Author Archive

cold but bright launch

We have had old school friend ‘the Guru’ around to stay this week – it has been a fun few days. On Wednesday evening we popped in to the liquid ship to catch our old friend Jamie Flett play, along with his brother Andy (together they are the sometimes duo Feltt). They were both in sparkling form and their sound really suits the intimacy of the Ship, when they play with a bigger band I feel they lose some of their uniqueness.

Listening to Jamie play reminded me to post on his album launch, now over a year ago – at a busy evening at the Griffin’s Head. The support act torturing a guitar with a hairdryer was interesting but knocked the tone of the evening a little and it never really recovered, the album, and its electro remixed cousin Bright but Cold, that wa sonly distributed on the night are excellent little nuggets well worth a listen.

birthday ceilidh masquerading

11/10

more than a year ago now!…getting older by the day

for our slightly more significant birthday’s last year cousin Claire & I hosted a masquerade Ceilidh in the ballroom of local bolthole Sloan’s. It was a great night, Chhay made a slection of her amazing cupcakes, there were some fantastic masks and the band were superb – particularly patient with our amateur ceilidh attempts.

loki’s gate

loki's gate

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.

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.

toronto

fortyork-Scheme_B_03
More from a year ago – work took me to Toronto for a joint submission for the Fort York Battlefield Visitor Centre with Canadian practice RAW Design. The folks at RAW turned on the hospitality in a whirlwind couple of days. We were very pleased with the final outcome but ended up runners-up.

brrr…winter campervanning in the northwest

brrr...northwest christmas 09

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.

setting off A90 A9 north of Perth Craig's dad's jetty Pitlochry A9 morning sun welcomed snowy defrosting icicles passing place lairg - tongue tongue melness melness melness sunset in melness sunset in melness tongue-durness tongue-durness durness making it to durness - just durness panto - aladdin morning in durness durness - lochinver durness - lochinver durness - lochinver durness - lochinver lochinver lochinver

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.

cph weekend

Noma

We went to Copenhagen (almost a year ago) for a quick weekend visit to Howe before he left back to Vietnam – was a great weekend including lunch at Noma (above) for some ‘food as art’ foamy goodness – the second best restaurant in the world apparently!

flat update

IMG_4749

we just about got there for C’s mum and dad’s visit…no kitchen sink but everything else is working albeit a little unfinished.

check out our flickr for recent progress

might even have a chance to update this blog now…

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.