John GIbson: Hey, this is ‘hay’ stuff up there!

In Morningside, where the accent of the local ladies is, like the air, rarefied, they get their tongues round high tea (or afternoon tea) and call it ‘‘hey’’ tea.

You can lend an ear to this in the Leaf & Bean coffee shop where owner Lindsay Hay has introduced her own version of the refreshment.

It can include four pancakes, each with a rasher of bacon and drizzled with maple syrup. Great for a hangover, she claims. Something I don’t need since I’ve forsaken strong drink.

Lindsay has given the shop in Comiston Road a fresh lick of paint, by the way, in “autumn green”. Which team does she support? You ask her.

News to me

What you didn’t know (me neither) about Robert Smyth McColl is rarely does a day go by without seeing one of the shops bearing his name. Talking about McColl’s the newsagents and confectioners.

There are some 1,200 UK-wide, since early last century.

Bob, I’m only learning now, was a high-scoring centre-forward for Scotland and Queen’s Park. Three hat-tricks for his country.

He set up the chain of shops, RS McColl, with his brother in 1901. Hung up his boots in 1918. He’s in Scottish football’s Hall of Fame, so show some respect next time you buy a paper in his shop.

Afterwords . .

. . . This is dinky Paul Daniels (remember him?) talking and this conversation is about as magical as it gets: “When Debbie (his second wife) gets up at about 7am she makes me a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea.” Magic, absolute magic. Hadn’t seen or heard Paul in a long time and he did look a pathetic wee man cradling a rabbit.