Bonailie | noun | “farewell, a parting toast.” In Scots language, it’s pretty much ‘one for the road’, derived from French bon (good) and aller (to go). It’s meant to be a cheery parting, and it sums up how I felt just over a week ago as I drank up my wine and was handed a croissant for the road in a local bar. We…
Sometimes when the news is getting you down and supermarkets are running out of toilet paper, a good laugh is just what you need. My approach to the coronavirus panic is to carry on as normal, keep having fun, wash my hands a bit too much, and keep eating loads of fruit and veg. I’ll admit, the first Friday night of Edinburgh’s new pop-up…
‘Go to an art class’ was one of two items on my list of things to do last year that I never did. If only I had added it to this year’s list as I’m now signed up to a 10-week illustration course and, just for fun, I attended a paint and wine class with some friends. We were painting highland landscapes with popcorn, wine…
You know that scene in Jurassic Park when the cup of water ripples ominously? I could watch that over and over, and I did several times a day as a kid – Jurassic Park was, and still is, my all time favourite film. I can never forget the sound of the rain bouncing off the self-driving cars, the pinging noise as the electric fencing snapped…
It’s been a few years since I wrote a reflective post at New Year, but I think 2019 deserves a little reminiscence before I dive into the new decade! There have been lots of stand out moments for me this year including a new job and settling into my new flat, but it was the smaller things that I loved the most in 2019. Visited…
Having a mid-week birthday makes it easier to get away with a prolonged celebration, and that’s exactly what I did! I’m officially in my ‘late-20s’ now, and I celebrated with two birthday cakes, lots of partying and my first ever massage. That’s right, it’s taken 27 years for me to check that one off my list! The family birthday My Mum is the queen of…
There’s floodwater outside my window, a grey curtain has come down over Edinburgh and I’m thoroughly enjoying a pastel de nata as I write for what feels like the first time in forever. At last, I’m back with a story about port, custard tarts and a pink house in Portugal. Porto is steep with lots of Hollywood-style signs glowing on the Gaia hillsides, marking…
It might be foggy and grey now, but just last week the sun was blazing and perfect for a road trip down Scotland’s southeastern coast. Josh came along, and by some strange coincidence both of our phone batteries drained almost instantly as we headed south (I blame the spooky cellars of Dirleton Castle, our first stop out of Edinburgh). This meant using old-fashioned road signs…
This is my last week working in the city centre and I’m so glad I was here for pancake day. One of my favourite bakeries in Edinburgh is just a few steps from my office, and I had an inkling they’d have something totally unexpected and unusual on their cake counter this morning. They are the bakers behind West Port’s famous Sconefest after all. As…
One year together! That’s what brought us to this intimate Scottish bistro on Rose Street, an anniversary celebration that we wanted to be as low-key as possible. It felt as if we had stepped into a tasteful inn somewhere in the Highlands or Islands, but somehow we were just on Rose Street. Wildfire is friendly and unostentatious with good wine and delicious steak. What I…
