speeding down the clyde

I had my office trip yesterday, we were going to go on the waverley, it leaves the river at 10.00, stops of at Rothsey for a few hours and then is back in at 7.30pm, but we decided that was maybe too long. In the end we all agreed on a trip around the city on the open top tour bus [ I provided the sweeties] and then a trip on the seaforce, and then dinner and drinks.

I always thought the tour bus went over the river, but it doesn't it just tours around the city centre, west end and the barras. Oh well their loss really. Anyway yes we went on the seaforce. Greg was our driver, he runs the seaforce and is a really nice guy. We went on the one hour trip, this takes you from the Tall ship to Erskine bridge and back, it was great fun, amazing views of the ship yards. A closer look at the 'Glasgow harbour development' it's seriously lacking life around there. We went past the ferry at braehead, which I never even knew existed, past clyde bank and the newly renovated titan crane and then turned around under Erskine bridge and headed back.

We all really enjoyed it, before we got on the boat, I had this idea to take loads of pictures so I could post them...but I was hanging on for dear life...sorry

I phoned Gregg the day before, he got back to me that night, I definetly book a few days in advance. I'd like to go on the trip to Dumbarton rock, you get off for an hour or so for lunch and then head back up the Clyde. Have a look on the website for more info

In the navy . . do do diddle diddle do

Well, we wandered down to Queens Park on Sunday to have a wee gander at all the model boats in the warship display.

Apparently there was 112 boats on display ranging in size, quality and workmanship. Some of them were incredibly detailed and from speaking to a few of the guys, some of the boats were labours of love that took up to five years to complete.

I like the ones that had wee figures on them that looked like they were maybe telling a short story.

There was a commander from Faslane there to judge the best boat. When we first arrived I thought he was just one of the boat builders that had got a bit carried away.

It was all very interesting and I got chatting with the club sectary and chatted about some of their plans for the future. On the 19 August they are going to be holding another display to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the boating pond 11am -4pm. They've teamed up with the council and some other local attractions to put on a full family day with a whole host of entertainment including stages with music and dancing, bouncy castles, vintage fire engines, falconry, a puppet show and a carnival with free rides for the kids.

Apparently the plan is that this will be the beginning of a Southside festival and that next year it will get bigger and better - so get along.

Stop me and buy one

It appears from scanning my recent posts that I am obsessed with eating - but this is not really true. I do love ice-cream however and at the weekend I had another chance to expand my thoughts on the best ice-cream in the Southside while at the Queens Park ship modelling societies warship display, (Which I'll post about tomorrow).

I must have walked past the ice-cream van that sits in Queens Park hundreds of times but have never bought anything before - but as we had our American friend Nicole with us I wanted to get her to try a nougat and try to explain why we pronounce is nugget. The van was well stocked with not just ice-cream, sweets and juice but also water pistols, balls, outdoor games and fishing nets. I was very tempted by the fishing nets - wanting to try and recreate my youth and try to catch minnows but in the end I opted for just the single nougat.

The ice-cream was very tasty - it was the scooshy soft kind which I'm not usually a big fan of - but it was nice and creamy and the raspberry sauce was thick dark and delicious. ***

(As you can see from the below photo - Nicole appears to be enjoying hers too.)

yummy- yummy- yummy

At the weekend I took some West End friends along to Alison Street in Govan Hill to show them all the amazing ethnic fabric, food and sweet stores. Sadly we went on a Sunday and a lot of shops were shut and the street was a bit quieter than usual - the last time I'd been down, it had been mobbed, with loads of people standing on street corners talking and woman dressed in amazing coloured fabrics. Its a great bit of town and I think the city should probably do more to promote and support it as a little community within the rest of the city - in the way that places like Toronto have mini celebratory festivals in each of their communities - Chinatown, little Italy, little Greece etc.

We set off for the Glasgow Sweet Centre - which I have walked past loads of times and always meant to go in. This time we did - the inside of the shop smelled amazing with the sweet sticky smells of sweet manufacture wafting through from the back.

We asked for a selection of sweets to feed four people and were given a lovely little box with 9 different kinds. We should have asked what each was called and what was actually in them - but we didn't so if anyone can offer any advice them let us know. Nearly all were delicious though no-one liked the white one in the top row and I wasn't a fan of the light brown two at the top right. My favourite was the little doughy brown one which would taste amazing slightly warmed up with some Ice-cream - mmmm.

After the unhealthiness of all the cakes we wandered through some of the fruit and veg stores, marvelling at all the different veg that we didn't recognise. The man in the shop was extremely helpful as we kept asking - "What is that?" and we went away with some nice purchases of cheap spice and curry paste. If you like Indian cooking - Alison street is the place to get your ingredients cheap, and if required in bulk, we worked out they were selling 144 chicken breasts for £58.

Citizens - His Dark Materials

We are quite lucky in the Southside when it comes to contemporary theatrical entertainment. Not only do we have the Tramway and the soon to arrive ballet but we also have the Citizens which has a Europe-wide reputation for top class drama and is where many of our own home grown Scottish theatrical talents first treaded the boards. (Click here for its history)

The building which is plain brick and doesn't look all that exciting from the outside is on Gorbals street on main bus routes and a short wander from nearby Bridge Street Underground. inside the building is a bit more vibrant - mostly painted black with bright pink columns and elephants.

We've been to quite a few shows there over the years, in all of the three halls, the main hall where the main productions are staged and where we have seen more traditional style plays "Importance of Being Earnest" and "Dial M for murder" and the smaller more intimate halls where more unusual and more contemporary shows are held "The cutting room".

The Citizen's production company recently announced their Autumn schedule and there is quite a wide variety of shows on offer - from a new production of Hamlet to an audience with Ken off Coronation Street. The one that has picked our interest is Philip Pulman, "His Dark Materials" trilogy which appears to be being shown split into two plays. The first is this week, with the second next week and I think we'll go along as I'm interested in how they will condense the tight plot and ideas into two short evenings. If you haven't read the books, I highly recommended them - they are often marketed as kids books, but don't let this put you off as once you start them you'll see that they cover topics and discussions on subjects that most kids just won't understand - ie the nature of sin, the existence and role of God. There's some meaty discourse in there and it will be interesting to see how the Citizen's combine that, with what, in essence, is a rollicking good adventure story and how on earth are they going to represent giant battling bears, hot air balloons and icy tundra wastes.

With the first of three films of the books coming out in the winter - starring Daniel "007" Craig, now is a good chance to get in there first before everyone else has read them.



EDIT: We saw the first part on Thursday night - it was good, the acting by the young cast was excellent and they did a fine job of translating the dense text into an entertaining evening. Only probs were it was a bit on the long side for one sitting - especially as I was full of the cold. Despite the first half being two hours long and the second 1hour 45mins, there were of course still gaps in the narrative to allow for condensing the book, these didn't really affect the plot but it did take away from some of the characters. I think it definitely helped to have read the book - especially in the second half when even I was getting a bit confused as to what was happening - and I highly recommend picking up some copies of the trilogy.

My main grumbles of the evening were actually more to do with the original story and the annoying long winded and unpronounceable names all the characters and places have. I remember when reading the book I found they distanced me somewhat from the story. I also didn't like the creatures with wheels for hands and feet which appear in the third book and I'm hoping they get skipped or at least make only a limited appearance tonight.

High Wire Event

What would make us post about an event across the river?
Answer: A man walking on a wire, between three flats, 90 metres off the ground with no safety net.

The High Wire Event at the red road flats takes place this Saturday @ 11am [obviously if it's windy..he won't be doing it]

The event is being filmed for a film commissioned for Glasgow's international festival for contemporary arts 2008 by an artist called Catherine Yass. Who's persuaded the french high wire artist Didier Pasquette to walk on a high wire ...not much to ask really. For more information click on the link above.

EDIT: We received an e-mail from the High Wire's PR company: "Please note that due to the adverse weather forecast for Saturday 21 July the event at Red Road flats has been postponed to 11am on Sunday 22 July."

River festival photos

Well we made it down to the River Festival at Pacific Quay on Sunday - just as the glorious sunshine of Sunday morning disappeared.

SECC with a mass of people milling around not sure what to try out next. We were amazed at how mobbed it was - even in the middle of the afternoon on the second day. Looks like it was a great success.

The two main zones were were, on the south, the Science Centre and the BBC and on the north - the Crowne Plaza hotel and SECC - though the Science Centre was the main area for most of the shows.

It you are a fan of boats or boating - (which Glasgow being the home of the shipbuilders there must be a few) then the River Festival was the place to be. Even if you are not a fan of boats though there was plenty to see - lots of fair ground rides and stalls, lots of wee places to have food - tents with music, a giant inflatable loaf of bread for kids to play in and the farmers market at the south rotunda.

We sadly didn't actually have a shot on anything - but we did watch a lot of smiling faces zooming about on the river in speed boats, saw a some crazy zap kat boat racing and watch a queues of people wandered on around and off a vast array of boats - from still serving navy ships to old riggers. Now I'm not a big fan of ships ( I get travel sick on the bus into town sometimes) but I did enjoy seeing the Vital spark and a miniature puffer moored up beside. They are the kind of ships I imagine when I think of the Clyde - with black billowing smoke and short, sharp toots and whistles to passersby.

One very interesting thing we learned - was that the high speed tours of the Clyde by Seaforce are actually an all year round event - and you can sign up to 1 hour or 5 hour tours of the river. That sounds like fun and we will definitely try it out soon. (We kind of think the Clyde is part of the Southside.)

The fat captain of the Vital Spark slugs down a Guinness.

In the navy - There was also a still serving navy ship on display - there was a also a stand where you could sign up and join them. It made me think that times have changed a fair bit - and I imagined the scene a few hundred years ago - with sailors from the navy wandering the crowds and just grabbing people that looked navy material and just press ganging them onto the ship. ( I wonder how many of the tour visitors - didn't actually make it back off on Sunday.

The Squinty bridge - at 5:30 a ton of sponsored yellow ducks were to be dropped from the Finneston Crane - with the first past the bridge the winner. It had started to rain by that point so we'd done a bunk.

The River Festival - now in its third year looks to be going from strength to strength and next year we'll have to try and make it down a bit earlier and actually try out some of the fun on offer.

We're going to need a bigger boat . . .

This coming Sunday will be the Navy day of the "Glasgow South ship modellers society" on the main pond in Queens Park between 11am - 4pm (That weird little green shed building, belongs to the society).
Throughout the year the group meet up to enthuse about all things modelling twice weekly in the summer on Tuesdays and Sunday 7-9pm and in Winter on Sundays 2-4pm .

From what I can understand they meet up a couple times a year, spring and summer, to put on a display and on the 22 July next Sunday, is their Navy day where beatifically sculpted model boats will do battle in a mock war. I'm not sure if its like robot wars - or if its a fight to the death but having caught their earlier, non combative display, I recommend going down and chatting to some extremely friendly people who are (if we're being honest) completely obsessed by their hobby. I always enjoy meeting people that do something that they are so passionate about - after chatting to them I always end up feeling life would be easier if you had just one focus to fixate upon.

The dedication and patience the display to sit, cut out and stick together these intricate little models is remarkable. If you think you have that patience and commitment and you'd like to down the park on a sunny evening and watch little boats bob about then check out their website or send them an email to find out more.

I'm lucky to have spotted that the display is on - about ten minutes after spotting their posters tied to the railings of the park - they'd been ripped off.

PS - Sorry that a large number of my posts are very Queens Park centred - but I do stay opposite the park so I'm always finding out about things going on near there. We will try to be more wide in our scope so please send us more news of events, things of interest elsewhere in the South and it will force us go on adventures.

Queens Cafe

In our ever continuing trawl through Southside cafes, Gav and I went to Queens Cafe for brunch.

Queens Cafe is a classic old school cafe, located at the Victoria Road entrance to Queens Park - with shiny red plastic tables, strange decor from another time period and that wonderful organic feeling of a space that has grown into the shop it is rather than having been planned.

I'm afraid however that the breakfast was our least favourite so far - it's been cheapest so far by a fair bit but unfortunately it tasted like it too. With the farmers market just a mere 50m away I had some slight hopes of some tasty gourmet type affair but sadly no and it was the cheap and cheerful variety. Our disappointment over breakfast was short lived though, as the main reason for visiting the cafe was still to come.

The Queens Cafe, for those that don't know, is a bit of a Southside institution for one thing in particular - and that is its ice-cream. It even proudly proclaims on the outside "The best Ice-cream in Glasgow" and they take it very seriously as this extract from a Sunday Herald article about Scottish Ice-cream shows.

"QUEEN'S CAFE, Victoria Road, Glasgow "We're famous for our vanilla," says Marion, the lady behind the counter in this unchanging local legend of a cafe. "In the summer, there's queues down the street for it." She gives us a sample in a cup, and sure enough it is a pure, almost holy thing, ringing 12 bells of pleasure from tongue to belly. Manager and ice-cream maker David Ginesi, whose family has "passed this shop down from relative to relative", explains the basics. "You just heat full milk and fresh cream in the boiler, add sugar and vanilla and some ingredients that I can't really tell you, then churn it and freeze it." I had always felt that vanilla was comparable to the missionary position - enjoyable, but a little bland. I now stand corrected and ashamed."

Now I'm a big ice-cream fan, especially of vanilla and was therefore extremely looking forward to this. I opted for a double cone with vanilla on one side and fruits of the forest on the other. I wasn't a hundred percent sure about the vanilla - might have just been because I usually get a small tub and it being a sunny day the vanilla was melting fast - but the fruits of the forest scoop was fantastic and I highly recommend it if they have it in stock. I also get Ann a wee tub of half vanilla half white chocolate - but it had melted by the time it got back and after refreezing it just wasn't the same.

You can find some more photos of Queens Cafe at the wonderful I like site.

I also found this site which describes Victoria Road. Is an odd wee site - its basically set up to try and provide descriptions and directions to every public area in the UK - not sure how often it is updated.

The boys are back in town

Drew getting the better of Wolfgang in the final battle

Speak of the devil and he shall appear - we'll not the devil exactly but Wolfgang, Bubblegum and the rest of the odd assortment of wrestlers that we briefly mentioned in our post about Langside Halls in Queens Park. Just a day after putting up that post we walked round the corner and we confronted by a startling poster - the pbw wrestling is back in town.

Okay it may well be fake, the wrestlers garish costumes may look homemade, their hammy good guy/ bad guy acting and polarised story arcs may be on the naff side but that surely is 90% of the fun. Its that kind of ridiculousness that keeps it enjoyable not to mention the stunts and kicks these guys carry out are very impressive and often it was hard to believe that they weren't really fighting each other. For example when one of them picked up his combatant and threw him in some chairs amongst the audience. They might just have been pretending - but that still must have hurt.

All in all - cheap, cheerful, cheesy entertainment and a good night out with a bunch of mates where you part laugh with, part laugh at the show. Kids will also love it but parental guidance is advised by the organisers. Its on in Langside Halls, Queens Park - Sunday the 4th August at 7.30pm. Tickets are £8 and are available from tickets Scotland.

22 little fat men

For my Dad's birthday I took him to see Rangers 9-in-row 10th anniversary game at Ibrox. It was good fun - with lots of portly ex-rangers players waddling around against lots of other portly ex-spl players. Star of the match and the only player still able to play was Brian Laudrup - when he got subbed the game kind of went to sleep and was only sparked up by a Penalty by Frank McAvenny much to the home fans disgust.

Not sure which bright spark had the idea to give all the players shirts with the number 9 - it just meant from the stand you didn't have a clue who anyone was.

Strangest thing of the day was the man sitting in the row in front of us who changed his young sons nappy and clothes, redressed him and then hid the old nappy under his chair. Classy.

What to do on Fair Weekend

Since the Glasgow Fair Weekend is almost on us, we thought we would offer up some suggestions for what to do if your at a loose end this weekend. The weather for Saturday doesn't look that great, But Sunday's looking good [might even be t-shirt weather].

Suggestion 1
Since the weathers looking rather wet on Saturday, how about visiting the tramway. Park yourself in the cafe, for coffee and cake [or lunch] and dash out to the garden in between showers. Once your fully rested take a look around the two new exhibitions, which opened this week. One entitled Format wars by Alex frost and the other an exhibition by Alexandre Perigot.

Suggestion 2
Sunday would be a great day to go to the river festival. see mondays post.

Suggestion 3
If you fancy going for a strole and learning more about Glasgow, what about the Southern Necropolis. They don't have an organised tour on this weekend [tours are on the first weekend of every month] but you can tour yourself anytime. Please find a guide to the Necropolis here. Also heres a link to the councils site.

Suggestion 4
How about a trip to Queens Park, grab some ice cream from Brooklyn Cafe or Queens Park Cafe, and recycle your stale bread by feeding it to the ducks in the pond. Then over to the bowling greens for a seriously competive game of bowls.

Suggestion 5
Pollok House are hosting 'Murder by Candle Light' every day in July and August.

The year is 1932, and Sir William Govan's dinner party at Pollok House has ended in an argument. Sir William left his guests and stormed off to the Gun Room. Soon after there was a power cut when the generator on the river failed. When the power was restored, the butler found his master dead. He had been hit on the head by a candlestick.

but who did it...

Feel free to add your own ideas, for what to do this weekend.

The Glasgow Fair

With the Glasgow Fair weekend almost here, I thought it might be interesting to learn more about the history of it... so here goes....

The Glasgow Fair was originally held for a week each July. Originally an opportunity for merchants and dealers to sell their wares and livestock under the King's protection and without paying tolls, the Fair evolved to become an annual festival of circuses, fairground rides, shows and other amusements. From the late 18th century, Glasgow's industrialists gave their workers their annual holiday during the week of the Fair. In time, Glaswegians began to spend their holidays in the countryside or in the towns and villages on the Firth of Clyde and on the Ayrshire coast, travelling "doon the watter" on paddle steamers and overland on trains.

The traditional "Fair Week" holiday became a "Fair Fortnight" for many workers after the First World War. With so many people travelling at the same time, on the second weekend of July, railway stations and steamer terminals often became busy, chaotic places. The scene was repeated in Largs, Helensburgh, Rothesay and other resorts two weeks later, when families set off for home.

[The text is taken from the the glasgow story website]

Glasshouse

On Saturday my flatmate Gav and I decided to go to the Farmers market to buy some tasty grub as I was thinking of having a BBQ. On our way there we decided to drop by the Glasshouse in Queens Park which I've been meaning to visit for nearly two years.

I am so glad we did as its a brilliant wee place. Fenced off from the rest of the park by some smart black and gold railings the tall slim glass structure sits within its own wee garden beautifully maintained with lots of miniature trees and flowers.

Inside the building is larger than I thought - consisting of one main corridor with 12 arms coming off to either side. These arms hold the bulk of the collection of plants, animals, birds and insects. Sadly a few of these arms were closed at the weekend while some refurbishment is carried out. But when it fully reopens there will be a brand new cafe/ bistro selling hot food and it will be a really nice place to go sit, read and have a bit of lunch. (We overheard a couple discussing a function they were attending that night. It would be a great place to hire out for special occasions.) There was also a grand wee gift shop where we bought some polystyrene birds and a book on the history of Queens Park. The book is excellent and we'll post about it separately, and its only £2.99) But on to the main feast, the plants and creatures that inhabit the place.

No botanic garden is complete without a big pond full of fish and lots shiny coppers.

Main corridor looking back towards the entrance

A plant

The main course - the park regularly feeds small children to the animals. Well maybe not - most of the animals appear to live on a diet of locusts and nearly every case had a few of these insectoid snacks wobbling about awaiting being munched. Kids seem to love that for some reason - they particularly enjoyed the cases where the locusts had had their heads bitten off. Kids are cruel.

The Chameleon - this wee chap was very cool. He moved so incredibly slowly and preciously like an old man getting out the bath.

The Peach faced lovebird was so brightly coloured he looked like a cartoon. He also looked like he had some kind of compulsive movement disorder as he just couldn't stop jigging, wiggling dancing and pruning.

I also liked the chinchillas - I preferred the Chipmunks who seem to suffer from the same constant movement disorder to the lovebird - but none of my photos came out.

The big daddy - not the most dangerous creature in the place but definitely the biggest and probably the most frightening - (if you don't count the spiders that is) He sat on the branch giving each visitor a "What the hell do you think you are looking at?" stare.

We got so engrossed in playing spot the animal - (bit like Wheres Wally? but in cages and consisting of hunting frogs, spiders and snakes) that we didn't notice the time and we ended up missing the farmers market, but it was worth it.

Glasshouse opening times: Sat - Thurs 10am - 4pm/ Fri 10am - 3pm
Shop info
Queens Park info and directions
Historical photos of the glasshouse

Puffers on the Clyde

I've been meaning to go to the River festival the last couple of years, this year my wee nephew might be visiting, so I am definitely going to take a wander over with him. It's taking place fair weekend, the 14th and 15th of July, between the science centre and the squinty bridge.

There seems to be lots going on and it's free. I am rather looking forward to seeing the old puffers and since the entry to the tall ship is free, during the festival, I might have a look around, I always pass it and think I should go.

On the sunday they are having a duck race for charity, they'll release a thousand ducks into the clyde, from the squinty bridge, and they'll race against a bright yellow car...brilliant. Maybe SSH should sponsor one.

Here's the programme of events, lets hope for sunshine.

EDIT: Click here to see our photos from the festival

Its time to start the music . . .

Anyone around the Queens Park area of the Southside tomorrow lunch time could do well to go along to the Langside Halls tomorrow to see the culmination of a weeks theatre training on some local children. Not sure what the show is about, but who knows, you may see the first performance of the next Ewan McGregor or Robert Carlye.

A show in Langside Halls is not to be missed, it contains a wonderful mix of different ages. The actual building itself was first constructed in the city centre on Queens Street and for some reason was moved to its current location in 1902. (The Victorians were crazy.) Since then, it has gone through a couple of internal refurbishments - with the most recent being some wonderful dodgy brown and orange plastic and veneer wood efforts from the 70's.

We went there last year to watch some wonderful amature wrestling - bunch of odd looking blokes in silly costumes pretending to fight each other while a bunch of wee kids bayed for blood and our friend Eva went all giddy for the main hero Drew. So fervent was she in her ruckus applause she failed to notice when he turned into a baddie and began cheating and everyone else in the place started booing him.

Helter Skelter

We're off to the Tramway, this evening, for the Helter Skelter performance. It's a tramway commissioned performance which leads you through the hidden gardens and the tramway building.

A performance that leads you through the enchanting Hidden Gardens and the dark corridors of Tramway. Composer Stephen Deazley joins forces writer Dilys Rose (Lord of Illusions/Our Lady of the Pickpockets) to create a spectacular musical entertainment with its roots in burlesque and music hall, and conjur up a dream world reeking of the freak shows, fairgrounds and circuses of long ago. As night falls and the curtain rises, lost souls washed up in this place come out to entertain!

I'll report back tomorrow

EDIT: It was rained off, we're going on Saturday night instead.

Here's what the herald has to say about the piece

http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1524478.0.0.php

EDIT: Our review (by Alburt)



Hmmm, that was quite an odd affair. While to some extents I agree with the Herald's review that the costumes, the music and the basic premise of the show were all great - I just wasn't blown away by it all. Often, the sound would become unballanced and it was difficult to hear or understand exactly what the enthusaistic cast were saying.
There were some great individual images and moments during the show, the trapease artist hanging alone with a red balloon, or the fish boy swimming laps around the fire lit moat. But I didn't really feel the whole show was coherant enough to hold up. It was by far most powerful, when telling individual tales of solitary characters - the pigman and the ratcatchers daughter or the wolf and the bearded lady, but these were just fleeting glimpses in an otherwise swirling mass of colour/ shouting and people running around. During these swirls - you couldn't help getting the feeling that the cast were having much more fun than we were.

We did enjoy it but none of us thought it amazing - it felt to much like the results of a month workshop and not enough like a tightly crafted show - with any consistancy. We went to see something similar in an abandoned slaughterhouse in London (ann makes me go to these things) and there we were led a round a series of clearly defined extracts from tales. And while it to did not give a coherent story, there was enough going on to get your imagination to decipher the images. Here it felt a bit to much erratic.