Phoenician travel insurance

In my research for that talk on the history of the island Britain I found that Cornwall had an almost monopoly on the supply of tin in the ancient world. In fact they had a rule that no-one would work more than a quota. That kept the price high, like the diamond industries Central Sales Organisation today, but the restriction forced the Romans to send Julius Caesar to investigate and when he got back with a trade agreement he was given a triumph; military opinion inclined to look on his 'invasion' as a military disaster. The amusing tale was that the Phoenicians kept the secret location of Cornwall from anyone for at least a thousand years. One Roman ship following a Phoenician was led to disaster by the Phoenician grounding his vessel on a shoal and lring the Romans to a similar fate. The Phoenician escaped and his loses were repaid from the Phoenician treasury - fully comprehensive travel insurance that PAID OUT!

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Julius Caesar

I did a talk on Wednesday evening about how the history of Scotland and England are so interconnected that studying one without the other, loses so much colour and vibrancy it is a pale reflection of the real thing. The research into our joint history was fascinating and began with how Cornwall's monopoly of the ancient tin trade brought Julius Caesar to investigate. When I asked a history buff about Julius Caesar, I was told his historical 'invasion' of England was no more than a scouting expedition and hardly 'Veni, vidi, vici'. I seems that the Roman senate, worried about the growing demand for bronze, sent Caesar to look into the state of the market. From that, I deduced that the real reason he was given a Triumph in Rome was that he went back with a Trade Agreement. Over the next hundred years, the senate became even more worried, decided they needed to own the production capacity and authorised a proper invasion. My researches into that revealed that the wave of Rome's legionnaires washed against the bens of the Scotland's Western Highlands and that even the King of the Orkneys submitted to Claudius at the time of the 43AD invasion. Not only that, but Roman galleys swept the North sea of pirates, so there was enough trade along our East coast at that time to be worth a pirate's time. Not the usual picture we have of England and especially Scotland being overrun by naked blue painted barbarians. I got started on this after researching the old drove roads of Scotland for Drover and finding their extension was down into England and the markets of the south.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/drover

After the show

I'm back from Bonnie Scotland where the heather grows. That's the start of a song lyric, I just have to find the rest. I went up for the village flower show. The hot weather earlier had pushed everything and most of the outdoor blooms were a bit ragged but you now what gardeners are, they always seem to be able to produce a show. The old friends are beginning to slow down but can still find something in the border for a show entry. I thought the rock bun judges were 'blin', the second prize bun was just a scone not looking like a rock at all. I complained but the judges were deaf as well as blind.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/best-in-show

Flower Show

I'm going up to the village flower show next week. Unfortunately a lot of the houses are now occupied by people who commute to Glasgow and don't have time to get really involved and it's not like the old days when someone ate another's carrot from their display and got them disqualified but a few old friends are still there and make a point of turning up for a chat. Unfortunately, we're all too old for a proper jig afterwards but can still manage a dram. I love writing about the kind of characters that were around in the fifties and the event led to Jinks and Broon and Best in Show.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/best-in-show

Cooking for one

I wrote Welcome to Oakhaven to entertain my wife. That's her looking at Table Mountain. Unfortunately, she died three years ago and before she taught me to cook. Which means I have had to learn to cook for one. She made all kinds of delectable dishes needing multiple pots, which I cleaned and which left me terrified of any recipe that needs more than two pots. My kind of recipe is the one she used for shortbread. You chuck everything into the bowl and switch on the mixer. Just don't switch it on too fast or the ingredients explode and get thrown all over the kitchen, which is worse than cleaning multiple pots.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/welcome-oakhaven

Caffeine free

A friend  of mine was feeling the need of a restorative but had his mother-in-law staying so didn't want to have anything she might criticise and went into one of the new coffee shops. He asked for a coffee. The attendant asked him what kind he would like, pointing to the long list of varieties he could choose from. My friend looked at the list, couldn't see anything that looked like just coffee and left, even more stressed than when he went in.

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Sunburn in Oakhaven or Cairndhu

One of the things I like about writing village stories is that they bring out memories to people. this recent spell of hot weather reminded me of one of those episodes that many people can recall. A teenage friend got sunburnt one day and couldn't sleep. He went to the bathroom cupboard to get some calamine lotion to cool it down. The bathroom switch was one of those with a string you pull, make a CLLLICK and waken the whole house, so he probed around in the dark, found a bottle and rubbed the liquid on. Ten minutes later the whole house was awake anyway as he scrabble back to the bathroom and turned the light on to wash the stuff off. When he looked at the bottle it was Deep Heat.
More like Best in show than Welcome to Oakhaven, but Elaine's grandson would be a candidate for that story.

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