Stag Do

Alan's away on a stag do so this is what my daily intake was:

Poached eggs on crumpets.

I love how the yolks fill the wee holes in the crumpets.

Cheese, biscuits, homemade bread with lots of butter and port.

As you can also see in this last photo I also subsidised my very healthy diet with strawberries and Cava.

I have no guilt.

Melt, Aberdeen

I finally got to try Melt today after months of lusting after their cheesalicious Instagram pics.

It was everything I had imagined and more.  

The shop is little and works on a takeaway format.  There are a couple of wee coffee tables at the window, but they seem to be used as a seated queuing area, but could be used as a place to eat if the shop were a little quieter.

Geometric orange wallpaper adorns the walls of the wee shop.  Vintage pin up style paintings are hung upon those walls.  There is a formica cabinet filled with the sort of crockery that my granny might have had in her cupboard, nothing particularly fancy but a little nicer than the everyday stuff she used, and the sort that would only be taken out when other folk were there for supper.

The menu is great.  They clearly know what they're good at and have stuck with it, much to my delight.  It's great to see a new business flourish on their strengths.  

I opted for the 'Classic Melt', a blend of three cheeses, costing £4.20.  Alan opted for a 'Hag and Melt', consisting of  haggis, bacon, cheese and rocket, costing £5.00 - anything with haggis in and he's sold!

We waited for not much longer than five minutes and were presented with our wee bag of goodies and toddled back to the car.

My toastie was delicious!  The cheese was melted perfectly.  It was stringy.  It was gooey.  It was tasty.  It was filled to the edges of the perfectly toasted bread.  Alan had no complaints about his either.  I asked if he wanted a bit of mine, hoping he would offer me a bite of his.  He didn't want a bite of mine, knowing my game.  We're married now though - what's mine is mine and what's his is ours.  I sneaked a bite when he was too busy cooing over a passing shar pei.  His was fantastic too.  I might even have that one next time.  Although there's a chocolate one I had eyed up too.  I might have both!

I'm so glad there's a place like Melt in Aberdeen - it's just what the place needs - more small independent businesses to take it into line with other Scottish cities.  

I can hardly wait to go back for another cheesefest.

Scottish Game Fair, Scone Palace, Perthshire

This has become an annual event in our calendar.  This is owing to the goodwill of Alan's dad, Phil, who holds a stall here (Sportsman Game Feeds).  A pair of free tickets usually end up in our direction.  Phil deals in all things game related.  I think mainly feed.  Alan seems to have no clue what his dad does.

Alan insisted on taking the dog - a lesson we should have learnt from last year.  The game fair is a great place for all well behaved dogs.  Walking around the fair, at times, I did wonder if there may be more dogs there than humans.

There are an array of dog-related stalls, including a 'Dog Creche' which we made use of last year and again this year.  Fara was happily taken from us for two hours and popped into the creche where she got to sniff lots of other dogs bums.  This allowed us to explore the food tent and other places unsuitable for bouncy, hungry doggies.  This works on a donation basis with money given being put towards rehoming gundogs who can lo longer be looked after by their owners (Dog Creche).  Most dogs at the fair are very well trained gundogs and so put our badly behaved, poorly trained pooch to shame.  Although, said that, by the end of the day she had started to calm down...it only took six or seven hours this time.

We bought a few bits and bobs, including a fantastic Scotland shaped slate from Slated which is going to be (hopefully) hung on a wall somewhere in our wee flat.  Their slates are beautiful and very well priced.  I hope to buy some more, both for ourselves and as gifts.  I'd be pleased to see them back at the Game Fair next year.

We also bought a gift for Phil and his wife, Sarah, as a wee thank you for the tickets.  A trio of wooden mushrooms which they both seemed very happy with.  They almost immediately picked a place in their very well kept garden to put them.

Last year there was a great stall selling roadkill pigeons which had been rigged up to move.  It was there again this year, much to our delight.  I'm sure there's a very good reason for this but I'm ill informed, preferring to concentrate on the novelty factor.

Alan and I ended the day convinced that our next big purchase would be a wood fueled hot tub.


Happy wife, happy life...