A dram or two, but not for the athletes.

Saturday at the Mercat Bar , a truly international day with visitors from all over the world/

Good practice for me, trying out my non existent foreign languages !! Bit of a laugh when I told a bloke who I thought was English that his English was excellent and then discovered that he was a genuine German with a true London accent !! Oops !!.

However I then had a lovely couple from Waterloo, Ontario, Carrah and D'Arcy Johnston, who had read about The Mercat Bar and had come to see how good it was for themselves. Carrah wanted to try whiskey for the first time, so not wishing to offend, the lady was duly introduced to the "crateur" . She had a try at Bunnahabin; Jura; Highland Park; and Dalmore and ended up with Drambuie and Glayva liquers. A good wee session was had by the lady - only thing she still has to try is the crannachan which we serve as a breakfast cereal!!!

Homewards and we had a night in front of the TV watching the European athletics where the British athletes had a wonderful day, Mo Fahar; Jennifer Annis, Chris Thompson; David Green, young Bingham and Mark Rooney - well done to them all and apologies to those I have missed out.

We also have Andy Murray who has managed to get through to another set of semi finals.

Makes a change to see all these young folks training and training , showing tremendous dedication without the massive rewards our footballers receive what can only be described as pathetic performances. Grossly overrated, overpaid and with highly inflated ego's,and many who will never ever be good enough to be role models.

Finally, we had some sad news from Sparky Mark who called to let us know that his elderly grandfather had passed away quietly last week. Mark and his Grandfather were very close and despite his years, the "old yin" loved to go with mark when fishing and they enjoyed each others company. Sadly " grandad's health was failing and he had to be taken into care which he could not cope with and tried to get away whenever possible. He passed away peacefully and is now free to walk by whatever sea shore he chooses. RIP.