Coo upsets the China

THERE was the proverbial bull in a China shop incident last week – only thing was, it was an errant coo and not a bull!

Last weekend, at the Neilson family’s Park Farm, near East Kilbride, employees Carolyn Baird and James Grant were shifting dried cows and putting them into pens. One decided to visit the ‘wellie room’ outside the house (they do this often), but electricians who had been working in the house had left all the doors open.

So, that left the way open for a wandering coo, let’s call her Buttercup, to have a wander throughout the hoose, down the hall and into the sitting room which has a nice cream carpet – but which was really the only place to get Buttercup turned around. You can imagine the state of the carpet in the ‘guid room!’

On her way back down the hall, she decided to swish her tail through the kitchen out into the yard again, where Grant Neilson was giving YF exchangees a tour around their well-known Holstein herd.

Eldest son Glen was in a paddy and gave Carolyn and James the task of scrubbing the cream carpet before his girlfriend, Elaine Gibb, arrived back from work early! Carolyn did point out that had Glen not told Elaine, she would never have known!

Watch the beer

Showing livestock of all breeds and crosses always brings out the best and indeed the worst in people, with the mandatory kist parties allowing the chance to catch up with friends old and new, over a wee drammie or three.

Be wary of who you look to befriend though! While Clydesdale horse parties can produce some of the best entertainment, with copious amounts of ‘medicine’ provided. These hardy old boys seem to be able to cope with anything.

But at the recent Fife Show this included out of date beer (probably left over from last year) – and Jim Young and Robin Lang, discovered that they were the guinea pigs to see if it was OK!

So, just make sure you pack extra aspirin, alka-seltzer and bicarbonate of soda, before you go anywhere near the Clydesdale boys at the Highland ... or any other show.

C’est lavvie for the show

THE BESPOKE new all singing dancing water system for the Royal Highland Showground, might have been there ... but some trade exhibitors found that the doors to the lavvies had been locked.

This meant that while the more robust ‘laddies’ seemed quite happy to have an outdoor ‘comfort break’ the ‘ladies’ had to endure a walk to find suitably working cludgies.

Some sort of order was soon resumed, we believe, so that those with the big shiny machines could not only relieve themselves, but also have enough water to tart up their exhibits for the show.