Halloween fun at our friend Verities’ beatuful and suitably spooky mansion in the East End. Premier of Loki’s Gate from Reddeddog Productions – a friend of a friend and suitably shlock horroresque.
Tag: scotland
fife ceilidh (again)
Another one that could be pulled from the vaults, although it is actually new annual installment – as we are just back from our third charity ceilidh that our friend Lynn’s parents organise. The attendees take it pretty seriously so we usually stand our like the antipodean interlopers that we are but we seem to be getting better year by year and it is a properly fun event.
After torrential rain last year the weather was absolutely stunning this weekend so we fitted in a visit to the beach, a quick glance at all the fabulous models & boards from the V&A Dundee competition shortlist (Lynn’s partner Craig and my offices’ are in rival bids – Steven Holl & Snohetta respectively) before winding our way through the East Neuk of Fife for some fish and chips in Anstruther.
brrr…winter campervanning in the northwest
Another historic post, for our Christmas – NW break last year – we tested Oswald to the maximum with a trip around the north west of Scotland (some of the most remote regions in Europe) in what turned out to be the coldest winter in 30 years.
He coped admirably – we only got stuck once although the deep snow did mean we stuck to main routes and didn’t get to explore off the beaten path much – mind you ‘main’ is probably a bit of a euphemism some of the single track roads were pretty hairy!.
Our flickr set tells the story in all the blinding white glory.
[flickr album=72157623037906591 num=30 size=Thumbnail]
yeasayer at abc
Fun gig with our band of the summer. They were patchy in parts especially at the start but had the crowd in the palm of their hand by the end of the set.
culzean castle
A final trip with Mum & Dad took us to the ultimate historical lads pad – Culzean Castle located on spectacular cliff tops in South Ayrshire
Khmer lunch in the campervan added an unusual flavour to proceedings, before we checked out the stunning setting, views to Arran and the beautiful grounds of the house. Mum was particularly taken with the collection of dahlias in the walled garden.
Even with a full day we still missed much of what the whole site has to offer, so we’ll be back to check out the beaches and some more of the grounds.
renovation
It has been a bit of a posting desert round here for the last couple months, mainly due to work commitments and sheer laziness, but in recent times more to do with our new project.
We have bought a flat in the centre of Glasgow, but require quite a bit of work to get it up to scratch! – You can follow all the (mis)adventure on our flickr – I think it will be more up to date for the foreseeable future.
We are also back to Aus in April – drop me a line if you fancy catching up.
loch katrine
More fun with mum and dad, this time on a very damp and miserable day we took a drive up into the Trossachs for a trip on the Loch Katrine steamer.
It was a beautiful craft, and great scenery even if we were cooped up indoors for most of the trip.
We treated ourselves to a long lesiurely lunch at the delightful Inn at Kippen once we had finished. Where the food was generally fantastic and the atmosphere perfect for a rainy afternoon.
up the creek without a fork
Way back last autumn I had a fun day with the Friends of the River Kelvin (with whom I am now a fully paid up memeber), canoeing on Loch Lomond. I had originally signed up for a decent of the River Kelvin itself, unfortunately it was postponed – hopefully we will get a chance to complete it one day.
A full report on the day is on the FORK website here.
camflava
We are just back from checking out on of the newest editions to Glasgow’s dining scene – a pan African ‘cabaret’ number called Camflava, tucked discretely in the Pollockshaws area of the south side.
While they are still finding their feet a little, and there wasn’t any cabaret to be seen, the food was fantastic and the staff very enthusiastic.The place did suffer from the usual Glasgow bugbear of being far too large and I suspect unless it is packed to the gills it will always feel a little souless.
On to the food, with our household of 3+1 all in attendance we shared fried plantain, ribs and chicken wings for starters which were all delicious. The main courses that followed were equally as good. Pete’s Black Bean & Pumpkin stew was thankfully tasty as it was the only vegetarian main on the menu. The rest of us tucked into grilled fish, a great chicken casserole type dish and the intriguing Ndolé – a beef dish made using shrimp paste and bitter leaves that was certainly an acquired taste!
Glasgow seems to be experiencing a mini boom in African cuisine (about time) with an Abyssian restaurant called the Queen of Sheba soon to be opening next door to our favourite haunt Asia Style.
festival fun
We managed to squeeze in quite a few trips to Edinburgh to catch the festival action this year. A lot of our interest centred on the visual arts, including a visit to the newly opened though somewhat underwhelming Jupiter Artland.
The highlight was a performance by the Royal Ballet of Flanders of Return of Ulysses which was mesmerizing, powerful yet stark. Scottish enfant terrible Michael Clark’s New Work – was suitably mad yet lack coherence and felt forced and overly stylised.
As per usual most fringe acts didn’t seem worth the entry price although Kristen Schaal of Flight of the Conchords fame was quite entertaining!
