What Socrates Taught Us About Change - With Words of Wisdom From Taylor Swift

We’re taking inspiration from the Greek Philosophers today…we thought we’d go high brow (University Challenge here we come!) As Socrates once said, “The secret of changes is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but building the new.”

(Of course, if he was around today, he’d make up an funky graphic  quote on insta and add it to his story.)

So, inspired by building the new, we’ll be making changes again from Monday 17 May. But we know you are all nimble-footed and adept at keeping up with the latest Scottish government regulations.

We’re all about complying fully with the regulations and rules – however often they change – so here are a few notes on how we’ll be operating within Level 2:

• From 17 May we will be serving alcohol inside and outside in the marquees until 10pm. Last orders, both inside and outside will be 9.30pm.
• We will be keeping the sides of the marquees up. This is to allow up to 6 people to meet from 6 households and remain socially distanced. So, if you have a booking in the marquee from 17 May onwards this one is an important one -  it will still be outdoors with all the weather implications that Spring weather in Aberdeen can fling at us (Our expectations are set for Factor 50 but won’t be surprised to have to lower these expectations back to frost bite …). If you don’t want to be in the ‘outdoor’ marquee then you can look on our booking page here to see if we have a table indoors for you and book this, remembering to cancel your marquee booking with the link in your original booking confirmation email.
• We won’t be able to offer tables of 8 for up to 8 households as will be permitted from 17 May under the regulations because we simply don’t have the space and table sizes to accompany this group size and maintain social distancing. The only exception will be if all 8 are from one single household (and please bear in mind that our staff deserve the respect that you don’t lie to them about this …. As our chum Socrates also said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”)
• If you are eating or drinking indoors, you can have up to 6 people from 3 households – and everyone still has to be socially distanced
• The Scottish government rules state that the maximum ‘dwell’ time indoors is two hours. So, our table bookings are set for this time frame. It’s not permissible to make multiple bookings in different names within the party to increase this time … sorry, even if you are coming for a special occasion.

As Socrates’ fellow countryman and philosopher Heraclitus said, “There is nothing permanent expect change”.

Or … as Taylor Swift said when all afluster with love at first sight… “Everything has changed”.