Page 186 - Microsoft Word - Guiding light final version 1413 2306 big print.doc

Coffee dregs
Today we are used to having an abundance of high-quality coffee houses in Scotland but back in 1984 this was not the case. Peter Hutchison who was the Editor of the STGA Newsletter in 1984 wrote a leader column in which he said he was fed up of having to apologise to French and, above all, Italian visitors for the appalling quality of coffee served in otherwise high-quality establishments. ‘Indeed, in the granary type whole food coffee shop of a water driven flour mill in the central highlands I was horrified to be served instant coffee from a tin behind the counter to accompany my wholemeal scone and jam,’ he reported.
Finding a saint
By Sue Casely
‘I took a small coach from Inverness to Aberdeen on an absolutely monsoon wet day. Luggage was in a back locker and we found on arrival that the door had been leaking and some people's clothes were wet in the suitcases. I asked about drying facilities at the hotel or where launderettes were. No joy. The under manager took pity on me and took all the wet clothes home to dry in his own tumble dryer at no charge. It completely charmed a rather disgruntled group of passengers and I am eternally grateful.
A Tale of Kindness
Andrew Thackrey’s first tour
‘With some butterflies in my stomach I drove my wife early one Friday morning to the school where she worked as a teacher. She was about to leave on a weekend trip to Paris with some of her pupils. The butterflies in my stomach had nothing to do with the fact that I was going to be left alone for the weekend but rather because I was going to do my first tour with German visitors and I was going to be able to put into practice some, if not all, of what I had learned on my Blue Badge course.
‘The brief was straightforward- pick up the group at a hotel in the the Cramond area, do the tour and then direct them towards the north as they continued on their way to the Highlands. "Guiding is fun", I repeated to myself, as I drove to Cramond, located the hotel, space here the coach and the driver and awaited the arrival of the tourists, then coming out of the hotel. Just as they were getting into the coach one of the men literally dropped dead right in front of me. An ambulance was called and took the man to the nearby Western General hospital with our coach and
186