.B. and me in the Cavern Club.  
When I got back home from Liverpool I only had a few days at home before my next job so I decided to have a day out with my family.

We went to the Wallace Monument in Stirling, we took in the views and had a great packed lunch out in the open, then we went onto Stirling Castle. Both of these places are well worth a visit. We spent hours in the castle and could have spent more time there but decided to call it a day and go and get some food. On our way out I stopped at the gift shop and saw that they had a reasonable choice of whiskys, check out the pictures below. The first two pictures were taken at the Wallace Monument, the next two were taken at Stirling Castle. 
Just outside Stirling Castle is a pub called "The Portcullis", this is where we went for a meal. I would really recommend this place as they had some great real ales, the menu was large and the food was great ! they even let me behind the bar for a few photo's. There will be a review of this pub on the site soon !
A day later I was on a plane to Miami.

I worked at a pharmaceutical conference there for nine days. We only had a couple of chances to go out as this was a full on conference. Below are some photo's and a video. the first photo was taken during the build and is in the main room, the beach photo was taken as we, me and J.B., walked to work in the morning and the video shows the out door venue for the gala dinner.
On the few occasions we did get out we went to a few bars and a club. The first bar we found was on Lincoln Drive and it was a German bar, as I wanted to drink more than a 330ml bottle at a time we got a few large beers. We moved to a club on Ocean Drive called the Clevlander which was loud and lively. Most of the beers I came across in America were the usual suspects, Bud, Miller, San Miguel, etc with a lot of "light" versions - but my favorite was Samuel Adams. A few days later, on my way home, at the airport, I had my last Samual Adams of the trip at Bongos Cuban Cafe.    
When I got back from Miami, on the 25th of Feb I had a whole two days to recover from the jet lag before I was on the road again. This time I was working in Glasgow and Manchester - on a medical roadshow. When in Glasgow I took some of the crew to "The Horseshoe Bar" and also to Waxy O'Connors, where we enjoyed the beer and the Glasgow hospitality. I introduced some of them to "Bitter and Twisted", by the Harviestoun Brewery, which went down very well ! 

In Manchester we didn't have time to go into town, we were working at an airport hotel, but we did get invited to the gala dinner. On my way home I had a couple of cheeky pints, Guinness, at the airport.  
I am writing this blog at the SECC in Glasgow where I'm currently working at a Diabetes conference and there is more travel on the way !!! - see next months blog .

Sales of my book "The Tartan Pint" have been disappointing, this may be due to the fact it is only available as a download. However, I was recently working at a book sellers event and managed to talk to some publishers about it. One of the publishers is interested in it so there may be a paperback edition on its way - although this may take some time.   

Until next time !!!

P.S. if you have any comments about the blog, or any questions, or just want to get in touch then please contact me. You can do this through the contacts page on the web site. 

Cheers, Alastair
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I went to the Scottish Real Ale Festival last Thursday with my good mate, Stuart. We both enjoyed the festival and drank some great beers. We also managed to talk to a few brewers from around Scotland. Check out the video below for a flavour of the event. Cheers !!!
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The Burns Supper 03/14/2011
 
Most of the people in Scotland will not only know what a Burns supper is, but will probably have been to one. For those of you out there that don't know what a burns supper is, here is a quick description. It is a night when people get together to celebrate the life and works of Robert burns, poet and song writer. The meal that is served is usually Haggis Turnips and potatoes and the drink will include whisky.

At the start of the meal the host recites the Burns poem, address to the Haggis. This is what James is doing in the picture below. 
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The Burns Supper that we have is a very informal affair. During the meal we each have to do a Burns piece. It can be a poem or a song. There is no order to when we do our piece, you do it when you feel it's the right time. Christine and me did our piece quite early in the night as we were playing the song "Green Grow the Rashies o'". I played the guitar and sang and Christine played along on the violin.
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We were enjoying a single malt that James had bought. It was The Glenrothes Select Reserve. This was a smooth whisky with a dry finish, I think it is a Speyside Malt - if it isn't then it tastes like one ! We also started the night with a McEwan's Champion Ale. This is a great ale, with a chocolate, caramel overtone. It also has a kick as it's 7.3%. There were various other drinks during the night, the Arran 10 year old made an appearence, (its worth a try as its an unusual island whisky as it's not at all peaty).
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As the night went on other guests did their party piece's, Gillian Grant sang "Aye Fond Kiss", my brother Steven recited a poem about whisky. I'm afraid that I not sure what the other guests did as the drink was beginning to take to take its toll on my memory.

It was a great night out with friends and family, James and Gillian were very good hosts and have set the bar for next year. I believe next year it's Mine and Christine's turn to host the Burns night - I'm looking forward to it already. 
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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 ?  
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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.
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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 !!!
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