Caiplie House Goings On

There are still some spaces on John’s courses 12th-16th November:

The 14th is now sold out and on the 15th there is limited availability.

John is a top quality chef and a great teacher. What’s more he is great fun in the kitchen too!

It's all in the presentation!

 Here are some of the courses available. Give me a call to find out more about what is available on certain days, or to find out more about each course.

Full day courses

Cooking techniques for meat and fish and creating a perfect sauce

The perfect dinner party

Can’t cook would like to cook (recently retired husbands??!!)

Mediterranean cookery

French regional cookery

Student survival

Panic free Christmas

£110 including lunch

1/2 day courses

Easy desserts with a wow factor

Hot and cold starters

An introduction to Indian Cookery

Stocks and sauces

£60 including lunch

I am offering crazy prices for B&B during the courses. Single rooms at £27.50!!! and doubles or twins at £22.50 per person.

If you would like to book a course please give me a call regarding dates and availability. These courses make great early Christmas presents!

01333 450564

Finlay

To find out more about John and his cookery school please visit his site www.guesthouseinlanguedoc.com

Caiplie Golf Challenge – Charleton GC, Fife

It had been on my mind to share the torture for a while and invite a crowd of people to join me for a round of golf. Why should I suffer in a small group? I had been telling myself for a while now that the enjoyment had to be taken from the company, the surroundings, the lovely walk.

So why not increase my chance of enjoyment by inviting some new golf partners?

So there we were last Wednesday finishing off a lovely bowl of broth before venturing out for a round of whack whack sod it! The wind picked up and the promised showers started to arrive. However by the time we had all got our waterproofs on and brollies out the sun came back out and the wind ceased…..fooled you!

Water Hazard?

As we limbered up on the 1st tee I looked around and realised those gathered were; family, friends, suppliers and clients…a nice mix. We were 18 in all, 17 male and the brave Lynn!

The handicaps being claimed were mostly in the teens stretching up to the dizzy heights of the high twenties! You could tell from the clothing that we were a mixed bunch of golfers with fishing, walking and ski gear as prevalent as the golf gear. (There was no correlation between kit and score by the way although Eric did have the best gear!)

As is usual on these occasions the craic was good and we didn’t let the golf dampen our spirits as the sun continued to shine.

Reports were coming back from the first few matches of very low scoring on the Stableford system and I am ashamed to say that a 31 points total took the prize of a lovely bottle of Lochnagar! A shocking 16 just managed to fight off some serious competition for the the booby prize and Lynn stole the ladies prize!

Penman’s Butcher of Crail sponsored the longest drive with Eric taking the three sirloin steaks back to the West. Thankfully Keith didn’t win his own steaks after a huge drive which finished up just off the fairway!

There was a heated debate over the nearest the pin sponsored by the Fox and Hounds of Houston.  J Wengel almost running off with his own beer before graciously offering the prize to the second placed ball?

The prize giving was back in the dining room of Caiplie House where we tucked in to Helen’s stovies. Further prizes could have been given out for those who managed three portions!!

Thanks everyone for coming along and making this my most enjoyable golf day this year!

See you in the spring.

To organise your golf day in or near Crail contact the booking office:

golfdays@caipliehouse.co.uk

I have travelled back in time this week with the arrival of a new AC/DC album

I have not been this excited about an album since buying Back in Black on vinyl in the early 1980s!

I have had the CD in the car for the last few days and have been looking for excuses to drive. It just seems to work really really well, really really loud, in the car!

So if you have seen more than the usual finger tapping on steering wheels this week you know what is going on. Red lights, great! More traffic great I will get to hear the end of this track!!

My personal afvourite is track four. Anything Goes Closely followed by Rock ‘N’ Roll Dream Classics but every one of the 15 tracks are top quality Rock and Roll from the best rockers ever! No messin no effects no gimmicks, well actually there is a slide guitar on one track. Apart from that the engineering choices come down to which speaker Angus’s guitar emerges from! Thats all it takes!!

Rock on!

Have you seen the latest fad in books….Things you must do books, before you die or before you are 40 or before you have your porridge in the morning!!

Talk about bossy! Why not Some things you may like to try if you have time? Some places I have enjoyed visiting…… Maybe they wouldn’t sell?

Well maybe you have a personal list yourself but haven’t thought about publishing it. I guess we all do. How many people live in Edinburgh and say every summer I really should go to the Tattoo? Or in Inverness and have never been on a boat on Loch Ness?…..the shame!!

Fi on the chain walk

So since living in Crail I have had a list of things to do which are very specific to the area.  Hit the green and stay on it at The Rockies at Anstruther, get invited to the exclusive Crail Cookery Club and complete the chain walk at Elie. OK so there are maybe a few others on the list but this was meant to be a short blog entry! Which of those three have I not achieved?

The chain walk at Elie is a fun scramble along the coves and cliffs just West of the golf course. It is part of the Fife Coastal Path with a high alternative avoiding this fun via ferrata.

It always seemed that the tide was wrong or the timing wrong when I was along on Elie to complete this little section of the FCP that I had’t walked. After six years it became one of things that I avoided in conversation, my dirty little secret! OK so I havent played the Old Course, too expensive, people agree. Never been out to the Isle of May, takes up a whole day, people frown but nod….Never done the chain walk well I had stopped admitting it!

Smile?

You may be asking why? Surely a big boy like me couldn’t be scared of a few wee cliffs? NO NO NO! Well I am not great on exposed ridges or narrow paths with a good drop thats for sure but I had just never done it!

So a few weeks ago my personal guide got me motivated, checked the tides and bus times, made sure I was fed, watered and had taken my medication! The cat had been fed and the kids were with their Granny! OK everything was sorted.

Great fun! Why had I never made the time? After a few scrambling tips we were off. I soon realised that brute strength could be used…result,as is often the case in my sporting endeavours the lack of skill was masked by a desire and raw physicality! (hanging on) We made our way along going against the traffic, my guide had done this before and sussed out the best route! I was a bit miffed to find groups of pensioners in unsuitable shoes and teenage girls being dragged along by adventurous fathers managing to look sulky and uninterested. OK so maybe when I tackle the Eiger I will be in the presence of elite climbers….or is that in my next life?

Walk the chain walk and stay at Caiplie House

I managed to catch up with Bruce MacGregor before the Blazin Fiddles gig in Birnam