Unfortunately, the runways were clear not just of snow but also aeroplanes. These were stranded at other airports in the UK which, apparently, were struggling under the same winter conditions. The puzzlement intensified over the next few days as we tried to spot the "ice and snow peril" that the newspapers in London and the South-East of England warned their readers to avoid by staying at home. What we did spot was the emptiness of London’s business districts and shops, indicating that its people were all too happy to do as they were told. As an expatriate Scot residing in London mused to me, "Can-do sometimes seems to be interpreted differently down here."

Business warms up
While the big London stores have bemoaned flat sales, blaming bad weather and disrupted travel, the Scottish Retail Consortium and individual flagship stores. such as Jenners on one of Edinburgh’s prime shopping areas, Princes Street, have reported record business in the key post-Christmas period.

Symbolic of all this, perhaps, was the sight of a large French gentleman emerging from a Highland kiltmakers on the same street resplendent in a full and newly-bought tartan rig of a dramatic scarlet hue. While New York and, to a certain extent, London shiver from the chill that suddenly surrounded the US economy and dollar, surveys and commentators report a lot of by no means baseless New Year optimism among Scots for their own economy as employment and wages hold up and the European currency finds its feet against the Pound. It’s not just the prospect of more French Scotophiles coming to spend their Euros on tartan kilts and bonnets. After tough trading conditions caused principally by a strong Sterling, Scottish producers of all sorts are benefiting from growth, forecast at 3 per cent this year, in the European Union which is the biggest market by far for this exporting nation. Hugh Aitken, head of Sun Microsystems in West Lothian’s Linlithgow and chairman of the industry association Electronics Scotland, was quoted in the Scottish Herald as saying his company and others were already at full throttle to meet demand in Europe.

There are further tangible signs of this continuing good news all round . Demand from new-economy companies in telecoms, media and technology still fuelling further creation of more office and industrial space across Scotland - the local economic development body also responsible for The Alba Centre, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, is negotiating for 400,000 square feet of high-tech premises in Livingston on top of what’s already under way there - but also offering new and more flexible leasing arrangements.

Meanwhile over a dozen young Scottish TMT companies have already been tipped for an IPO in 2001, with more shaping up.

Oh, and talking about Livingston, where much of Alba’s activities are based: Wal-Mart, which last year took over the second-biggest UK supermarket group Asda, announced it was now actively pressing ahead to put its first truly US-style superstore in Scotland in the town. Home from home, or what?

Broadening the culture
For what used to be considered hangover time for arts and entertainment events, January in Scotland has started with a bang.

Already well under way is the eighth annual Celtic Connections, the music festival which seems with every year to expand not just in size but definition. So over 19 days this time, in addition to Scottish, Irish and Welsh music, there is French Breton, Cape Breton, Quebecqois, Irish-American, Spanish Catalan, Basque, Scandinavian and Cuban Salsa-Celtic Fusion to name but some of the connected music styles. And among Celtic mainstream stalwarts such as Battlefield Band, the Dubliners and Alan Stivell, there’s everything from Tom Paxton through the Delgados and Transglobal Underground to - one for those with long memories - the revived and resurgent Incredible String Band. The opening concert itself went down a storm with an intriguing line-up comprising international percussion virtuoso Evelyn Glennie, Blazin’ Fiddles and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performing a new work by young composer Phil Cunningham.

But then the RSNO and another of Scotland’s world-class orchestras, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, had already shown themselves unafraid of deliberately raising a bit of dust with both launching special series of performances show-casing a total of 18 works, including four entirely new ones, by living and often young composers. More conservative music lovers needn’t worry however: the RSNO for instance is also lined up with conductor Walter Weller for a strong of Brahms concerts.

On the popular commercial front, the clubs and live gigs venues are already pounding. (A quick mention here for one particular Glasgow venue, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, http://www.kingtuts.co.uk which recently received the accolade from the BBC’s national pop station Radio One as the UK’s best launchpad for up and coming bands - well, when these bands have included Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead, Travis and the Verve when they were still relative unknowns, with more coming on, it’s hardly undeserved.) Bryan Adams roared in to Edinburgh, and is en route to Dundee In the next few weeks Scots will see Texas, the regrouped ex-Spandau Ballet boys Hadley, Norman & Keeble, Andy Williams, Craig David, Gary Numan and Joe Jackson to name a (highly eclectic) few. Longer term there’s the likes of Robbie Williams and, although this year there’ll be a large hole in Southern England where the legendary Glastonbury festival should have been, the big Scottish outdoor events such as T in the Park will be motoring as usual.

On the drama side, the Royal Shakespeare Company is about to make one of its traditional forays into Scotland including - in what I’ve always found makes for an especially rewarding experience - performances in the basketball hall of Barrhead’s local leisure centre, specially adapted for the occasion. While among the resident companies and venues, the big news is that Glasgow’s Arches - a fascinating warren of originally "temporary" theatre as well as exhibition and clubbing space under the city’s principal railway viaducts - has reopened after a £4 million upgrade, consolidating its position as one for the most exciting arts spaces in the UK.

Interestingly, unlike other major arts venues which, when they undergo similar major works go into long-term artistic hibernation, the Arches closed for just a few weeks and carried on immediately with its major music, art and theatre projects. Another little illustration of the Scottish can-do attitude, perhaps?