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Women’s Day – my own heroines

8th March 20208th March 2020 funtime65

And by order of the management my heroines are – The Scary One, Daddy’s Little Girl and my Dear Old Mum.

All of whom have been wonderful (and challenging) fellow travellers on life’s unpredictable journey. Never my fault, of course.

Where do I start? I give her one thing to do, remember my dates for our weekend away in Monaghan Monaghan’s country roads.

While we almost ended up by taking the wrong bus from Hamburg, to east Germany rather than Kiel.

En route to our MSC cruise www.msccruises.co.uk up the Norwegian cruises where we almost missed our ship in Bergen. Moi???

It was always going to be a challenge on the slopes with Topflight www.topflight.ie to Soll Soll Mates.

But we stayed out of trouble in Central Portugal, Secret Portugal all down to our perfect host Jose https://www.madomistours.pt.

While we were on the same wavelength this time in Amsterdam Pictures of Amsterdam and George Clooney and Amal’s Amsterdam hotel.

Because the previous time, 23 years earlier, when there was a fork in the cycling route and we ended up going 10kms out of the way.

Then there was the adventure of 13 and a half years in Ireland with The InterCon… what a Ledge! a particular highlight.

Mum Champagne

My first holiday companion… I was in her belly en route to her homestead, Co. Donegal https://visitdonegal.net and we’ve been back countless times.

Latterly when I would take her up from my home in Co. Wicklow.

On one occasion I was tasked to drive her and my Auntie Ronnie who was grieving her husband, my Uncle Tom, up from Dublin… in Ronnie’s automatic sports car!!!

Then when I accompanied her to New York https://www.nycvb.com/about/ for my cousin’s wedding… and suddenly I was back to 12 years old again.

While she wimped out of the Red Hot Chill Pipers concert when we were VIPs in my home town of Glasgow https://peoplemakeglasgow.com at the World Pipe Band Championships https://www.theworlds.co.uk.

Daddy’s Little Drinking Girl

Now there are only good memories… from the time in England’s Lake District https://www.golakes.co.uk when she asked me to find a friend for her.

To a family camping trip in Co. Wicklow https://visitwicklow.ie… when she was nine and she swigged from my whisky flask and claimed that she thought it was tea!

There was no pretence when we attended a cocktail night at the Dylan https://www.dylan.ie…

Well, she is her Grannie’s grand-daughter… and don’t even get me started on the other Grandma, the storied Bamba.

*And now I’ve got started I’ll move onto my heroines from my own personal Travels.

Culture, Deals, Europe, Food, UK

Desperate Dan and Murty the Minx in Dundee

4th March 202012th September 2022 funtime65

And if you know your cartoon heroes and heroines, you’ll know where I am… yes, it’s Desperate Dan and Murty the Minx .

Where I’ve been channeling my inner comic strip heroes during a few days working for DC Thomson Newspapers.

Dundee is known in many quarters as the City of Jute, Jam and Journalism.

Jute, you say?

Well, it’s fibre for carpets and don’t you know the Dundonians were famous for producing it?

Jam now? Well, more accurately marmalade but then where’s the alliteration in that?

The story goes that a Spanish vessel carrying oranges washed up on the shores of the River Tay.

And a grocer bought the oranges, only that they were too bitter and he got his wife to boil them in sugar.

Hence the marmalade you’re spreading on your toast just now…. from Pittsburgh to Port Elizabeth.

Journalism … and I guess that’s where this scribbler comes in.

DC Thomson’s is at the heart of Dundee life.

They’ve been here for well nigh 120 years and their redstone building in the city centre almost 100.

And they boast a stable which contains The Sunday Post, Dundee’s The Courier, Aberdeen’s Press & Journal and the Weekly News.

A cast of heroes

And a host of cartoon characters we grew up with:

Desperate Dan, the strongman who eats cow pie.

Minnie the Minx: the tearaway with the catapult.

Oor Wullie: Scotland’s favourite wee laddie who sits on a bucket when he’s not trying to knock PC Murdoch’s hat off.

The Broons: Scotland’s answer to The Waltons with Grandpaw and the Bairn at opposite ends of the spectrum.

And Jackie, the Beano, the Dandy and the Commando war comic.

City of Discovery and more

Dundee has another name too, the City of Discovery. It was here they built Scott of the Antarctica’s ship.

And which you can see… https://www.rrsdiscovery.com on the river front.

Next to the spanking new design museum, the V&A Dundee https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee named after Victoria and Albert.

And I’m sure the latter, a modernist would have approved.

And then, of course, there’s more jute… https://www.verdantworks.com.

Now, I know you all want to know where I’m staying.

And yes, I normally wouldn’t get out of my bed (triple, of course) unless I had a Caribbean panorama.

But Scotland Beds hostels are comfortable and reasonable at £18 a night.

OK you have to make your own bed and may have to share a room although my four-bed room was vacant.

But it’s quiet, there’s a shared bathroom with shower and toiletries provided.

And cereal, tea and coffee and bread and marmalade, Dundee, of course.

While you can bring in your own food to cook.

Then there’s a TV and Netflix in the room.

And it seems Susie who was here before me had the same idea.

Crocodile Dundee, anyone?

And for more on Dundee see https://www.dundee.com/visit and www.visitscotland.com.

For more Scottish meanderings stay on the train for my old stomping ground, Aberdeen Aberdeen – a light in the north.

And my new old one Edinburgh and North Berwick Edinburgh – an old friend.

And here are my favourite statues… before Dundee!… Putting these statues on a pedestal

So goodbye for now I’m off to channel my inner Desperate Dan and Murty the Minx in Dundee.

Countries, Europe, Ireland, UK, Uncategorized

My Sporting Weekend – More Muirfield please

29th February 202029th February 2020 funtime65

Now I’m not just saying this because I want regular Open golf from Muirfield which is near my new home in North Berwick. OK, I am.

But I’m only a week back here and already I’ve discovered that there is a real threat to Muirfield’s regular slot on the Open rota.

My old mucker, golf scribe extraordinaire Martin Dempster, of The Scotsman https://www.scotsman.com, tells us…

That Muirfield and Carnoustie have fallen behind others in popularity with the R&A https://www.randa.org.

North Berwick, and Scotland’s Golf Course

To the likes of Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland where last year’s Open was held and I was the guest of the Northern Ireland Tourism board… www.visitnorthernireland.com

200,000 is now the figure given as the target which courses must now which apparently stands against the two Scottish courses.

And it is Marin’s contention, and his instincts are usually bang on, that Muirfield and Carnoustie will be in a 15 to 20 year loop with Royal Lyrham & St Anne’s.

Now just on Muirfield, near Edinburgh on Scotland’s Golf Coast, didn’t do itself any favours with its policy on women’s members.

But that has changed now and other esteemed golf courses have had questionable policies too: – the WASPish Augusta anyone?

Now judging courses on their winners how about this list of winners, all of them in my lifetime: Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo (twice), Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson.

While before that there was Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, the latter who I followed around Hoylake.

Not a duffer among them.

Now you’re wanting to know how my game shapes up… well, here’s how The Boat D’Azur, Strip… the light fantastic.

And because I’ll always support Scotland www.visitscotland.com.

So here’s my pitch… protect Edinburgh’s Open, Muirfield Edinburgh – an old friend and Aberdeen’s Open, Carnoustie Aberdeen – a light in the north.

Where one of the greatest pieces of theatre played itself out… when Jean de Velde thrashed around in the burn.

And Aberdonian Paul Lawrie came from eight behind to lift the Claret Jug.

MEET YOU ON THE COURSE

Countries, UK

Edinburgh – an old friend

17th February 202015th April 2020 funtime65

It’s reassuring when you go away for 13 years and people and places are the same as when you left them.

Take my football buddies Cello, Rino and Davy who are still as fit and adept as ever they were – I’m still taking fresh-air shots.

Our old stomping ground, Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh where Ian and Lachie Stewart, and Liz Lynch lit up the 1970 and 1984 Commonwealth Games is gone.

And high-end houses are sprouting up in their place…

I dare say the builders would love to tear down yon big castle on the hill as well.

Of course I copied some of my old routines as I reintroduced myself to my Monday morning football game.

Which means a brown sausage and egg roll and a pot of tea afterwards.

Now if you’re expecting me to now say: in a tartan-clad, pipe-playing kitsch cafe on Princes Street you’d be wrong.

I prefer the honest, down-to-earth Snax Cafe.

To Cafe Royal, all wood and fancy glass but stuffy and impersonal where they think they’re doing you a favour!

And so you want a doubler (£4.40 after 11am, £3.30 before) which gives you a choice of bacon, sausage, eggs, haggis sort of thing.

And the sausage you want is a square one…

I’m not having you on… it’s not as if Scottish pigs are square.

But that reminds me of a trip to my old home in Aberdeen a couple of years ago.

When our host Stevie teased the young Irish group by apologising for not taking them to the haggis farm because he didn’t have time.

And I had to remind him ten minutes later to tell them that haggises weren’t small furry creatures.

Just in case it went into the article.

And here’s why you should go off the beaten track to visit one of Scotland’s truly great cities, Aberdeen… Aberdeen – a light in the north.

Also check out www.edinburgh.org and Edinburgh City Pass www.edinburghcitypass.com which gives you free entry to 22 city attractions.

see www.visitscotland.com

I’ll bring you more misadventures from my homecoming but for now…

And remember Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.com and Ryanair www.ryanair.com.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD

Countries, Ireland, UK

My Sporting Weekend – Rugby’s VAR and away days

8th February 20208th February 2020 funtime65

The rugby Test match has come a long way since my days in the Schoolboys Enclosure at Murrayfield.

When programmes were 20p… they’re now about €15 although I’m grateful to the Irish Travel Agents Association for paying for me.

Both that and the ticket for the Ireland v Scotland match at the Aviva and the lunch before.

And the earpiece that hooks up to the referee and the action on the pitch.

As football tears itself apart over video assistant referees it seems that rugby has had the answer all along.

This magic earpiece, which you can buy at the ground, lets you into the decision-making on the pitch.

Both the referee and the captains’ response.

That the players eff and blind a bit so be it… we’re all grown-ups.

And I’ve got the kiltie on: With my Travel pal Michelle Jackson

That the crowd can hear the decision quickly and with clarity keeps us all informed.

And surely that is all we ask for.

Of course it can’t stop Scottish captains dropping the ball on the try line.

So here is my answer… let the spectator talk to the players on the pitch via a mouthpiece.

So where are we on a Travel blog with this? Edinburgh that is… where I now live again.

It’s the great thing about life and Travel…

Last week here I was at the Aviva this week I’m watching the Scotland v England game in Edinburgh.

Now I know the Scary One will get me back for that!

It struck me though, and my brother reminded me of it, that my adult life has spanned Britain and Ireland.

If only I’d progressed from being captain of the C team at school.

See https://www.visitlondon.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4JqL2cHA5wIVF-DtCh1BsQ7HEAAYASAAEgLTtvD_BwE And read The London life and Carole King… you’re Beautiful.

Africa, America, Europe, Ireland

Elections – a general view around the world

7th February 20208th February 2020 funtime65

Ireland has a proud record as a democracy, one of the oldest in Europe with its first elected MP, Constance Markiewicz.

And this weekend Ireland goes to the polls although whichever parties form the next government they will have to do it without me.

Contender: He’s had three parties already

Because I’ll be back in Scotland… anything happen in the 13 years since I’ve been gone?

I always vote.

Not just because it’s hard to keep me quiet but because of the struggles my forebears and others have endured for this privilege.

Gone, but not forgotten: Saddam in Jordan in the Middle East

I heard first hand from the black South Africans in the Eastern Cape how they queued overnight in the Voting Line in 1995.

Any visit to South Africa will bring you nose up to the glass of Apartheid history. www.southafrica.net

And where better to start than in Nelson Mandela’s home province of the Eastern Cape… What’s new pussycat?

Where you can learn the unique Xhosa clicking language… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KZlp-croVYw.

Of course democracy is a fragile way of life.

And it is eerie to think that you can see Saddam Hussain propaganda in peaceful Jordan… The water of life, Petra, and the sands of time.

On a G Adventures trip www.gadventures.com to Jordan www.visitjordan.com.

I had also been around four years previously with la famille.

For a New York Halloween www.nycvb.com where they were carving Obama’s face into pumpkins.

And visited the Austrian Tirol on the day of their election. And Gamisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria where Hitler held the 1936 Winter Olympics.

With Topflightforschools… www.topflightforschools.

But this on German National Day where it was as quiet as a monastery.

MEET YOU IN THE BOOTH

America, Countries, Cruising, Europe, Food, Food & Wine, Ireland, UK

Hungry and Thursday – funny food

16th January 202024th June 2020 funtime65

Food should be fun and taken out of the hands of foodies… and chefs.

I’m writing this while eating my Swedish ‘vacuum cleaners’ or dammsugare for fika. These are named after the tube-shaped vacuum cleaners of the Fifties.

I had been given them in my godispase, or goody bag.

Clean sweep

The godispase had come courtesy of the Stena Estrid, Swedish ferry cruise company‘s http://www.stenaline.ie.

And www.stenaline.co.uk maiden journey between Holyhead and Dublin.

It is, in truth, the closest I will get to a vacuum cleaner but it shows the Swedes’ sense of fun.

To name this sweet after a common household gadget.

And it’s good to see that the world has been watching because it’s not for nothing that Jim Henson looked to Scandinavia for his madcap Swedish Chef.

The dammsugare got me thinking about other funny food you can pick up around the world.

Every city with a well-known red light district obvs like Amsterdam Pictures of Amsterdam and George Clooney and Amal’s Amsterdam hotel.

Where they also have Middle Eastern food skewered on an actual scimitar in Bazaar.

It’s a remodelled old mosque in fashionable De Pijp http://www.hotelbazar.nl/en/restaurant-bazar-amsterdam/ And www.iamsterdam.com.

Get a grip

But also unexpectedly in Portugal Centro Secret Portugal and www.visitportugal.com where I found a shop selling chocolate penises.

While this mug gives a new spin on your hot chocolate.

Get a handle on this

What else is out there I hear you ask.

And where are the sweetie cigarette, cigars and pipes we used to have as children?

Probably replaced with chocolate joints.

And, of course, any excuse to plug this fun for food fixture from my trip on Celebrity Edge around the Bahamas… www.celebritycruises.ie.

With I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out To Here.

The Germans are funny… full stop. Which gives a lie to the myth that they have no sense of humour.

And there is no elegant way to eat a hamburger… ich bin ein Hamburger Hamburgers and ships and www.hamburg-tourism.de.

While the Norwegians have a playful relationship with their trolls… The call of the fjords and www.visitnorway.com.

With my very own Scary One… and MSC Cruises www.msccruises.ie.

While I love the taste of the sea too and few do it better than my own wee country Scotland and my adopted one Ireland, north and south…

That’s www.visitscotland.com, www.discovernorthernireland.com and www.tourismireland.com.

With a tasting menu of the best of Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

With Catherine Fulvio at Ballyknocken

America http://www.visitusa.ie and http://visitflorida.com and is the country who put fun and funk into dysfunction and my safari food out with Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge http://www.disneyworld.disney.go.com in Florida brought me this nature feast below… it’s all natural.

And seeing we’re talking food then let’s finish on the country that leads the way on food… Italy.

Italia!

With Italy specialists Top Flight www.topflight.ie and Catherine Fulvio at her cookery school in Ballyknocken, Co. Wicklow www.ballyknocken.ie

And some amateur cuoco…

OK, OK… mes amis in France http://www.atoutfrance.fr will disagree. And I don’t know what I was eating here but I was smokin’…

Send in your Fun With Food, what’s amusing to eat and where.

MEET YOU AROUND THE TABLE

Uncategorized

Hungry and Thursday – curried Christmas Turkey

26th December 201926th December 2019 funtime65

Yes, it’s a thing here in Ireland where St Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day to everyone else) is when they curry the left-over turkey.

Which obviously got us thinking about the no-neck poultry.

You’d think that they’d have a built-in antennae for the time of year when they’re most in danger.

But these guys I met in Tobago www.visittobago.gov.tt on my Caribbean adventures https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/12/07/ready-steady-goat-in-tobago/ seemed totally oblivious.

You see my cooking has come on leap and bound this year…

I even cooked something.!

After being given the recipe for Dahl curry by our hosts G Adventures in Dublin… https://www.gadventures.com/?aw_ag_id=49375547731&aw_kw_id=aud-360242417736:kwd-296402816580&aw_ad_id=297109875494&aw_nw=g&phonecode=PPC_SEM_Brand&gclid=Cj0KCQiArozwBRDOARIsAHo2s7t7hmH99Ist6icPt9oHDzkak2RC_How1OfDnhxuuj7arpD5lLi6X2MaAl0BEALw_wcB.

Of course it’s only a start and nothing like the feasts our Jordanian hosts put on for us… Petra and the sands of time And http://www.visitjordan.com

And in the desert too!

Going underground

With their zarb where they bury meat, veg and rice in a pit in the ground, add lots of embers.

And wrap it in blankets and bury it in sand.

The zarb is put on in the early afternoon and by the evening it is meltingly tender.

Not much call for it though in chilly Greystones here in Ireland.

So where’s the best curry. India? Probably. But remember it is Britain’s national dish.

Curry belongs to Glasgow

And in Glasgow where there is a big Asian population and where they gave birth to Chicken Tikka Masala.

When Ali Aslam, the owner of the Shish Mahal restaurant http://www.shishmahal.co.uk added tomato soup and some sauces to his chicken curry.

To satisfy a Glasgow bus driver who had sent it back because it was too dry.

Scottish and Sub-Continental fusion is a definite thing.

Which I knew about being of the Caledonian variety myself I belong to Glasgow but with which I renewed acquaintance…

Piping hot

When I visited the World Pipe Band Championships… https://www.theworlds.co.uk

In ma wee hame toon Glasgow https://peoplemakeglasgow.com/visiting/top-reasons-to-visit-glasgow and https://www.visitscotland.com.

The perfect fusion between Scot and the Sub-Continent is in fact in the Sub-Continent.

Or more precisely with the Sri Lankan staff on the Maldives with Island… Atoll tale – the Maldives and http://www.kuramathi.com And http://www.kandolhu.com

Where I played cricket, of sorts, and football (chased shadows).

And, of course tucked into their food which comes from everywhere.

Although I might arrange for them to get some Irn-Bru shipped in.

And now that we’re well into the Christmas drinking… here, by popular demand, Jocktails, your favourite Cocktail column by your Scottish cocktail guru.

And this is a reminder of what we’ve got in the bar… https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/08/01/jocktails-the-strawberry-daiquiri/, https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/08/15/jocktails-bajan-monkey/

While try out https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/08/29/jocktails-mimosas/

MEET YOU IN THE BAR

Uncategorized

This Sporting Weekend – Darts

21st December 201922nd December 2019 funtime65

Imaugural World Darts champion Leighton Rees’s fleshy jowls broke into the widest smile.

And no wonder, the Wales team he was captaining had just seen off Scotland in the Home Internationals at Cardiff.

A rookie reporter, I was thrilled to have grabbed the big man for a quick word.

Of course I didn’t understand a word of what he said.

But worryingly neither did he… he was speaking Welsh and when I asked him what he had said he just shrugged those big shoulders.

The World Championships have come a long way since Leighton’s 1978 triumph.

And just this week Fallon Sherrock became the first woman to win a World Championship match to a thunderous reception from the London crowd…

Welsh wizards

My meeting with larger-than-life Leighton Rees was just one highlight from a year in the Welsh capital.

Like the best of friends we often take them for granted and Ireland’s nearest neighbour, Wales, www.visitwales.com falls into that category.

But the ferry journey across to Holyhead is legendary and, of course, has been immortalised in song.

As would happen both combine with the launch of Stena’s www.stenaline.com new ferry from Dublin mid-January, Estrid.

Because my old pal, none other than PR Michael Rafferty of the Handsome Princes, promotes Stena.

Now that’s worth singing about.

Of course the smart money is on Dutchman Michael Van Gerwen to lift the Sid Waddell Trophy.

Dutch masters

Now the Netherlands has some great pubs and they are big Anglophiles so I suppose it makes sense that they love their darts.

Raymond Van Barnevelt retired after being knocked out of the World Championships but having secured his place in the game’s pantheon.

The thing is though that those narrow Dutch bars don’t leave much room for anything else than an oche.

Here’s more shenanigans on Amsterdam… Two lips from Amsterdam, Pictures of Amsterdam, George Clooney and Amal’s Amsterdam hotel

And www.iamsterdam.com.

Now, I could go on and on about my darts brushes.

Bristow and I

Like the time I played the late, great Eric ‘The Crafty Cockney’ Bristow.

And he beat me, kneeling down and with his back away from the board.

But I won’t.

And will only leave you with my memory of an even earlier sports interview with the heroic Sid Waddell when I was in Aberdeen… www.visitscotland.com

Who repeated his praise of Bristow: ‘When Alexander of Macedonia was 33 he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer… Bristow’s only 27.’

MEET YOU ON THE OCHE

Uncategorized

Hungry and Thursday – Whisky and the water of long life

19th December 201919th December 2019 funtime65

The oldest person in the UK died this year at the grand age of 112.

And one only hopes that St Peter had a tumbler of whisky waiting for her when she arrived at the Pearly Gates.

Grace Jones attributed her longevity to uisce baitha, ‘the water of life’.

She took a Famous Grouse Scotch whisky every day with the blessings of her doctor.

She began the habit when she was 50 (why so late?).

All of which gives me ammunition if the Scary One pulls me up over my nightly dram.

Now I often get asked if it’s Scotch or Irish for me.

To which the diplomatic (and truthful) answer is: Both!

I’m reminded of a wedding guest I met at a friend’s nuptials.

We got talking about where we’d been on holiday and shared our experiences of Islay.

An island off Scotland which you can view from the North of Ireland.

And crucially has eight distilleries which for a population of 3,228 means one for every 430 people.

I asked the wedding guest if she had visited any of them on her travels and felt a little silly when she informed me that she was a whisky taster.

Hiding my jealousy, I asked if she chose specific whiskies depending upon her mood and the weather.

And she regaled me with a story of her visiting a rough and ready bar in Edinburgh’s port town of Leith.

Which she dropped in on on a cold and wet winter night.

The portly Fiftysomething barman asked her what she wanted to drink.

*Jocks on the rocks: Tom Sweeney and me*

And when she said ‘whisky’ he suggested ‘is that not a bit strong, dearie?’

To which my new friend rasped back by giving him tasting notes on all the bottles of whisky on the top shelf. Back of the net!

While you’re in Edinburgh best check out The Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile https://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk

The world’s whiskies

Now I try the whiskies of the world wherever I find them and have become particularly partial to bourbon and rye from visiting Washington http://Easy DC and my cousin’s husband (he hails from Kentucky).

While here in Ireland there’s whiskey under your nose with https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/11/whiskey-irish-for-whisky/ and of course Scotland http://www.visitscotland.comwhere it was invented https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/04/15/sportstraveltraveltravel/.http://www.tourismireland.com

And in my popular drinks column which will return… it takes research! https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2019/09/12/jocktails-whisky/

Of course there have been strange places where I’ve discovered whisky and none stranger than at the top of the Swiss Alps…. https://jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/swhisskey/

And visit www.myswitzerland.com to learn more about this and that cool (well, it would be) ice bar.

MEET YOU IN THE BAR