artstuff

A couple of quick updates from our recent entrees into Glasgow’s burgeoning art scene.

First up was the opening of the relocated Glasgow Sculpture Studios – in a small but precious new space under a railway arch in the west end. The sculpture on offer was slightly erotic shapes by an artist whose name eludes me that were completely obscured by people while we were there. The noise of passing trains adds a unique aural element to an appreciation of the contents.
On the same night I finally managed to get my first visit to SWG3 otherwise known as the warehouse – a great cavernous psace that hosts art installations bands and related events. The art wasn’t of a great calibre although the beer was a step up in class and we will be back soon – possibly for SWG3 live on the 10th.

gha ski trip – aviemore

river spey from our chalet

At the end of February most of our house (including the neighbours) took Chhay the furthest north in Scotland she has ever been to Aviemore on my office’s annual ski trip. Despite our best efforts we didn’t actually manage any skiing due to excessive breakfasting (with the view above it was difficult to leave our ‘chalet‘) but I did have a great day on the downhill mountain biking circuit at Laggan Wolftrax, and we did at least make it up to the snow line for a hot chocolate.

pinup nights – indie glaswegians' finest

pinup nights

I was reminded of why Glasgow is such a great city for live music tonight, as we caught a couple of random bands after work, both of whom were incredibly polished – especially for all of our five pounds.

Both bands screamed Glasgow School of Art, down to their cardigans and converse shoes but that didn’t stop them putting on an entertaining evening.

First up we caught the second half of Belle & Sebastian-esque miabeane & the asthmatic scene, with beautiful multi-instrumental band members and a lush pop-folk lilt,
Hidden Masters followed with a tight melodic rock set, they were missing their keyboard player which may have added another dimension to their sound however they have definitely perfected their stadium rock moves for when they break the big time.

morocco by train

IMG_0541.JPG

This post has been a long time coming as we have been in and out of our flat with plastering and heating issues, and I have a little crazy at work. A quick summary of our Christmas trip below – but the flickr set is probably more interesting.

Having enjoyed our train rides to France last summer so much, and with support from the man in seat 61 Chhay & I decided to test the limits of the system and catch the train to Africa!

Unfortunately there isn’t a direct service from Glasgow Central to Marrakesh, so we pieced our route together traveling down to London, onto the Eurostar to Paris, overnight (in first class spleandour) to Madrid, where we paused for a day to take a breath, before crossing Andalucia to Algeciras in the shadow of Gibralta (by now getting quite weary), crossed the straights by ferry to Tanger for our first taste of Africa before (just to push things that little bit further) we got the sleeper to Marrakesh.
The journey was quite remarkable covering some fantastic terrain, interspersed with 3 course meals int he dining car, and lots of card games – cuarenta developing as a particular favourite much to the amusement of our fellow passengers I suspect.

Hotel Continental

No boring details but we had a day of contemporary architecture in Madrid, enjoyed an intense (though quite middle eastern feeling) introduction to Africa in Tanger before we spent five very relaxing days over christmas in the charming walled coastal town of Essaouira. It is incredible picturesque with narrow streets, a bustling fishing harbour, with fresh seafood cooked in front of you on teh harbour front as well as a pristine beach. We spent most of our time in our quirky rooftop apartment, shopped in the local markets, ate pastries from the French bakeries, or sat in front of the open fire. Occasionally we would venture out into the souks and alleys, explore local restaurants or go for a wander along the ramparts but generally we kept activity to a bare minimum. The energy levels increased once we returned to Marrakesh on our last day with it’s heaving souks and bazaars.
A mini visit to Barcelona for New Years eve on the way back looked like it may have been a step to far as we struggled to find places suitable to our eclectic (and often mutually exclusive) standards but the city worked its charms, and we also manged to catch up with some old friends and see their new baby before we jumped back on the train home via Paris and London.

liverpool

view from our apartment

We spent a fantastic few days visiting Liverpool for the first time at the end of November. Mersyside has the honour of being the European City of Culture this year so there was plenty of things to take in.

We started things off in epic fashion on Thursday night with local lads Echo & the Bunnymen returning and playing Ocean Rain with the accompaniment of a full symphony orchestra. The Bunnymen played a straight up set first off, which was difficult to get into as we were up in the rafters of the totally anonymous (but appropriately named) Echo Arena. Once the orchestra came on the atmosphere was electric, closely matching the magic of their set at Connect last year for personal impact.

metropolitan cathedral

On Friday we tootled about the wonderfully intricate ropewalks areas hunting down abandoned brick warehouses and back lane bars. We also checked out a few of the art Biennial installations (including Ai Wei Wei’s spider and the immaculately detailed extension to the Bluecoat gallery) wandered pasted the modernist catholic metropolitan cathedral (Above) and down the road to its equally grandiose Anglican sibling (top). After a late lunch and a few bottles of wine too many at crazy Keith’s in suburban Lark Lane, Claire joined us off the Glasgow train and we met a friend of a friend for some illegal noodles at the intriguing Static Gallery with the friendly staff from ShedKM, which lead to a small tour of some of Liverpool’s finer drinking establishments as evidenced by the cheery faces below!

party

After a long sleep in on Saturday we wandered through the eerie mist that had descended on the city to view the somewhat unfocused Le Corbusier exhibition in the crypt of the Metropolitan Cathedral. On the way we chalked up visits to a couple more interesting Art Biennial installations including Atelier Bow Wow’s Rockslide performance space.

That evening we attended to unofficial closing party for the Independent Biennial a wacky space themed poetry cum electro performance with great sets from wave if your really there and we have band who are both worth looking out for if you fancy a boogie.

Sunday morning we squeezed in a quick visit to the fantastic FACT which included a curiously disturbing noise art installation, as well as an installation of Yoko Ono’s ladders in the evocative bombed out ruins of St Luke’s church, before we hopped back on the train totally knackered but thoroughly entertained.

autumn gigs

fleet foxes - glasgow

A very brief summary of some of the music we have been to see over the last few months:

Our friends Jamie & Ryan played a series of Liquid Ship gigs, including some with Jamie’s brother Andy. Jamie also played a ‘proper’ gig at the atmospheric City Halls (with another one to come in January I just noticed) as he started promoting his (as yet unreleased) album ‘Cold But Bright’
We saw Jenny Lewis, of Rilo Kiley fame, in a very country set at the Queen Margaret Union.
Then band du jour – Fleet Foxes, played at ABC 1 – they were fantastic, with ethereal harmonies and fantastic shambolic cardigans although they did take a little time to get into the swing of things.
Finally in a last minute boss had a spare ticket moment we caught the very loud and straight up and down Kiwi rockers The Datsuns playing a packed gig at the tiny King Tuts, we hadn’t heard of them since they were big on triple J in 2004 & I didn’t even realise they were still playing.

ceilidhing capers

coast

We made up for a distinct lack of invites to scottish dances in our two years in the country by organising our own outing to the very entertaining regular Friday night Ceilidh in the ballroom of local institution Sloan’s.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we stepped things up a gear the following weekend and headed to Fife for a Charity Dance with the pro’s. Although a little outclassed, we had a great time staying with our friend Lynn’s family near St Andrew’s, and managed a quick visit to the home of Golf on the Sunday morning after the dance. Although we didn’t spot any royals wandering about (or manage any golf for that matter) Chhay did manage to fly her kite on the beach (cue Chariots of Fire music) and we had a good potter about the delightful town and harbour.
chhay flying the kite