Posts By: Nicky Marr

Hands off our Highland Trains!

I love travelling by train; I always have. Maybe it comes from growing up with a garden that backed onto a railway embankment and waving at the trains as they passed. Maybe I’ve watched Brief Encounter too often – there’s a certain romance associated with travelling alone; a real ‘what if’ to every chance meeting…. Read more »

Drams, Grace & Dignity, and papier-mâché

It’s World Whisky Day as I write this – a day which falls slap bang in the middle of Whisky Month. The temptation was to celebrate by making some of my own whisky because I am now ‘qualified’, having spent a day learning to become an Honorary Distiller at Benromach Distillery in Forres. My day… Read more »

Jobs for Life? Not any more.

It’s a tough time of year for Scottish teenagers with the SQA exams well underway. There is so much pressure – not just to be a teenager and all that that entails, but to study hard, to live up to parental and school expectations, and to get the best results possible. Only then will they… Read more »

A new political force for #GE2020 – yes please!

If you are reading this on Thursday, either the polling stations will be still open, or the count will be underway. If you are reading it on Friday or Saturday, we’ll have the headline results, and the ‘conversations in dark rooms’ will likely be taking place in and around Whitehall to determine the make-up of… Read more »

Libyan migrants. It’s time for humanity to kick in

As I write this at the beginning of the week, news reports are coming in of further distress calls from migrant boats in the Mediterranean Sea. At this time of year, people traffickers take advantage of warmer weather and calm seas to extort money from desperate North Africans, and pack them into unseaworthy vessels bound… Read more »

Creamy Chicken, Pancetta and Mango Salad

I’m struggling to tie this in with Scottish Food and Drink, but how about this for justification… for the first time this year it’s warm enough to eat outside in Highlands, this is my favourite ‘family tea’ to serve outside, and I got the main ingredient (the chicken) from the fabulous Cairngorm Butcher in Grantown… Read more »

Kingsmills Hotel Belgian Food Festival

Think of Belgian food, and what comes to mind…chips with mayonnaise? Waffles? Fine chocolate? Well if that’s scraped the bottom of your Belgian culinary knowledge, it’s time to get yourself educated. Luckily, help is at hand in the form of a very excellent Belgian Food Festival running for ten days from Thursday 23rd April to… Read more »