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Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri on the band’s comeback
PART tomboy, part rock chick, part soul siren and complete Glasgow girl, Sharleen Spiteri and texas are back. And after 25 years in the business, she’s still got plenty to talk about.
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Designer John Rocha on his new range of glasses
CORRECTIVE lenses make it simpler to see a gap in the fashion market, so designer John Rocha was well-placed to create his first collection of glasses.
Geraldine Howard on aromatherapy, her new product
WHEN aromatherapist Geraldine Howard was diagnosed with cancer she turned to the power of essential oils to get her through the darkest days
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Roger Cox: ‘Socialising at Tarbert is legendary – so is the sailing’
AS regattas go, the Scottish Series has it all: a stunning backdrop for the racing courtesy of the dark, densely forested hillsides that surround Loch Fyne; a stretch of water blessed with consistent winds and minimal tides; and a legendary party atmosphere courtesy of the picturesque little port of Tarbert – so busy when the sailing circus comes to town that boats often have to tie up two, three and four abreast beside the pontoons.
Janet Christie: ‘Scouring for moustaches on paintings’
“BY the way,” says Eldest Child as the other two and I step over the threshold for a weekend away, tripping over inflatable mattresses, duvets and plastic bags stuffed with snacks, “I’m having a couple of friends round.”
Cream o’Galloway is a family trip with decadent flavour
I CAN still remember the first time I tasted Cream o’ Galloway ice-cream. It was love at first slurp, so when we found ourselves in the south west of Scotland there was one place on top of my visiting wish list; the farm where this creamy cold nectar is produced.
Interiors: Logie Country House, back from the ashes
LIKE a phoenix, Logie Country House has risen from the ashes to become a five-star retreat – complete with a ghost.
Gardens: Inspiration rife at country’s biggest show
FOR gardeners who have been struggling with the unpredictable weather, expert help will be on hand at Scotland’s biggest horticultural show.
Gardening Scotland, which is being held at The Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh from 31 May-2 June, provides access to the most experienced professionals from the world of horticulture.
Travel: White Island, New Zealand
DWARVES, elves and orcs, wizards and warrens full of hobbits – New Zealand is Middle-earth these days, Peter Jackson’s films providing a marvellous showcase for the country’s awesome natural landscapes.
Travel: Stobo Castle, Perthshire
AS we tootled along the country roads from Lanark in the general direction of Peebles on our way to Stobo Castle for a day trip, the chat was already high octane.
TV preview: Case Histories | The Last Days of Anne Boleyn
ADAPTING crime novels for TV is a notoriously hit-or-miss business. With a fraction of the space a book can give to fleshing out suspects and setting up false trails, perhaps having to condense several hundred pages into an hour of drama, the results can come across as shallow.
Restaurant review: Lychee Oriental, Glasgow
MORINDA citrifolia (aka the dog dumpling) smells like cheese when ripe, resembles an obese caterpillar, and is especially attractive to ants and fruit bats. Then there’s the durian, which gives off an odour like turpentine and has a custard-textured pulp.
Matthew McConaughey on rebooting a Hollywood career at 43
THE Wedding Planner, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Fool’s Gold, The Ghost of Girlfriends Past, Failure to Launch.
Jamie Dornan on playing a psychopathic killer in The Fall
AFTER watching two episodes of The Fall, I found myself double-checking every window lock, and triple-checking the bolts on my front door.
Roger Cox: If your favourite sport’s not often televised, you must rely on witnesses who can create romantic myths
ONE of the best things I’ve read so far this year is Found At Sea, a new book of poems by Andrew Greig.
Restaurant review: The Scran & Scallie, Edinburgh
TO PARAPHRASE Marks & Spencer, The Scran & Scallie is no ordinary pub, it’s a Tom Kitchin gastro-pub.
Gardens: The Chelsea flower show marks its centenary
IT IS the highlight of the British gardening world, attracting celebrities, dignitaries and members of the Royal Family and, for one week in May, putting horticulture on our TV screens and on the front pages of our newspapers.
Gardens: ‘I was asked if I had anybody strong to do the digging’
MENTION a trip to Arbroath and most people will connect it with the Declaration of Arbroath signed there in 1320 following the Battle of Bannockburn.
Krav Maga: The no nonsense self defence class
GET her on the ground!” is what I hear from the sidelines as I grapple with a stranger who’s grabbing my face like a bowling ball, his fingers almost in my eyes.
Janet Christie: Replacement hips, broken backs and hernias be damned
IT’S my annual family get-together with almost 20 of us in a farmhouse in the North Yorkshire Moors.
Golden moments: Panning for gold
THERE’S gold in them thar hills,” or so the saying goes. So it would be foolish not to try out a family leisure activity that offers the potential for economic enrichment.
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Saddle up for the Borders Festival of the Horse
THEY say you have to be mad to live in the Borders. Mad on rugby and mad on horses.
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Travel: Florence versus Venice
DAN Brown’s forthcoming novel, Inferno, is set principally in Florence, and already the city is gearing itself up for an even greater influx of tourists than usual after the book’s publication on Tuesday.
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Travel: Channel your appetites at Jersey’s food festival
Think of Jersey and what immediately springs to mind is sunshine, cows, potatoes and – I’m just going to get it out of the way – Bergerac.
TV preview: The Fall | Frankie | The Suspicons Of Mr Whicher
HELLO. Is that J. Jameson Spotlight, big-shot representative of famed actress Gillian Anderson?”
Get ready for festival season in Scotland
There is a festival of some sort taking place in Scotland pretty much every week of the year, but the schedule really starts to look packed from May onwards.
Roger Cox: The 60th anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing’s Everest ascent
Sex sells – and so, it seems, do round-number anniversaries. This month, to mark the 60th anniversary of Hillary and Tenzing’s historic first ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953, there will be celebrations all over the world, and so much money will change hands that you’ll be able to hear the cash registers ringing from here to Nepal.
Travel: Bavaria, Germany
With the two-week bacchanal of Oktoberfest and the huge scale of some of its beer palaces, one tends to think of Munich in terms of quaffing frothing steins, rather than soaking up art, but the Bavarian capital also boasts art collections of international significance.
A magical sleepover party at the National Portrait Gallery
Sleeping bag, pillow and toothbrush in hand, we arrive like orphans outside the closed entrance of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. My daughter Hope and I are guests at the first family sleepover event here.
Travel: Latin America, the Amazon and Galapagos
Clutching our torches, my family and I gingerly began our night walk through the Amazon looking for tarantulas. As wildlife enthusiasts, it was hard to imagine that any holiday experience could top this, yet it turned out to be only one of many highlights on our expedition to Ecuador.
Record baker: Ian Gregg discusses his memoir
We hoover up millions of Greggs sausage rolls and doughnuts each week, but Britain’s biggest bakery chain hasn’t always enjoyed a high (apple) turnover. A fascinating new memoir reveals its humble roots
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Restaurant review: Viva Mexico, Edinburgh
I visited Viva Mexico by accident. There were two new places on my reviewing list, both of which, it turns out, are closed on a Tuesday.
TV preview: Hebrides: Islands On The Edge| Paul O’Grady| Life Of Crime
Gorgeous animals in stunning close-up detail; beautiful landscape vistas; a sonorous voiceover telling us about “mysterious worlds rarely seen and never filmed here before”.
Watching badgers requires planning and patience, but it’s worth it
Young badgers will be making their first forays outside their homes or setts over the next few weeks, making this one of the best periods of the year to watch these fascinating animals.
Bill Bailey on cockatoos and his new stand-up tour
Ask bill bailey about his stand-up tour and somehow you end up with a lesson on the behaviour of cockatoos. What to do? Throw away the script and enjoy the surreal ride
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Gardening: Glendoick’s rhododendrons are world renowned
It all began at a tea party in 1918. While working at the Foreign Office, Dundonian jute heir Euan Cox was hanging out with the literati in London one afternoon. Over what was presumably a cup of Earl Grey, the 25-year-old got chatting to garden writer Reginald Farrer.
Walk of the week: Ben Vorlich
With the busy Loch Lomond road, railway and Inveruglas power station to the east, more electrical works to the south, Loch Sloy to the west and pylons on three sides, the hand of man has had a detrimental impact on Ben Vorlich – or at least on its lower slopes.
TV preview: Vicious| The Job Lot
No-one would’ve believed, in the early years of the 21st century, that human credulity would be stretched to breaking point by the arrival of a sitcom power-hour on primetime ITV.
Radio listener: Along the Highland River| Collar the Lot| The Jungle Book
In Neil Gunn’s great novel, Highland River, the young protagonist, Kenn, sets out to explore the Dunbeath Water right to its source and in doing so journeys deep into the heart of his own self.
Travel: Alnwick, Northumberland
Helicopters and light aeroplanes buzz above a recumbent figure. A scantily clad Cheryl Cole popping back for a cup a tea wi’ her mam or a photo opportunity for a new nightspot at Newcastle’s Bigg Market?
Travel: Bo’ness
It’s fearsome Rob Roy, hiding from Redcoats in the Highlands. And he’s wearing plimsolls, as the dapper Victorian gentleman before us is quick to point out.
1 commentRecipes: Three dishes using Parmesan cheese
Ten years ago I would not have written about Parmesan cheese. Back then, I would only have been able to buy good, proper Parmesan at Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh, or in one or two other select delis in Scotland.
Restaurant review: Archerfield Walled Garden, Dirleton, East Lothian
Build it, and they will come.” So goes the famous expression from the film Field of Dreams. However, I’d like to reword it to: “Stick a playground in it, and they will come.”
Game review: BattleBlock Theater for Xbox 360
The latest game from Castle Crashers team The Behemoth, BattleBlock Theater is an absolutely joyous platformer, drawing on the playful art style and humour of Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp and a superb multiplayer component.
Jonathan Trew looks forward to Tradfest
As a student in the Eighties, a friend would deploy Chris De Burgh’s Lady in Red as a central plank in his hopelessly inept wooing strategy.
Marios Schwab is bringing Hollywood glamour to the high street
When you learn that Marios Schwab’s father was an engineer for underwear behemoth Triumph and his mother was a topographer, you begin to realise where at least some of his inspiration comes from. He talks a lot, in heavily accented English, about topography of the body. He designs with a woman’s curves in mind.
Interview: Cleo Rocos on Kenny Everett, Princess Diana and Tequila
The first spirit I ever drank was whisky, which Kenny Everett introduced me to,” says Cleo Rocos. “He used to say that it cuts through the cholesterol in your veins.”
Roger Cox: Scottish cycling gets back in the saddle
This weekend marks the start of the Scottish cycling season. Yeah, I know: technically there’s no such thing – last time I checked, bikes seemed to work just fine from September to March, and there are lots of great events going on all over the country right through the winter.
Interview: Monty Don on British and French gardens
Monty Don reflects on the differences between British and French horticulture and explains why he believes gardens and ghosts go hand in hand
Visit the Amazon in the heart of Strathclyde Country Park
In a desperate effort to escape the snow and keep warm, the munchkins and I set off to explore a tropical rainforest, not in South America but a bit closer to home in M&D’s Theme Park in Strathclyde Park.
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Weather for Edinburgh
Tuesday 21 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 3 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: North west
