Dip into Loch Lomond

WE were struck by the beguiling advertisement for one of Scotland's most popular tourist draws when we arrived back at Glasgow Airport this week.

Inviting visitors to "immerse" themselves in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, we hoped the marketeers were being figurative with their choice of verb as we made our way shivering to the exit.

A dog's life

DIRECT Line is turning dog walking into a social media event. It has launched Walkies, a smartphone app for dog owners so they can post maps of their walks to Facebook and Twitter.

Apparently almost half of those who change their routes regularly do so because they believe their dog gets bored, and more than half say they would use an app to make life more interesting.

For those still concerned about dog boredom, perhaps the next innovation might be iPooch, doggie music players with headsets for large mutts, earphones for small ones, and Beats cans for hipster canines?

Fighting talk

THERE has been escaping the hype surrounding the "fight of the century", which saw US boxer Floyd Mayweather defeat the Filipino Manny Pacquiao. Even investment brokers have been getting in on the act.

Mike van Dulken, analyst at Accendo Markets, wrote that the "FTSE puts up more of a fight than Pacquiao" in his first note on trading following the Bank Holiday.

Baking not Strictly

NO one can accuse the Weir annual general meeting of lacking in entertainment.

Testing of the electronic voting machines saw shareholders asked to say whether the Great British Bake Off was better than Strictly Come Dancing.

The cake making programme gained 96 per cent of the vote.

Weir chairman Charles Berry expressed his delight with the result purely because namesake Mary Berry, no relation, was in the Bake Off.

Battle bus

IT wouldn't be right for The Bottom Line to ignore the big event of the day, namely the 2015 General Election.

In his latest correspondence with this humble correspondent, regular contributor Ian Adie signs off with the following vignette: "May you forever type at the same speed as David Cameron's campaign bus driving through Easterhouse!"

Sound advice indeed.

Big pumps

BACK at the Weir AGM chief executive Keith Cochrane was running through the company's achievements in the past year and mentioned the building of the world's biggest slurry pump for a mining customer in Chile.

He declined to mention whether air fresheners were included in the deal.

Nervous moment

DRAMA was conspicuous by its absence when the resolutions were put to shareholders at the Macfarlane Group's annual meeting in Glasgow this week.

But chairman Graeme Bissett did admit to concealing his nerves when the proposal for his re-election to the board came up.

Thanking shareholders for voting to keep him on the board, he said it is "always a nervous moment if you are standing here!"