Added on Thursday 18 Nov 2010

October and November have been fairly hectic months with many outings and much excitement. Not least of all we had the launch of Jim's CD 'Every Day is Sunshine' in Bacchus, lots of friends, family, fans and musicians from other bands made their way to the event so thanks to everyone who came along. It was great to see so many familiar faces.

Jim enjoyed playing with a band comprising Paul Baird, Graham Macintosh and Dinny and other artists, who play on the CD including Scott Macdonald, Chris Barratt, Johnny Russell and Sharon Campbell. Despite his persuasion there was no way I was joining them to provide some percussion.

Johnny and Sharon got the event off to a fine start with a short set and The Carlton Jug Band also played, working their usual magic so all in all a most enjoyable evening. . Johnny Russell was a busy man, playing as well as seeing to the lights and the sound. How on earth he managed to create a video, Black Sky Blues I will never know.

Jim has also been tickled pink at the reviews and we've been enjoying the airplay - he's already working on the next album!

Gigs

There has been quite a variety of gigs including at the, always enjoyable, Acoustic Aragon with Chris Rodger, very nice to have Tom Dow, on holiday from Canada come along. Another, decidedly cool West End music event was when Jim played at at Brel with Signe Tollefson and The Woodwards, very downtown New York Cafe feel.

This contrasted quite a bit with a gig, which saw us back down at The Railway Inn in Bowling, where we caught up with all the local talent. A most enjoyable night and we're going to be at a fantastic event there on New Year's Day when the big village hoolly moves from its usual venue at The Ettrick in Old Kilpatrick further down the Clyde to The Railway Tavern. Hope to see you there, bring your guitar and give us a song - open from 4 p.m. until midnight, New Year's Day.

We also enjoyed a good night out with Ciaran Dorris and Tori Mason, from Nashville, when after a bite to eat at O'Neills in the Merchant City, we went along to catch Kevin Welch play at Glasgow's Festival of Americana. Earlier in the evening both Kevin and Jim were Ciaran's guests on his show on Celtic Music Radio and prior to that I had the pleasure of catching up with Kevin in a cafe in Queen Street Station to find out something about the man and his music. Great to meet both Tori and Kevin - we very much enjoyed his show in the Recital Rooms.

Jim and I had a jaunt further afield up to Pitlochry for the Perthshire Amber Festival, seems a long journey to sing two songs but it is a great event and the audience is fantastic. It was also very worthwhile as Jim sold CDs, was invited to play gigs elsewhere and also enjoyed being interviewed on Celtic Music Radio, who recorded the event, which you can listen to on their Play again Perthshire Amber.

Autumn Outings

It was good to see lots of familiar faces and apart from the Celtic Music Radio gang we enjoyed chatting to Elena Piras and John Alexander. The theatre is in a lovely setting and it was a beautiful day for a drive so we enjoyed taking in the great scenery and a mosey around Birnam and Dunkeld.

Driving home from Perth to Glasgow the sky was absolutely amazing, palest blue with bright pink clouds, very surreal.

Jim and I also enjoyed a drive up to Carbeth, where lots of interesting events were going on for Hallowe'en, which I'm sure would have been suitably spooky in this great setting. We were mighty impressed by the beautiful Autumn colours and the lovely wee huts. You can see some photographs in Jim's October Photodiary

Nearer home the views from Kelvingrove Park are also spectacular at this time of year. John, Ryan and I spent a lovely afternoon in the park playing football and taking photographs. Not a soul in front of us at the ice cream van as, although bright, it was very chilly. We had a good excuse to pop into Sonny & Vito's for some hot chocolate and a blether with Mario and Angela.

Eating Out and Meeting Up

It's been a busy month for meeting up and eating out and I've had the opportunity to try out a couple of places where I've never been before. Lucy and I picked Tam up, when he arrived in Glasgow's Buchanan Street off the London Bus. After getting him fixed up in a B & B we enjoyed a lovely meal in one of the latest dining hotspots, The Pelican Cafe in Sauchiehall Street. It could not be faulted as the service, atmosphere and food were all great. I love tapas style dining as you can try out different things and one place I would hope to return to.

We had another night out with Tam with a gang from the Discussion Forum, to say goodbye to him on his last night in Glasgow before heading home to Canada. We met up in the Three Judges and then headed over to dine in Balbir's in Church Street. I had some lovely Lamb Pasanda and Peshwari Nan, very tasty. It's a lovely restaurant and absolutely huge.

I had tried the new Italian restaurant, Sophia's on Byres Road, before but it was very nice to catch up with Les Gals, Jackie, Joan, Eleanor and Rena for some finger lickin' pizza. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it along for Janet's birthday celebration, hope you had a lovely day.

On the 5th November, we had a family outing to the Amber in Byres Road for my son, Michael, and brother, Liam's, birthdays. We were having such a good laugh that we completely forgot the time and managed to miss the fireworks. Still, despite our plan going awry we had a great time and made a pact to meet up more often as we don't see enough of each other.

On another West End outing to Rio's Cafe I caught up with Eoghan Colgan, who is keeping busy and using his talents with Songwriters for Oxfam Event on an Oxjam event on 10th December, in Stereo. It was also interesting to hear about Eoghan's music being used in the film Love-Loss. Fingers crossed that all goes well with its release.

It was lovely to catch up with Fiona Alderman over coffee in The Atrium. Home on a visit from Salignac in France, she and Barry have had a few trials this past year but she was thoroughly enjoying her visit to the West End. Hope both of you have a better year ahead.

Local Characters

The West End is full of interesting characters and I have a list as long as my arm of people that I want to include on the site, so I was delighted to add the restaurateur Allan Mawn to the worthy gang.

Another member of this select band is Colin Beattie and I went along to meet him to have a chat about what's happening at OranMor. Mind you, Colin always has more than one project on the go. It's always a pleasure to meet up in his office where there is invariably a warm welcome from Gina. We had some tea and biscuits at the table with a spectacular view over the Botanics and Colin and I had a rare auld chinwag then drooled over Alasdair Gray's new book, whilst listening to some music, including my husband's and The Dubliners! Very nice way to spend a chilly afternoon.

I also enjoyed hearing what Maggie Graham has been up to, when we met for afternoon tea at Two Steps to Heaven on Byres Road. She's keeping very busy with her work with the Scottish Writers' Centre and I fully intend making it along there one of these days.

Vintage and Retro Shops

Apart from all this blethering and dining I've been busy on the site putting up new information about some of our great vintage and retro shops in Glasgow West End. This required a jaunt around, which was no hardship, in particular I have been along Ruthven Lane to Circavintage, chatting to Sheila, Sarah and Jill about all the beautiful and amazing vintage clothes and jewellery. Don't forget they have a second shop in Ruthven Mews.

I also hung out for a while with Maxine in Handbags and Gladrags, lots of fabulous retro outfits and great bargains for the festive season. I got chatting to some young fans of the shop, art students who visit frequently to buy and admire the very interesting displays.

Another retro and vintage shop, which I really like is Not Now Cato in De Courcy's, Cresswell Lane. Worth a visit for the retro minded lads as well as lassies.

De Courcy's is definitely an interesting destination if you have some Christmas Shopping to do. Lots of fabulous goodies in the arcade and Nancy Smillie's is looking particularly attractive at the moment with a huge range of gifts, both large and small.

You'll also be able to buy some tasty foodstuff from two newish shops in Byres Road. I popped into George Mewes fabulous cheese shop at No 106 and he let me taste a some of his wonderful produce so I had to have a treat and buy some to take home. I also check out the new butchers in the same block, Rodgers. I know this butchers from Clydebank and Duntocher, excellent reputation, and some very pleasant staff in the Byres Road shop, including Paul Holloway.

I have one big event coming up before Christmas and we are all looking forward to my brother John's birthday party next week. Will be great to see lots of friends and relatives.

I'll also be heading back up to Bearsden to see the Kilmardinny Players performing in Blithe Spirit

What's New:

• Christmas Menus in Glasgow Restaurants
• Woodlands Community Gardens
• Cheryl's West End Mummy Blog
• Local Characters - Allan Mawn, restaurateur
• Jim Byrne's Acoustic Music Adventures
• Campogande Bed and Breakfast Diary
• Also check What's New
• What's On in Glasgow
• Glasgow Gig Guide
• Maggie Graham - Writer's Diary