Summer 2011

Added on Monday 18 Jul 2011

It's good to go on holiday but lovely catching up with folk when you return. I had an early dinner last night in La Vallee Blanche with the usual suspects, Eleanor, Jackie, Joan and Rena, who had a wonderful holiday in South West Spain. I've not been to this restaurant for a long time; it's really worth a visit and no sign of a recession hitting as it was very busy. Not unless everyone is going for the set menu option rather than a la carte, same as us.

I'm also looking forward to a visit from Frances and Doreen this afternoon. Very old friends who turned up at Jim's gig at The Criterion at the end of May, we had a great night. I hadn't seen Doreen for about 20 years so a lovely surprise. Also good to see Issi, Mags and Maggie, Andy and Susanne and all the other folk who lent their support to the Folk Blues and Beyond Festival. Little wonder it was a big success as we had a great line up of acts including The Moonshiners, Doghouse Roses, Larry Guild, Chris Barrett and Chris Rodger and, of course, Jim Byrne and The Blackwoods. What a lot of talent there is in Glasgow.

Photo: pat doreen frances. It was a busy week as I managed to get along to most of the gigs as well as pack our bags for our jaunt to New York City and Canada. We had a super time on our holiday, met lots of great people and did some sightseeing. Jim enjoyed playing gigs in another part of the world and it was a special treat spending time with my sister Catherine and her family in Oakville, Ontario plus paying a visit to the del Balsos in Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, we were away for most of the West End Festival but we wanted to go to my nephew Sean's graduation so an unavoidable clash of dates. However, I caught the tail end of the festival and on a couple of marathon days I managed to get along to Cottier's, the Coach House Trust, the Cycling Festival at Kelvingrove and Lansdowne Church Art Exhibition. I went along to see the wonderful Dave Arcari with Jim Byrne and Shambles Miller at The Captain's Rest.

By just one day I caught Rita McGurn's "Off the Hook" Exhibition at Unlimited. Very witty haun knitted art and exceptional value original drawings.

When on my wanders I checked out the new wee tea room in Yorkhill - Cushion and Cake. Where Pamela Clougherty and her mum make you very welcome and offer up a delightful choice of home baking.

I had a chat with Louise and James in The Butchershop Bar and Grill - doing a roaring trade down at Kelvingrove. I'll be back again tomorrow when I meet up with Roy Beers for lunch. The restaurant is looking very smart and I'm looking forward to sampling their new menu.

Roy has been particularly busy and I've just added a supersize Dining and Drinking in Glasgow West End. All sorts of interesting things going on but I suspect he'll have even more lowdown up his sleeve.

Photo: rita mcgurn off the hook. I popped into have a chat with Michael at Handbags and Gladrags, this shop just gets better and better. Nowhere could beat it in the stylish bargains category.

I've also been on some jaunts with John and Ryan, Ryan caught his first fish in the canal near Maryhill - a wee tiddler perch, which we threw back in explaining that he couldn't hang onto this particular quarry.

The three of us also went to the new Transport Museum, which is exceptional and just amazing that Glasgow City Council offers this treat for free. I think the new museum down at the Riverside will be a huge attraction. Apart from the fantastic displays, it's very pleasant to wander around the outside and there's also the option of a trip across the ferry to Govan. It's lovely to see more activity on the River Clyde and the view from the window of the cafe is pretty engrossing.

We've been having fun along at the allotment, at least some of it is fun, I had a mighty job trying to tackle the weeds after all the rain when we were away. Still John, Ryan and I made a day of it when we had a barbecue there. Ryan was on a mission to search for centipedes so that came in handy as it encapsulated lots of digging. I also spent another sunny day there with my brother John and his carer, Maurice.

That was after we had been to Gartnavel Hospital with John, who unfortunately developed a deep vein thrombosis recently. It's very sad that despite constant raising of our concerns regarding his lack of opportunity for mobility that he developed this. It's taken a fair bit of pressure to get a new care regime in place to help his recovery and try to ensure that he doesn't have this experience again. You really feel like tearing your hair out at times. Thankfully there are some great staff working with John and also places where people in wheelchairs are made welcome such as 'Enjoy' at Kelvinbridge.

We had another good day out with John when a wee crowd of us met at the Canal Festival in Clydebank. Alan and Paula brought John along from the home in Dalmuir then later we met up with Gail, Caitlin, Ryan and my John. The kids had great fun on the giant walking on water bubbles.

Photo: crew on gloria tall ships. Another pleasant waterside experience was a trip down to Greenock to see The Tall Ships, docked there after the first stretch of the Tall Ships Race from Waterford in Ireland. It was a lovely sunny day with crowds enjoying the nice weather, entertainment and the spectacle of the beautiful vessels. A special treat was going aboard 'Gloria' with her very dashing Columbian crew. Although, Ryan was actually more impressed by his bubble gun.

I caught up with another group of good friends when I went along to Maria Venditozzi's wedding to Rob Day at '29' Royal Exchange Square. It's always great to see the Venditozzi's and I was delighted to spend some time with Margaret Carpenter too. Rosemary and I went along to see Margaret in hospital recently. Hope you're much better now, Margaret.

A pleasant surprise was an unexpected visit from Lynn and we enjoyed poring over the photographs of her new wee grandson, Finn. I hope to meet him in person soon.

Lots of other things to look forward to as well. I need to catch up with Maggie Graham and the McGreevy's. I should also call into OranMor to congratulate Colin Beattie on having won two awards recently. John has a walk up to Loch Humphrey in his sights and I want to go down to Dumbarton to visit the Egans. I also want to check out how our latest wee girl in the family is doing so will be heading down to Old Kilpatrick to visit the O'Neils so going to be busy.

Photo: royal oak. I missed Ann's birthday so Happy Birthday, Ann, and we had fun at Drew's. I think he is 66 but I can't keep up. We popped down to see Rena and Jimmy to show them our new (well new to us) car, which is very swanky and we are meeting them for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

We had a lovely time through in Edinburgh when Jim was playing at The Wee Folk Club. Before the gig we had a pleasant stroll around the Grassmarket and had lunch in a cafe there then headed up to Infirmary Street when he had a jam with some fine musicians. It was great fun and very good to see Sabine, who's over on a visit from Cologne in Germany. She's now spending a couple of weeks in Glasgow and we caught up with here again on Thursday when Jim played at The Liquid Ship. Also good, as ever, to catch up with Dochan and Jim was delighted when he played some tunes on his banjo with the band. We've promised Sabine we wee drive somewhere scenic while she's in this part of the world so hope the sun comes out again and we'll maybe head for The Trossachs and Loch Lomondside.