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Creme de la creme

7th April 20257th April 2025 funtime65

And we’re bigging up one of the best tourist attractions anywhere for their record-breaking choc… just one of the reasons why Cadbury World is la creme de la creme.

Cadbury, in the village of Bourneville (yes, it does exist) Birmingham, have just brought out a 3ft Creme Egg, the size of a penguin.

No, not the chocolate ones but the Emperors.

Cadbury World’s eggstraordinary achievement is timely with Easter just around the corner.

And there are probably few better places to spend it than this land of pure imagination.

With its 14 chocolately zones.

We’ll Parrot that

Pecking order: Looking for the Mini-Eggs

Kids and big kids can get into the holiday spirit and help Mr Cadbury’s Parrot and his co-presenter search for the Missing Mini-eggs.

In the stage show from Saturday 5 to Sunday 27 April.

And meet with the aforementioned Parrot and Freddo and the Caramel Bunny.

And take Afternoon Tea in a private area of the Cadbury World Cafe conservatory.

Chocolate tea

Chocs away: Everyone happy at Cadbury World

Now this is when it really pays off to be a kid.

With chocolate, naturally, to the fore in the Child Afternoon tea.

With a selection of finger sandwiches with ham, cheese and jam fillings all served along with crisps.

But and here’s what we’ve been waiting for, a variety of Cadbury-inspired cakes including rocky road, chocolate brownie, mini-donut with chocolate dipping sauce and fruit skewer.

All accompanied by a choice of hot chocolate or fruit juice.

And adults too

Not that the adults get left out with their own Afternoon Tea.

Where you can indulge in scones, rocky road and chocolate brownies, decorated with freeze dried raspberries and dusted with chocolate.

Sandwich fillings include salmon and cream cheese, ham and cheese and egg mayonnaise with watercress.

Accompanied by a roast vegetable tartlet and sausage roll.

And a choice of hot chocolate, coffee or a selection of teas.

On it like a bonnet

You’re a character: At your Afternoon Tea

Kids will be encouraged too to get out your best headwear… and we’d be on it like a bonnet for the Easter bonnet parade.

And over the bank holiday weekend you can egg-splore all of Cadbury World’s chocolatey zones with an egg-cellent Easter Egg trail.

No wonder then that everybody from Roald Dahl to our own wee brown-eyed Daughterie have passed through their doors over the year.

It’s why Cadbury World is la creme de la creme.

The Character Afternoon Tea + Entry to Cadbury World comes in at a mouth-quenching £39.95 for adults (over 16s) and £34.95 for kids (2-15).

And if you’re anything like Daddy’s Little Girl you’ll never want to leave.

Like Cadbury itself, Bourneville and Birmingham are at the heart of everything.

In the middle of England and accessible by all transport routes.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Oh My Godot… Ireland 70 years of Beckett

31st March 202531st March 2025 funtime65

Oh My Godot… Ireland 70 years of Beckett and the renowned surrealist play in true style by marking it twice.

On the occasion of the Nobel winner’s birthday, his work will be reprised across April 12 and 13.

And then on Good Friday, April 18 and 19, to commemorate the Agreement that brought peace to the North.

In Enniskillen where the great playwright went to school.

Godot, famously described as a play where nothing happened twice was of course groundbreaking at the time.

And forced itself onto final year school syllabuses where students were glad to find a literature accessible and funny.

Pawn in the game

Check it out mate: The Beckett celebrations

Our friends in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, have put on a free programme which would have met with the old bespectacled dramatist’s approval and Vladimir and Estragon’s to

Building on ten years of success of the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival (2012 – 2022) OMG! will feature two upland theatrical performed readings, six in-conversation events and an immense town-sized game of chess.

Now if you hadn’t heard of The Happy Days International Beckett Festival then you’ll be glad you’ve visited here (obvs).

The Festival specialising in deepening its literary heritage work on Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde within Enniskillen and Co. Fermanagh.

With both having attended school in Enniskillen sixty years apart.

Part of the landscape

OMG! will be bookended by outdoor rural landscape performances of Waiting For Godot.

For which audiences will be taken by bus to secret locations, making their way through fields, meadows and hillsides to the performance sites.

A 3.5m Tree for Waiting For Godot sculpture by Sir Anthony Gormley, commissioned by Creative Director Seán Doran, will be installed at Little Dog mountain in County Fermanagh.

And the transnational Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark.

On the mornings of the two weekends, Oh My Godot! will celebrate Beckett’s chess-obsession by playing out twelve ceremonial chess moves across the streets of Enniskillen town.

Using a large, 32-piece sculpted bronze Beckett Chess Set by artist Alan Milligan and featuring the chess-related characters from ‘Waiting for Godot’.

Countries, UK

Bit of a history with Scotland’s best North Berwickety

22nd March 202522nd March 2025 funtime65

It’s held its position as No1 spot in the country to live and I’ve had a bit of a history with Scotland’s best North Berwickety.

Of course, I’d little interest in the future when I holidayed with my cousins as a kid in East Lothian 50 years ago.

Or what half a century’s time would look like.

Well, the golf course which frames the burgh is untouched since my early thrashings there.

Marine life

On the right course: North Berwick Golf Club

And the grand Marine Hotel, the scene of my parents’ Golden Wedding Anniversary, looks out on the golfers’ efforts.

What the Marine guests would have made of the eight-year-old lad’s attempts at the Royal & Ancient Game is anyone’s guess.

But it was an achievement in itself that I was allowed to complete the course after hitting said cousin around the head with my backswing.

I walk North Berwick Golf Course every day now since being moved back to Scotland after 13 years an Irishman.

With Herself locating us to within spitting distance of the Outlaws.

Birds and birdies

I scream for ice cream: The Daughterie outside the Seabird Centre

Today’s North Berwickety, my nickname, on account of its retirement home reputation, retains its old Scots coastal town image.

But like many coastal towns old shops have given way to cafes and kerching shops.

The most scenic being in the Seabird Centre which looks out onto Bass Rock.

Home to thousands of gannets whose poo gives it its white colour.

And you can sign up for a boat tour out to the rock and Fidra island from the harbour.

Now if you’re a hiker North Berwickety is right up your street, on the John Muir trail (ask an American as he’s the father of their national parks).

Or climb the Law, the old Scottish name for hill, which may be only 650ft but is rocky and challenging.

Catch of the day

Getting the band back together: The Blues Brothers in tow

Pubs may be a bit staid but The Ship Inn on Quality Street serves good fish and is a good stop-off after your walk and quieter around lunch.

Of the famous people who have taken the air in North Berwickety, well you’re reading him, of course.

But equally former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has taken up residence here.

While former Ryder Cup captain Catriona Matthew is a proud daughter of and clubmaker Ben Sayers hailed from the toon too.

As does Rory Farge, Scotland rugby co-captain.

Me and Robert Louis Stevenson

Window shopping: Herself checking out dresses

Robert Louis Stevenson holidayed here and there is a pictorial tribute to the Treasure Island writer on the main street.

And if it’s good enough for those illuminaries it’s good enough for us all.

Now here’s hoping that we pull off a threepeat for next year on the Times list.

And in the meantime I’ll carry on adding to my bit of a history with Scotland’s best North Berwickety.

America, Countries, Flying, UK

Fly me for a reason let that diversion be Scotland

21st March 202521st March 2025 funtime65

There are randomly some winners from the Heathrow shutdown, with a precious few saying fly me for a reason let that diversion be Scotland.

We learned from the many interviews with travellers of parties from New Orleans who had intended on coming up north from London.

And that this had saved them a journey.

Of course, not to make light of the hundreds of thousands of travellers who have been inconvenienced by the disruption caused by the fire at the airport.

But we’re reminded of visitors to this isle being rerouted to Scotland an age ago and causing a mighty stir.

Crazy Horses of the air

Exit doors,here,here and here: The Osmonds

The Osmonds were at Beatlemania height when they visited Britain in 1972.

And teeny heart-throb Donny recalled: ‘After our first flight into Heathrow, we were banned from further landings there.

‘When part of a balcony collapsed beneath the amount of fans who had shown up.

‘Gatwick wouldn’t take us either, so we had to fly to Scotland and take a train down to London.’

While Donny was big there was and never has been anyone as big as Elvis Presley who was also rerouted to Scotland.

Return to sender

When on March 3, 1960 The King‘s plane touched down in Prestwick, south of Glasgow for refuelling.

On his way back from American military camp in West Germany he was met by 200 screaming fans.

They’d heard on the grapevine of a VIP arriving in their backyard.

And took a punt that it might be Sgt Presley.

It’s now or never

Lieutenant Colonel Ed Miller recalled: ‘I remember it well. I got the job as Sgt. Presley’s escort.

‘Probably because I was a professional musician before the war.

‘He was an extremely pleasant, sincere young man who took the time and trouble to speak to everyone he met’.

Now, those weary travellers who have found themselves unwittingly redirected from Heathrow to Scotland are right to feel sorry for themselves.

But at least they can say that they have followed in the footsteps of The Osmonds and Elvis Presley.

And maybe others might want to say… fly me for a reason let that diversion be Scotland.

Countries, Europe, Sport, UK

Le Tour de (Little) France in Edinburgh

19th March 2025 funtime65

Everyone’s going cycling crazy here as we gear up for Le Tour de (Little) France in Edinburgh.

And it’s about temps too as Scotland and France’s links go back centuries through the Auld Alliance of its royal families.

With the ‘Jocks’ nickname for Scots even emanating from the French name Jacques for the-then monarch James.

With the area by the Royal Infirmary where Mary Queen of Scots’ French entourage are said to have stayed… Little France.

Wee Tour de France

The news that Scotland’s capital will host Le Départ 2027, the start of the biggest annual sporting event in the world is trés grand.

And a ringing endorsement for Scottish cycling which has a rich legacy.

Stretching back to King of the Mountains Robert Millar right up to multi-Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy.

The only regret is that my old colleague, Commonwealth Games competitor and cycling and sports journalist Richard Moore is no longer here to see it.

Le Grand Départ is then un grand deal.

And judging by past visits to British shores, in London and Yorkshire, it will bring in hundreds of millions in tourist mullah.

Where in Edinburgh the world’s top cyclists will whizz by will be released in due course.

Hooray for Holyrood

But we would expect the City of Edinburgh and Le Tour to want to showcase the Athens of the North.

And the riders to fly around Holyrood Park where this cyclist travelled daily on his bike to work.

From Edinburgh’s beach town Portobello, home, of course, of our own Sir Chris.

So, Le Dieu willing I’ll be on the streets in two years and Sir Chris will too to cheer on Le Grand Départ.

As we get the wheels turning for Le Tour de (Little) France in Edinburgh.

Countries, UK

Happy St Piran’s Day to our Cornish Celtic pards

5th March 202517th March 2025 funtime65

And a cider and a pastie for the day that’s in it as we say Happy St Piran’s Day to our Cornish Celtic pards.

Those of us not among the 5,000 folks with a working knowledge of Kernewek, the Cornish language, will have worked out.

That pards are pals and ‘Gool Peran Lowen’ means Happy St Piran’s Day, named for the 7th-century patron saint of tin miners.

Cornwall, the south-westernmost region in England is, of course, a proud member of the Celtic clan.

With Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Brittany in France and Galicia in Spain.

Gaels force

Now all the Celtic cousins share language roots, varieties on national dress, musical similarities and a love of pipes.

All of which you’ll see at gatherings of the clans around the world.

And I’ve been fortunate to enjoy from the Barbados Celtic Festival through the World Piping Championships in Glasgow.

To Celtic culture in Santiago de Compostella and Finisterre on the Camino.

So that when one Gael celebrates anywhere in the world we all do.

From Eden to Shipton Abbot

Cornwall, of course, is a region well worth celebrating for its music, culinary and culture.

And while its most visited attraction is the Eden Project, the world’s biggest indoor rainforest, housed in futuristic domes Cornwall’s outdoors are unique.

All of which make it a favourite for TV dramas and films, everything from Rebecca, Poldark, Doctor Martin, Fisherman’s Friends to the latest, Beyond Paradise.

If you want the cornucopia of Cornwall then you can push the boat out for one of the more expensive private group tours.

Or go Beyond Paradise for just £20 when you can take a TV tour around Looe, the inspiration for Shipton Abbot.

Now we all know of the charms of Cornwall but you’ll hear naysayers in equal measure warn against going because of the traffic logjams.

Cornish pasty people

Instead let the plane take the strain and fly into Newquay with these airlines all serving the Cornish peninsula.

British Airways. Aer Lingus, Loganair, Swiss International Air Lines, Eurowings, easyJet and Eastern Airways.

And so a Happy St Piran’s Day to our Cornish Celtic pards and see you soon.

Countries, Pilgrimage, UK

A cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day

1st March 202517th March 2025 funtime65

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus and a cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day.

Which, of course, is a hug rather than a cupboard.

Although perhaps you’re more in need of a press, so take it how you will.

That the Welsh celebrate St David as their patron saint is only natural as he is a proud mab Cymrum, of son of Wales with a song in his heart.

And the only saint from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland to come from the country where they are celebrated.

All the Saints

The apostle St Andrew hailing from Judea and never having visited Caledonia, the Romans’ name for our bit of modern-day Britain.

And his connection deriving from some part of him having come here by a missionary.

And some tired and probably drunken Scots chieftain mistaking a white cross and a blue background in the sky as a sign.

Andrew having been crucified on an ‘X’ cross.

How Turk St George came to be placed with killing a dragon.

On the flat-topped Dragon Hill in Uffington, Berkshire, is anybody’s guess.

Although again we suspect drink was taken, urged on, of course, by returning Crusaders from the Holy Land where his legend loomed large.

St Paddy, meanwhile, may have come to represent all that is Irish but he was born and reared in modern-day English Lake District, then Wales.

Before being kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he drove out the snakes.

Although the standing joke is that they returned and sit in the country’s parliament, the Dail.

In St David’s footsteps

David’s den: St Davids Day and his church

All of which tour around the islands brings us back to the day that’s in it and where is best to track St David’s footsteps.

Well, that would be St Davids in Pembrokeshire, west Wales, or the top of the pig’s head.

Now St David’s, on the coast, has welcomed worshippers to his church since the 6th century when David walked among them.

It became a popular medieval pilgrimage site and two trips to St Davids was considered equal to one to Rome itself.

These days it’s part of the Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way which you can join any time, but best of all to reach here on St David’s Day.

As is the way with ancient cathedrals the real history lies in the library.

And here you can study collections belonging to deans, bishops and clergy dating back to the 16th century.

Read all about it

The library also holds a collection of local and cathedral photographs dating back to the 19th century and the Parish Registers.

Now for the day that’s in we leave the last words to David.

A gwnewch y pethau bychain a welsoch ac a glywsoch gennyf i.

Which, of course, mean be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.

We’re always happy to add to our knowledge.

And will regale all we meet the next time we’re in Wales.

Along with a cwtch to all our Welsh pals on their national day.

How to get there

St Davids is 116 miles west of Cardiff and two and a half hours by car.

Or 180 miles south of ferry terminal Holyhead or four and a half hours by your vehicle.

We’d recommend though the Pilgrim Way.

It is a 162-mile journey with nearly 80 miles winding through County Wexford from Ferns to Rosslare.

Then the 80-mile crossing over the Irish Sea with Irish Ferries.

And a 45-mile walk on the beautiful Pembrokeshire National Park Coast Path to St Davids.

Countries, UK

The v.v. good guide to Bridget Jones locations

15th February 202515th February 2025 funtime65

As singletons everywhere converge on cinemas this Valentine’s weekend for a certain movie franchise climax we bring you the v.v. guide to Bridget Jones locations.

Which, of course, showcases London at its chaotic and consumerist best.

Although the story for Bridget and Mark D’Arcy actually begins in the west of England.

With the locale for Bridget’s parents’ home, where Bridge and Mark first meet in garish Christmas jumpers.

In Snowshill 12 miles north-east of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Boozy punch-ups

Bridget though is a capital metropole right down to her big pants.

Updating her diary in her £1m bachelorette flat above The Globe Tavern on Bedale Street in Borough just off Tower Bridge.

And asterisking the entry in her book above the clutter where her suitors Mark and Daniel fight over her outside her posse’s Greek restaurant.

Which whisper it is wine bar Bedales Wine Bar.

The scuffle, of course, reaches its climax with the pugilists bitch slapping in a fountain.

The Italian fountains in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.

Ladies who brunch

If it’s the very wine bar where Bridget and her pals hang out to talk about her love life and get sloshed then The Light Bar Shoreditch will take your order.

Which will entitle you to 90 minutes of unlimited drinks: Rosé, Prosecco, or Aperol Spritz

A two-course brunch with a side with menu highlights of Spicy Crisp Chicken, Avo-on-Toast, Chorizo Mac ‘n Cheese.

And Shoreditch vibes with weekend DJ sessions for £25pp.

Dear Diary

While if you’re looking to replicate that moneyshot romantic moment then you need to get yourself down.

To outside the Mont Blanc diary shop on Threadneedle Street.

Where Mark kisses Bridge and bought our heroine a new diary.

And you can get yours and map out your remarkable life.

And maybe chronicle how you’ve ticked off each of the v.v. good guide to Bridget Jones locations.

All with the help of Britmovietours, featured on ITV’s This Morning, which will give you a 12-stop tour for £17.

Countries, UK

Something completely different.. Python sites

31st January 2025 funtime65

And now for something completely different.. Python sites half a century after the release of Holy Grail.

It helps, of course, that history’s greatest comedy troupe set Arthurian England in 1970s Scotland.

Right down to the cops who, spoiler alert, arrest Arthur’s Army at Castle Stalker, Argyll & Bute, aka The Castle of Aaaargh.

Although cinematographers had fun with us as the action really took place at Bridge of Allan, near Stirling.

While Doune Castle, Perthshire, is where the French made fun of Arthur’s Army.

Caves and castles

Now Python nuts will go to any lengths to follow in the silly walk steps of their heroes.

And that extends to the Cave of Caerbannog where the psycho white bunny lost his sh1t.

Which, of course, Michael Palin and Terry Jones searched for in the 25th anniversary DVD ‘The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations’.

And discovered that it was actually an old copper mine shaft where fans have left tributes and fluffy rabbits since.

Knights of Epping Forest

Now as much as we’d love to claim Python’s Arthur in its entirety for Scotland, we must give England their characters.

With the Black Knight being cut to shreds in Epping Forest, near London, though t’were but ‘a flesh wound’.

Now should you wish to venture even further afield or back then you can walk in the sandal steps of Brian.

Tunisia’s Promised Land

To Tunisia where the Pythons followed mini-series Jesus of Nazareth by replicating Judea.

And it was in the ancient central coastal city of Monastir that the Sermon on the Mount and the stoning scenes were shot.

But that’s another story.

This is something completely different.. Python sites.

Let Glasgow Flourish in its 850th year

14th January 202514th January 2025 funtime65

All us schoolkids got a Dunoon mug for our city’s 800th birthday… and if I still had it I’d raise it now and say Let Glasgow Flourish in its 850th year.

My fellow Glaswegians are promising a cornucopia of events over the year.

With a three-day music event Clyde Chorus in May, a pop-up social history exhibition and April’s Taste the Place food trail.

Back in 1975 as well as the school mugs the city threw a party in the May full of special events, exhibitions, concerts and contests.

For a nine-year-old an evening at the football with their Dad to see Scotland play Portugal at Hampden Park was a big occasion.

Nifty Fifty

And it passed me by that the crowd booed off The Wombles, the first concert I’d attended earlier in the year, at half-time after their penalty shoot-out antics.

Football, of course, has long been the pastime of its people.

Probably since Richard the Lionheart granted Glasgow burgh status on May 10, 1175.

Musical tastes extended to a military band concert at the Kelvin Hall, the Scottish National Orchestra at the Cathedral and a Highland Gathering in Scotstoun.

While Denistoun diva Lulu wowed her fellow Glaswegians at the Pavilion Theatre.

Gie it Welly Big Yin

Individual districts held their own celebrations with open days and the election of gala queens.

All capped off with the Lord’s Provost’s Procession and the cavalcade of floats.

Depicting historical aspects of Glasgow making its way from Kelvin Way to Glasgow Green.

And a fireworks display and ‘ox-roasting’ ceremony (they we’re different days) on Glasgow Green.

Alongside a celebration ball, cabaret and buffet in the City Chambers and rowing and canoeing on the Clyde.

Best of all though was the city’s second most famous son Billy Connolly (after myself, obvs) entertaining the crowds with his Welly Boot Song.

The Big Yin has, of course, done more than anyone to promote his home city.

Although whether his health will allow him to pay a visit through this year we will have to wait and see.

It is undoubted that the comedian was the city’s first modern superstar.

Bringing colour with his harlequin hippy clothes, not to mention his infectious humour to a grey industrial city, and beyond.

Following in Billy’s banana boots

Many have followed in his banana bootsteps in the years since.

And Glasgow has successfully reclaimed its Dear Green Place moniker given to it by its saintly founder St Mungo.

And moved away from the No Mean City image of gangs and violence although the challenges still persist.

We have seen unimaginable progress in the 50 years since with major sporting events.

A Commonwealth Games and another to come next year.

A riverside refurb and iconic buildings springing up such as ‘The Armadillo’.

Sign of the times

Glasgow belongs to us: Jimmy and the next generation

So that now Scotland’s largest city can proudly complement.

And even compete with cultural and historical Edinburgh for visitors.

All of which it does with its renowned gallous (cheeky) humour.

Aas evidenced when Glasgow was promoting its award of European City of Culture in 1990.

And two likely lads decamped to the capital‘s Princes Street.

A couple of Glasgow Jimmys: The Dad and I

With a sign pointing in the direction of Glasgow, reading: ‘You are just 46 miles from the European City of Culture.’

So happy birthday to my home city and in the words of its founder St Mungo.

I say proudly Let Glasgow Flourish in its 850th year.

And now to find out if any of those classmates of mine still have their Dunoon mugs.

As I’d rather not fork out the £20 on Ebay.