Life & style and Issue 650

First Word - Tom Conti interview

18 Feb 2010

First record you ever bought Stokowski conducting Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, which featured in a movie I had just seen called A Hundred Men and a Girl. Last time you were chatted up Last week, in a bookshop. (40, gorgeous, shapely, dark…

The best Wi-Fi cafés in Edinburgh and Glasgow

The Wi-Fi try guy

17 Feb 2010

Wi-Fi connectivity has become a staple feature of many handheld and portable gadgets, so you would think that the companies making them would have perfected it by now. Well, of course they haven’t, but is the technology good enough to at least beat the…

Why there's life in the book trade yet

Reading and righting

17 Feb 2010

Between the bankruptcy of Borders before Christmas and the oncoming onslaught of cheeky upstarts like the Kindle and the iPad, popular wisdom would have it that things are looking a little gloomy in the world of book selling. It’s certainly a…

East Lothian company Chocolate Tree make moves into Edinburgh

17 Feb 2010

Lovers of real, hand-made chocolate will delight at the arrival of another chocolaterie in Bruntsfield. Alastair Gower and Friederike Matthis’ Chocolate Tree started out in East Lothian, where they perfected an organic chocolate recipe that mixed food…

Oxfam DIY shop to open in Glasgow

17 Feb 2010

In Glasgow, the Oxfam clothes store at 231 Byres Road (just opposite Hillhead Underground Station) is undergoing something of a major makeover. In order to complement the Byres Road Oxfam book and record stores, as well as compete with the increasingly…

Independent brewers reappearing in Edinburgh and Glasgow

17 Feb 2010

You may have noticed around town that local beers are reappearing. Not Tennent’s (owned by Irish C&C group) or McEwan’s (Dutch-owned) but ales from the WEST brewery at Glasgow Green and Stewart Brewing of Loanhead, just south of Edinburgh. Recent…

Glasgow Guerrilla Supper Club

17 Feb 2010

Local guerrilla gardeners have been leaving messages as well as planting seed bombs in recent weeks, so the time is clearly ripe for some guerilla eating. Based at a large Victorian villa in Pollokshields, artist Hilary Nicoll is running the Glasgow…

Big Man Tea brings quality brew to Glasgow

17 Feb 2010

Hoi. Big man. Like specialised Japanese tea? Like Glasgow? Then boy, have we got the right product for you. We’re always suckers for a quirky, locally run wee business, and Big Man Tea, producing fine Japanese teas (white, green, black and blue, of all…

Possible formation of Scottish Small Brewers Association

17 Feb 2010

Petra Wetzel, Managing Director of WEST, is sufficiently encouraged by the growing profile of local breweries in Scotland to suggest the formation of a Scottish Small Brewers Association. She managed to get representatives from around 45 breweries to…

Louise Gray, Holly Fulton and Jonathan Saunders in new ASOS collaboration

17 Feb 2010

Thanks to local fashion experts The Coveted Mag (whoworewhatwhen.typepad.co.uk) for alerting us to a new ASOS collaboration with some of our favourite emergent Scottish designers. The designs are, in true ASOS style, cheap, bright and on-trend: we…

Doodles Ceramics marks tenth birthday with some cracking offers

17 Feb 2010

Finally, Edinburgh make-your-own-pottery institution Doodles Ceramics has turned ten this year, and they’re celebrating with a bargain-barmy load of offers. As well as specialised half-term workshops (running until Fri 19 Feb) and activities around…