To Scotland

I am looking forward to flying to Scotland tomorrow. My flight leaves just after 11am so I will need to leave the house around 7am. The holiday will start off on a high note with my Dad's 60th birthday party (on 28th December) and then we have the New Year celebrations to look forward to.

And to think all my plans might have been ruined if the strike had not been prevented by the High Court.

I am looking forward to going to Skye for a few days, walking around a supermarket, meeting with family and friends, and sampling some fine ales. Brilliant!

I'll be in Scotland for 10 days so if anyone is in the vicinity of Skye or Inverness, please get in touch.

Brown Jug

I went to Brown Jug a couple of weeks ago. Brown Jug is in an area of Tokyo called Ebisu and is owned by Kiyoshi Ambe and his wife. I have known Ambe-san for quite some time as he visits Scotland every year to indulge in his passion of whisky drinking.

I always intend to go to Brown Jug more frequently but only seem to visit once a year. I guess I visit so infrequently as it is a fair old journey from my home in Kumegawa. The last train home from central Tokyo is around midnight so if I want to have a long night out, I'd have to make it an all nighter and get the first train home at 5am.

In the picture, Ambe-san is behind the bar and the other guy is an irritating customer I remember suffering a few years ago. It was a good evening and I had a few pleasant chats with the other customers in the bar. We'll probably invite Ambe-san and his wife to the house sometime in March for one of his favourite roast dinners.