Piping up with some national pride
Piping up with some national pride
WHEN I & H Brown, the family-owned Perthshire farming and civil engineering empire, celebrated its 50th anniversary with a slap-up lunch at Gleneagles Hotel last Friday, it happened to be hours after the big vote was decided.
As the 140 guests were piped through to the ballroom in traditional style, to the strains of the stirring march Ben Gullion, was it fanciful of The Bottom Line to detect that the prevailing sentiment was one of national pride (and relief it was all over?).
Piper Andrew Stevenson, from the band Skippinish) went on to deliver two more rollicking tunes before lunch was served - seemingly with no requests for a lament.
Say it quietly, but we'll drink to that
THE independence referendum was clearly no laughing matter for Diageo's top brass at the drinks giant's annual meeting in London last Thursday.
City journalist Marion Dakers, until recently of this parish, tweeted: "Favourite question from the Diageo AGM: How does the board think Johnnie Walker would have voted in the indyref? Strangely left unanswered."
The Bottom Line suspects the drinks giant will not have been devastated by the result.
Ryder Cup means showtime for Simon
THE Bottom Line caught up with Simon Howie this week as the entrepreneur's eponymous butcher business was gearing up to supply choice cuts to golf fans at the Ryder Cup in Gleneagles, which gets underway tomorrow.
He likened the process, which the company has been working on for a year, to preparing for a big family event.
"You set the date, you book the band and then you start working on all the minor details. That's what we are into now - it's showtime," he said.
No changing a leopard's (night) spots
THEY say a leopard cannot change his spots.
In Peter Stringfellow's case, it is one cliche which appears to be true. At 73, the "gentleman's club" impresario has shown he has lost none of his lust for business by launching a new London venue.
And the name he has given for his latest club? The Leopard Lounge.
Turn-on for some, turn-off for others
BUTLINS has announced it is revamping its chalet offering after consulting with women on the Mumsnet online forum.
So now those staying in the holiday parks will get arts and craft materials, a supply of outdoor sporting equipment and a range of Hasbro board games.
We're not sure the no televisions in the bedrooms idea will be quite as popular with the kids, especially on the inevitable rainy days.
Hammering out someone's ancestry
RYDER Cup invitees may run into a promotion by the Greater Minneapolis Saint Paul region of the US, which is staging the next event at Hazeltine in 2016.
Its economic development chief Mike Langley, in Edinburgh to meet the Scottish Life Sciences Association, told The Bottom Line the referendum result had been pleasing to him "as an Anglophile, descended from an English king".
Yes, Mr Langley's solid genealogy goes back 23 generations to none other than Edward I - who, not surprisingly on this trip, he refers to as Edward Longshanks, rather than the more familiar Hammer of the Scots.
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