I'LL have to get out more. I'd never heard of Cabo San Lucas, one of Mexico's fastest growing coastal resorts. Popular with Californians, a mere six-hour drive from the border, and there's a hotel in the area that inspired the Eagles to write their monumental hit, Hotel California.
I'm hearing all this from Paul Nolan, the gringo from Niddrie, just back from Cabo where his son John is manager of Nolan's Irish Bar, owned by two of Paul's brothers.
Says Paul, big noise in Craigmillar/Niddrie politics over the years: "I was in
Cabo for my son's 25th birthday.
"He's taken up with a Mexican girl and reckons he'll manage the bar for a couple of years, his 'gap years' before moving on. Cabo's a port of call for huge cruise liners, so the bar's busy."
John's experience in the trade was gained mainly managing the couthy Cuddie Brae restaurant/bar in Newcraighall, where I was gabbing with the "gringo".
He had a week in Vegas en route to Cabo. "I stayed in Caesar's Palace on the Strip in Room 1380. That was the favourite number of Bugsy Siegel's wherever he stayed until he was gunned down." The mobster's reward for creating Vegas' gambling image.
No danger of Paul Nolan being gunned down in Niddrie, of course. So why was he wearing that bullet-proof vest?
Don't know why but on the 30 bus from the city centre to venture down there I have this habit of discreetly removing my tie. Even in the pre-Giro days, a tie was too conspicuous for comfort.
Same on the 22 on my way to bask in the sunshine on Leith. The cravat is promptly slipped into my portmanteau.
A final word on Cabo (they want a spin doctor there, I've applied). It's just south of San Jose and if you don't know the way there by now, you're dead
Stop your sobbing Kate, give over! All those snaps in the papers of you sobbing for the latest incarnation of the Maddie saga, we've seen them before. Often. It's been a year. It's wearing and it's harrowing. By now almost as much for readers as for you. To be blunt, Kate, we've got it up to here. The great newspaper public deserve a break. Nothing would delight us more if Maddie were found.
The full article contains 398 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
