Greener future

IT was the end of an era at the STV annual meeting on Glasgow this week. The AGM was the last to be attended by long-standing finance director George Watt, who will bring down the curtain on his 20-year association with the broadcaster when he leaves on Tuesday.

Paying tribute to Mr Watt, chairman Baroness Margaret Ford said he was leaving to pursue a non-executive career, or “spend more time in his greenhouse!”

We are sure Mr Watt will find time to do both.

Flying the flag

ABERDEEN Angus beef was on the menu when Edinburgh chef Barry Bryson was asked to cook for a special audience in South America last week.

Mr Bryson, who owns private catering firm Cater Edinburgh, was chosen by the British Embassy in Uruguay to prepare a meal for local celebrity chefs and judges from the Uruguayan edition of MasterChef.

Mr Bryson served the 100-plus audience with dishes such as Aberdeen Angus beef with dried lemon, gin-cured salmon, dill-crusted sea bass with beetroot crumble, and treacle tart with an orange and basil salad. It sure beats the usual limp supermarket sandwich we endure on a daily basis.

Weather beaten

STV chief executive Simon Pitts told shareholders this week that he had encountered a typically Scottish response to the warm weather over the Easter weekend.

Instead of providing a boost to morale, Mr Pitts was told by colleagues: “That’s summer then.”

Of course, he was not entirely delighted with the hot weather himself, pointing out that people tend not to watch as much telly when the sun is shining.

Paddling on

IT was quite fitting that, during an interview about his acquisition of the loch-side Pierhouse Hotel in Argyll, hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray turned to a water-themed analogy to sum up his approach to business. Mr Campbell Gray, who is building a portfolio of hotels, said: “I’m a big believer in paddling your own canoe,” he said. “It has always served me well.”