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.

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.

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.

Mum and Dad had a suitably impressive introduction to Glasgow with Doors Open Day being held just after they arrived. We arranged a leisurely wander into town popping into series of ever more impressive historic buildings and churches culminating in the absolutely phenomenal City Chambers. If find it difficult to believe that hadn’t discovered this totally over the top edifice  before – especially as we work just around the corner. It is full of stone and marble lining and the grand ballroom has the dimensions of an aircraft hanger with vast murals and gilt everywhere. It is a truly impressive building and gives an insight into the astounding wealth that Glasgow once possessed.

monotonix

A couple of comments on gigs we attended at stereo in August.

First up was a bit of a punt on Crystal Stilts with Veronica Falls in support. They were actually a bit crap, quite messy and not as good as their studio work – cool brooklyn kids who weren’t that interested.

A couple of days later, in a vindicated a spur of the moment decision we went to see Israeli punks Monotonix. They were totally mental and it was absolute madness madness with four hairy sweaty guys in speedos traipsing all over the venue, playing on the bar, getting audience members to support their drum kit and stool above their heads while they played! As well as (or perhaps in spite of) their great show they also happened to be good musicians.

monotonix at setreo

We dragged a bunch of our mates along to The Luckmiths farewell gig at Stereo. Chhay met up with them before the gig (they were pretty impressed with Stereo’s location right next to Central station and tasty selection of vegan food) before we headed down to catch the very twee supports.

Their set included all the classics and their typical high quality banter – they left our friends suitably impressed and a little sad that this was the only time that they would see them.

Chhay & I really appreciated the chance to see them before they disband, I think the Australian shows would have been amazing.  See if you can spot us in the photo below!

Way back in the dark ages we popped in to the twisted wheel to catch Brisbane pop rockers I Heart Hiroshima. We were incredibly tight  and played an entertaining set to a tiny audience. Their drummer was as incredible and hypnotic as ever.

On their tour blog they noted this show as the best of the tour – I hope they at least got a few more people to see them at the other venues!

The Smittens at the Flying Duck

The Smittens have defined the soundtrack of our trips in Oswald thsi year with their song The Interstate, they are friends of our firend Katie’s band the Zebras, and we missed them at Indietracks last year so we were reuqired to attend this twee pop extravaganza.

We were packed into the back room of the Flying Duck (decked out as a kitchen, although there was no toast) and the cardigan count was pretty high, but everyone had a good time.  Locals the  Just Joans were just so, while the Specific Heats were great (and cute) possibly the best act on the night.

By the evidence of this bunch its seems a requirement that all twee pop bands have female drummers.

quite an entertaining rant…

“In this case, the baroquely difficult solution to the five-second long design process is a perfect example of the dead end; of the arbitrariness and bankruptcy of cultural architecture, a seductive design moment, achingly contingent (should that squiggle be 500mm to the left or not?) followed by an interminable slog of realisation, keeping everybody busy. The fact that the buildings that occupied the site previously were sheds of about the same size, albeit of a less wow-factor shape is hilarious, making this an exercise in architectural futility.”

From our friend Jamie Flett

“Me and my bro recorded a bunch of tunes as our studio side project ‘Feltt.’ We actually did it ages ago and a few of you maybe have a copy of some or all of them already. BUT if you don’t, then we’ve put them together as an album – ‘Bipolar’ – and this is available to download for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING right here: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/48493 You can listen to the tracks there before downloading anything.

We occasionally play one or two of these tunes live but otherwise we didn’t know what to do with them because we haven’t really had time to actually go out and promote them.

So we’re giving them to you, our friends. And we’d be delighted if you pass the link onto your friends. With instructions to pass it on to their friends.. oh dear, I’ve made this sound like one of those soul-sapping chain e-mails which I’m thankful I don’t see so much of these days.”

Defintely worth a listen, less structured than Jamie’s own stuff but with some interesting electronic overlays.