March meeting (1).

Thanks to John and Colin for braving the cold last night!

Colin found us through the recent article in The Scotsman and despite not being able to stay long, due to prior family commitments (and the weather), enjoyed a bowl of Dunhill's My Mixture 965 in a very nice rusticated Parker...a bit too much Latakia for me personally but a very nice "old school" room note. John and I enjoyed the classic tastes of St Bruno (Ready Rubbed in a Falcon and Flake in a Peterson 314 respectively).

The side door of The Cuddie Brae is still locked (despite having a new "Keep Clear, Fire Exit" sign), so we were again left in peace to enjoy the heaters in the smoking area....the new layout of the benches (thanks to Myles on IPSD) was a definite improvement with all of us getting the benefit of the shelter when it started to sleet. Can't wait for the summer!

Your opinion is appreciated.

You might have noticed the polls that I've just added to the "home" page.

I've limited the weekday options to "evening" as I work full-time. However, if daytimes would be easier, please let me know.

I've also added a location question. I'm in Edinburgh but as I've posted recently, I'm happy to travel. If there's demand, we can easily organise meetings for elsewhere.

My annual act of rebellion!

Today was "National No Smoking Day", so (as usual) I ended up smoking more!

I started the day with some Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Curly Cut, in a Peterson 314 Standard System...a decent amount of nicotine to kick start my system in the morning. Had a couple of bowls of St Bruno Ready Rubbed, in a Falcon during the day...it's a nice low maintenance combination that I find I can put down and come back to later, handy at work. Now, I'm currently enjoying some GH&Co Best Brown #2, in a Peterson 307 Standard System.

As an added advantage, according to ASH "the average smoker spends £2,000 per year on cigarettes"...even with the amount I've spent on pipes (so far) and working on a tin of tobacco a week, I reckon I'm spending about £700/year...saving about £1,300!! Woohoo!

Meetings for March.

For March (and future months if it's successful), I'd like to run two meetings.

The first will be Thursday 10th at 7pm at The Cuddie Brae.

The second will be Saturday 26th from 2.30pm. Does anyone have a potential venue they'd like to suggest?

Suggestion box.

It's good to talk.

I'm getting an extra SIM card to go in a spare phone, so that we can put a contact number on the blog and any future website. It might make any future flyers a bit more accessible than they are currently.

Make a proper website.

Upgrading from the blog to a real website with it's own domain name will look a bit more "permanent". Until then, I will get round to putting a few more photographs on the blog...it does look a bit dull at the moment!

Is a weekend better?

I originally thought that a mid-week evening might be easier for people who already had family commitments at the weekend. Would you prefer a Saturday afternoon (for example) so you can have an excuse to avoid a family commitment?

Is a name change in order?

Does "Edinburgh" in the name deter folk from outside Edinburgh? Would Scottish Pipe Club be more appropriate? I'll admit that EPC was the first name that came into my head...if I lived in Glasgow we'd probably be the GPC!

Can we come to you?

Following on from the above item. If you can't get to The Cuddie Brae easily, do you have a favourite local venue that we can use? There's bound to be plenty of pipe-friendly places in The Borders, Fife or Glasgow for starters. Personally, I've got no problem travelling and appreciate that Myles makes a pretty long round trip to each meeting.

Everything that has gone out so far has specified the current time and venue, so having an overlap period might be a good compromise initially. Keep the second Thursday of the month at The Cuddie Brae with a weekend meeting scheduled for the last weekend of the month and have a "road trip" one Saturday or Sunday every two months?

As this is the first Ppe Club I've ever started (in fact it's the only organisation, of any description, that I've started), I'm still learning as I go along...so any other suggestions would be gratefully received.

February's meetings...a post mortem!

February has been a very quiet month.

The regular meeting on the 10th, despite the presence of The Scotsman's photographer, was disappointing. However, I hope that as the evenings start to get a bit lighter and warmer, the numbers might start to creep upwards.

Conversely, whilst Sunday's meeting (to mark IPSD) was still quiet (just Myles and myself) we had a pleasant couple of hours of enjoyable smoking. Additionally, Myles made a couple of good suggestions as to how we might attract extra numbers. I'll post some thoughts in the next entry.

Many thanks to Myles for the clay Churchwarden...it's displayed nicely alongside my other pipes. My wife said it looks very "Gandalf" (is that even a real adjective?). I might try a little Best Brown #2 Flake in it next weekend.

We've made the paper!

After sending out a raft of emails to various papers, trying to promote both EPC and IPSD, we've finally hit the presses!

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Celebrating-International-Pipe-Day-Up.6718434.jp