BootsnAll Travel Network



Archive for May, 2004

« Home

My best and worst restaurant meal

Saturday, May 29th, 2004

Three weeks until the start of summer. Time to make plans for our wedding anniversary. It is a big one this year, our fifteenth. Time stands still for no-one…
[read on]

Le Weekend in Stirling

Wednesday, May 26th, 2004

For being Scotland’s smallest and newest city, Stirling certainly rocks.
Whatever else I may have to say about the place, musically it knows how to kick ass. Bob Dylan, REM, Van Morrisson et al. all have played at the castle esplanade up the hill (Van Morrisson kept the lights on in the castle until the sun came up – God I wish I could have gate-crashed that party…) and since 1998 the Tolbooth Arts and Community centre has held an annual experimental music festival, Le Weekend. it is on this week from 27th-30th May (almost La Semaine then!) and who knows, I might go. Then again perhaps not. I have just spent an hour in front of a mirror, cutting my hair (ever tried to do that in front of a mirror?). I hope that it will have grown out a bit in time for the BootsNall party…

Springtime treats

Tuesday, May 25th, 2004

Aahh asparagus…

At this time of year, from May to early June, I grow all nostalgic about my country of origin.
[read on]

A Day at the Village Fair

Sunday, May 23rd, 2004

It was a glorious day on the village green. Children ran past with rolling hoops, played with skipping ropes or cup- and- ball or spun diabolos. Well-dressed ladies milled around stalls which offered flowers, books, sweets, hats and toys and families picniced on the lawn under the lush chestnut trees.
[read on]

A rant

Wednesday, May 19th, 2004

Stirling is a nest of thieves and vandals.

Tourists don’t notice it much because the city centre is peppered with CCTV cameras but where we are, literally around the corner, theft and vandalism rule supreme.
[read on]

Travelling for a hair-cut – no place like home!

Monday, May 17th, 2004

Shock, horror – or at least open-mouthed disbelief.
The barber down the road, where I have gone for the last two years after finally weaning myself off my regular in London, won’t cut my hair anymore.
[read on]

Victorian Fair and Beerfest in Alloa

Saturday, May 15th, 2004

Next Weekend, the village of Alloa, at the foot of the Ochills, celebrates its 150th anniversary of becoming a burgh.
As if that wasn’t enough, it is also the date for the CAMRA Alloa Spring Ale Festival
[read on]

Plans for the summer

Thursday, May 13th, 2004

It’s official! I will spend this entire summer in a lighthouse at Ardnamurchan point on the western-most spot on the British mainland – whale-watching!
[read on]

(why not try…) tripe

Wednesday, May 12th, 2004

The stomach lining of ruminants, in most cases the rumen and reticulum (first and second stomach) of bovine animals, is a favoured ingredient in many of the world’s regional cuisines.
[read on]

Driving through a thunderstorm

Tuesday, May 11th, 2004

Yesterday was a beautiful day: blue sky with fluffy white clouds, silky spring air and flowers blossoming in the baskets which were hanging from doorways in the neighbourhood.
[read on]