The Scottish School Board Association likes to travel. And so chief executive Ann Hill recently found herself rallying the troops north of Inverness. Bivouacking in a small east coast hotel, her party rose early - before 8am - to digest the delights of a Highland breakfast.
Not a sausage in sight, however, let alone waitress or chef in the Hotel Marie Celeste. Facing starvation and mutiny in the ranks, Hill drew on all her assertivness training, strode into the kitchen and began cooking.
A bleary chef was not best pleased when he rang the kitchen and was ordered to get his butt along sharpish. It’s a brave man who will stand between Hill and her tucker.
We should make it clear that this emergency did not take place in the Scottish Executive’s preferred location in these parts, viz Skibo Castle. The SSBA is altogether a more modest operation.