More Scotch, anyone?

Happy Easter! Is it moose or bunny, either way it doesn’t lay eggs!

No Park walk for me today, the place will be full of folk rolling eggs everywhere! Tonight the Park critters will dine royally on the smashed egg remains, it’s the payoff for having to hide away from the hordes all through the day. Tomorrow I’ll enjoy spotting painted pieces of shell on the slopes.

Edinburgh has gotten busy now, maybe still not to usual numbers but not far off now. The stags and hens are all back, swarming around looking for pubs. Alas, the last week wasn’t a good one for bands that I like playing locally, so I’ve been staying in and the odd evening stroll in the Park. I was so happy when Scotch the Band drove back into town after their trek around Scotland. If you read my last post you’ll know they went down a storm in Stramash, this time they were playing Whistkebinkies, a very different space, almost claustrophobic compared to the cavernous Stramash.

Ah, they were so fine, high energy, bouncing off the confines of Binkies; the crowd were fine too, dancing and singing along exuberantly. There’ll be a couple of clips of Scotch in action on my Facebook (Bruce T Moose, and if you friend or follow me there’s always links to new blog posts there). On here you’ll just have to make do with pictures and imagine the sounds and atmosphere. Gotta say, the skinny stripey trousers always put me in mind of Steve Harris back in the day, well, the eighties.

Oh yeah, I should mention I bought their latest cd Losing My Mind, I almost got it for free, well, I did, then I passed the kindness right back to them. See I didn’t have a tenner on me so was going pay by card, I hung around for one of them to find their card reader, it was hiding well away, no trace, he decided to just give me the cd, like wow! Heading out by the stairs on to South Bridge and the fresh air, it occurred to me that there were a line of cashpoints just over the road, doh. Naturally the band, though they’d vacated the pub, were still hanging around outside on Niddry Street, yay, and what a nice bunch they are. Of course, I should have asked how they came by the name Scotch the Band – oh well, next time they’re in town.

Toddle pip!

Scotch n Eggs

Friday night again, Etta James is serenading me, sweet. Had a very, very late night last night at Stramash, so I’ve been feeling somewhat jaded today. Oh, I’m not hungover just missing some sleep, I was drinking very slowly after discovering the latest price increase when I paid for my first pint – dropped down to halves after that. Mind, I would have spent considerably more if my evening had gone as originally intended and I’d gone to the Jazz Bar. Oh I went along (intending to while away a couple of hours) then went along back home, apparently everyone and their cousins had turned up for the Groove Thursdays jam session, not even enough room left inside to squeeze in a mouse never mind a moose!

Why didn’t I just go to Stramash or Binkies rather than back home awhile? Because, annoyingly both pubs had bands on that I would never willingly go see, one because I’ve had the displeasure before, and the other just really is not my thing. I’m very glad I did trot back out after midnight to catch Scotch the Band, well worth it! Phew, so glad was I, well it was late 2019 when I last saw them play and I was fairly drunk that night.

Scotch the Band hail from Holland, clad in black and white striped trousers, white shirts and braces, the drummer carries his kit slung low from his waist, no sitting around for this guy! There’s guitar and bass, and banjo and fiddle, oh and four of the band sing. Their style? Erm, party folk music? Revved up Balkan folk? It’s infectious in the best possible way. Scotch sing in Dutch and English, they sing about cheap vodka, weddings, the hair of the dog, they get the crowd singing raucously along. And after a week driving around Scotland they’ll be back in Edinburgh in Whistlebinkies, yay!

In other news, Co Co Co. were up from Dumfries at the Edinburgh Farmer’s Market last Saturday with some amazing Easter eggs.

I resisted buying one, but I did succumb to a packet of passion fruit truffle eggs and solid white chocolate raspberry eggs. OMG!! These guys know their chocolate but those passion fruit truffle eggs really are divine! (there’s a strawberry cheesecake chocolate in the pipeline that I’m really excited about)

I’ve been very controlled and just had one or two each day – until shortly after this picture this afternoon!