It was February 2011, a bright winter’s day with the sun low on the horizon. We had just come out of one of the worst winters the UK had seen in years, and I passed my driving test first time. Fast forward to 2018 and I had somehow managed to go two years without getting behind the wheel. How did I let that happen? I…
I had the most magical trip to Hungary last weekend that had me staying out until sunrise, eating goulash and soaking up the Budapest sun. Travelling with my friend Stacey, we stayed in a tiny apartment in the Jewish Quarter surrounded by garden clubs ruin pubs, vintage shops and some of the best city street art I’ve seen. Our apartment was in the Blaha Lujza…
Did you ever visit a car boot sale as a kid? I remember the excitement of trawling along the seemingly endless stalls with my parents, and it was a great day if I came across a Barbie with neat hair. The best bit was always the burger stall, or the inevitable sweet shop that sold blocks of tablet in little bags. Recently I headed back…
Matthew Bourne’s Highland Fling is touring Scotland, and it’s the first ballet production I’ve watched on stage (that I can remember), with the exception of electronica ballet during the Fringe a few years ago. There was plenty of tartan, dark Scottish humour, and not a tutu in sight. For a first introduction to ballet, I loved it. The two acts were very different, and while…
Glasgow’s Six by Nico restaurant has landed in Edinburgh and unveiled its first theme: The Chippie! The storytelling menus of Nico Simeone’s restaurant change every six weeks, and so far Glasgow has enjoyed menus such as Route 66, childhood favourites, New York and more. On seeing the menu for the Hanover Street opening, I couldn’t resist booking a table this weekend. When I go to…
My urban Easter weekend started on Saturday afternoon when we checked into a gorgeous little apartment beneath a yoga studio near Glasgow’s West End, complete with a mosaic floor that is over one hundred years old. We spent the weekend searching for street art and live music rather than eggs; and apart from hasty packing issues, it was a brilliant trip from one city to…
Lately I’ve been reading a LOT. In January, it seems I was going through a bit of a French phase, but also found myself reading around the subject of happiness too. Top reading spot of the month? My bath (no books dropped). Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais This whimsical French story was a throwback to life as a less-than-popular teenage girl, except that we thankfully didn’t…
Burns Night is back, and it’s time to enjoy seriously tasty scran with friends, family, or by yourself wearing your tartan jammies. If you don’t want to haggis it alone, get a bunch of your favourite people together and try one of these themed Burns Supper ideas on the 25th. There’s even a feminist-inspired Burns Night to celebrate our country’s famous ‘bad-boy’ poet. But let’s…
It was on a whim that I decided to go away for the last weekend of 2017, and I’m so glad I did! A little cottage came under my radar in a village called Dunning, a place I’d strangely never heard of. Driving there didn’t take long as it’s tucked on a windy road between Stirling and Perth, and when we arrived everything was covered…
It wouldn’t be Christmas in our family without birthday cake! Winter birthdays, big family breakfasts and lots of fun with Woodruff, it goes without saying that Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year. True, it feels like 2017 has brought more downs than ups (at least in my life), so making it home for the holidays was like a huge sigh of…