Bachelor Boy.

06/30/2006

I have spent a quiet bachelor week in the Tower of Glentrollaigh as the family hop between Wimbledon and Henley. It must be my age, however I am more than happy to be pottering in the library and gunroom polishing weapons and checking over fly boxes in preparation for the 12th of August and the summer months spent with chums. Both Lachie and Mhairi are obviously under strict instructions to watch over me and prevent any naughtiness; nevertheless, I have taken a leaf out my dear Uncle Jack’s book and planked a few bottles in the longcase clocks which adorn many public rooms and require visits most evenings for winding. Sunny weather has encouraged a good deal of walking and taking notes for “things to do”, most of which have been carried over from last year’s idleness. Our tower-bound threesome even attempted something called a barbeque, which when off very well although it seemed to require me getting very hot, red and well smoked, whilst Lachie shouted encouragement from under a midge net and Mhairi nibbled a green leaf or two well watered by some of my best Fume.

I have kept my holiday media free, which has helped my blood pressure no end. However, did I really hear that there are one million civil service pensioners living in Scotland? Apparently, the Scottish Executive has also agreed that all civil servants (including themselves) can still retire at 60 with a full final salary pension for the foreseeable future, while the rest of us must soldier on to the grave. Mind you, if there are one million retired and many hundreds of thousands of working civil servants out of a population of five million, knock out the children and work-shy, and there are bally few of the rest of us!

Tanya’s taxis arrive shortly to whisk me off to the Game Conservancy Fair at Scone Palace, and old Mansfield has muttered about digs being available until Sunday. I hope that the weather will be fair, so that I do not have to spend the entire show sheltering in the Adam & Company hospitality tent, as has happened in the past. Yours Aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.