Mitchell’s Diary

By Peter Mitchell

Published:

Sticky momentsin the village hall

LIFE is a never-ending learning curve, as your Diarist discovered last Sunday at a fundraiser in Aberdeenshire for Breast Cancer Care. Master chef Craig Wilson, who looks like he could do with feeding up, masterminded the event from his Eat on the Green restaurant at Udny Green, ably assisted by his powerhouse partner Lindsay Stenhouse and volunteers galore.

There was a great carnival atmosphere on the green, what with a food fair, live music and a burger queue to die for.

Meanwhile, in the village hall, Craig squared up to George McIvor, chairman of the Master Chefs of Great Britain, in a Ready, Steady, Cook challenge.

The village hall was also the scene of an event with ruinous consequences for the waistline.

Yes, your Diarist was one of the four judges of a sticky-toffee-pudding contest – and 26 of them had to be sampled. The other tasters were George McIvor, compere Sarah Mack and George Ross, of Inverurie bakers J.G. Ross.

The winner was Laura Halliday, of Udny Green, and she received a trophy put up by Mr Ross, plus a hamper of his finest cakes and biscuits. First Minister Alex Salmond judged the healthiest children’s lunchbox contest for Udny Green primary children. Winners were Paul Hutton, 12, and Christopher Smith, 8.

Why Gregor ison gold standard

TO SAY that Aberdeenshire lad Gregor Allan is a brick is an understatement.

The 12-year-old, from Tarves, raised £4,000 for the Leukaemia Trust by playing his piano accordion outside Tesco stores in Inverurie and Ellon, a sum doubled by an anonymous donor. The money went to the newly-opened £8million Paul O’Gorman Leukaemia Centre in Glasgow, serving all of Scotland, and Gregor’s contribution will be marked by a platinum and gold brick on the donor wall. Even better, Gregor, a pupil at the Aberdeen City Music School at Dyce, has been invited to play at the opening ceremony next Friday. He will be accompanied by his parents, Graeme and Rhona, and his grandmother, Marjorie Sleigh, also Tarves.

She led a committee which raised a whopping £97,000 for the new centre from harvest home events at the Thainstone Centre in Inverurie.

Said Marjorie: “We are delighted that a new lab at the centre will mark that achievement.”

Hilda booked infor surprise party

WHERE is the last place on earth you would expect to attend a birthday party? The answer is Aberdeen’s bustling Central Library and that was the chosen venue on Monday for Hilda Grant’s 93rd. Why the library? Well, Hilda is the widow of a former editor of the P&J, Moray man Jimmy Grant, and an exhibition is still running there on the history of the paper and other publications. Hilda’s daughter, Elaine King, arranged the get-together through public services librarian Susan Bell.

Hilda grew up on a farm at Grange, near Keith.

Something fishy as Spider-Man appears

BLINK and you would have missed him, but Spider-Man is alive, well and living in Aberdeen, it appears.

The comic-book hero made a fleeting and unexpected appearance in the gardens in front of Rubislaw Terrace this week, just as the cameras started rolling for a TV interview with Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive Bertie Armstrong on the weighty matter of soaring fuel costs. Spider-Man ran off almost as quickly as he had arrived.