January 2008

The Quiet Riot Glasgow

I'm always happy to support exciting new opportunities for a great night out in Glasgow, and have been hearing some great stuff about something called The Quiet Riot that's recently started up here.

Basically, it's held every Thursday night from 9pm in The Drawing Room Bar, which is at the Charing Cross end of Sauchiehall Street in the City Centre.

The idea is that every week there's some high quality music and entertainment (completely free for a change) from some up and coming acts, and an open mike section at the start for performers looking to play to a pumped audience (if you're up for showing off your talents you'll be happy to note that you'll get some free beers just for turning up and playing).

I'm planning to head along soon to sample what I've been hearing is a pretty cool atmosphere, something new to start the weekend, but if any of you beat me to it I'd love to hear your take on it.

Find the best Car Hire Glasgow Airport deals

Continuing along my exciting guides to getting your way around Glasgow, I've updated my page on car hire Glasgow Airport packages and added it to my overall guide.

This page is not simply about finding the best deal, it also gives you an insight into driving in Glasgow, the main rules, how to plan your route and so on.

Have a look here and let me know if you've any more queries.

Peep Peep, toot toot...

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New Sunday Sloans Market Glasgow

Following on from the Council's recent look into how best to revamp our City Centre lanes, and from the brilliant success of the great wee Christmas Market organised by Sloans (Glasgow's oldest Bar and Restaurant), it's just been announced that we're now going to be treated to a regular Sloans Market every Sunday in the lane bridging Buchanan Street and Argyle Street.

It's all due to kick off next month with around 40 unique craft, veg and general stalls from the City's independent traders and artists being set up, and a 'Cake Heaven' and more funky stalls in the middle at Sloans Bar and Restaurant.

There's also an inspired plan to use Morrison Court right outside the bar and if the weather's decent, have a regular BBQ there (which pretty much ensures that I'll be there every week).

This kind of thing will do wonders for the City Centre, and give visitors and shoppers a really good opportunity to browse leisurely around the type of creative and artistic stalls you'd normally have to visit the West End for.

So once it's up and running I'll take some photos and let you know the types of stalls you can look forward to when you get here.

Burns Night in Glasgow

Some hae meat and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it, but we hae meat and we can eat, and sae the Lord be thankit.

It's 25th January, and that means that tonight we'll be treating ourselves to some well-steamed haggis & a dram of fine whisky and celebrating the wonderfully unique Burns Night in Glasgow. I've added some juicy stuff about the Burns Supper celebration in my January Glasgow events section so have a peek there first, and if you want to know more just let me know.

Otherwise, I'd be happy to see any photos you take of your Burns Night, so feel free to pop them into my wee Photo Box as usual. An' a' that...

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crookston castle glasgow

I was brought up in the south of Glasgow in an area called Pollok, about 5 miles south of Glasgow City Centre. In those days it was a lovely brand-new

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Fly the Flag

Well spotted, to those of you who noticed my sparkling new favicon. I thought I'd sneak it in there yesterday without you noticing, but clearly I'm no good at sneaking, judging by the number of emails about Scottish pride I received as a result.

If you can't see it, it's likely you've got Internet Explorer as a browser, and will have to refresh yourself. Just press CTRL F5 a few times until you see it (in case you don't know what a favicon is, it's the cute wee Saltaire Flag to the left of my URL in your address bar), and if that doesn't work, click your mouse onto the Internet Explorer icon in your address bar, hold it down and drag it to the right a few times again until you see it. Another way to make sure it comes up every time is to put my Home Page in your list of Favourites (yeah, any excuse Docherty, I hear you cry).

Either way, from now on I'll truly be flying the flag for Scotland and by far its greatest City...

Glasgow Aye Write Festival 2008

Have a peak at this wee announcement about the upcoming 2008 Aye Write Book Festival in Glasgow, and head along if you can to this year's event as it's promising to be the biggest and best yet.

FORTY-TWO years ago, Archie Hind published a novel that earned him three British literary awards and defined the character of Glasgow for a generation.

The Dear Green Place told the story of a Glasgow slaughterhouse worker, a young working-class man driven to write.

There was never a follow-up.

After the book appeared in 1966, Mr Hind dropped off the radar of literary life after struggling with family tragedy, a lost manuscript and cancer.

That was until yesterday, however, when the Aye Write! book festival in Glasgow announced his impending return...

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Who? Where? What? Why?...

For some time now I've been receiving a number of emails asking me to throw up one of those wacky About Me pages you always see.

I've resisted until now because for one, to be honest I ain't that interesting, and two, I've not had a spare minute to do it.

So now that I've found myself with a whole five minutes at the start of the year, I've done this wee page to introduce me to the world, and once things get going again I might even add to it a little about how you could build your own site like this, even if you're as technically behind the times as me...

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Get ready for Celtic Connections 2008

It's that time already. This year's already kicking off with Celtic Connections 2008, Scotland's premier January event and which is now the world's largest winter music festival.

This year it's running from January 16th at the haunting yet cosy torchlight parade, and has its final night bash at the Classic Grand on 3rd February with Malinky. It's expecting to draw around 100,000 delighted visitors to the 14 excellent venues across the City, and I for one cannot wait.

Have a look at my Glasgow Events page for more, and then flick over to celticconnections.com to book your tickets.

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Experience the thrills of Xscape Glasgow

Well how's this for encouraging signs? Only four days into 2008 and already I've completed a page on the exhilarating Xscape Glasgow, one of our best Glasgow attractions.

Have a wee look at the time we went there and met Kevin Keegan, the British football legend, and learn why this place should definitely be in your plans if you want to experience a different side to the City.

All I'll say is - make sure you warm up the muscles before going, and pack some energy drinks for after - I'm still feeling the effects of my time there but boy was it worth it...

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Back to ol' claes an purridge

And a Happy New Year to you. The bells of 2008 are still ringing in my ears, and as the clamour and headaches begin to fade my thoughts are creeping slowly back to the 9 to 5, and to all the more exciting stuff on the site I plan to cram in between.

So take your time to get back into the swing of things, upload your best photos of your Hogmanay celebrations to my little Photo Box, and check back soon for the continuing evolution of my wee Top Ten Glasgow Guide...

Arrabest tae ye.

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