Week Twenty Three - Caffeine

A quick poignant point - this week marks six months of having left work!! Who can believe it but at the same time so many amazing things in such a short time. 

Having decided not to pursue my business idea in its current guise or at the current time I took a step back this week to focus on just enjoying my time off, enjoying the sunshine and some of what Scotland has to offer with friends old and new.

Tuesday saw me at the Linlithgow Marches with the McKellar family.  I love Linlithgow. Not only is it a really pretty town with a beautiful setting but it's also a place that continues to celebrate old traditions in ways other places have forgotten or time has left behind.  Marches day is the first Tuesday after the second Thursday in June (got that) and dates back more than 600 years. Historically it is about inspecting the boundaries of Linlithgow to ensure no-one has breached them and that all tolls etc have been paid.  In reality it is a great family day when everyone decorates their houses with bunting and there are numerous marches throughout the day which everyone congregates for.  The marches include bands, dignitaries, amazing floats, Deacons, horse drawn carriages and so it. It was a great day out and the weather pretty much held out.

Thursday saw me on a wee day oot doon the water to Helensburgh to catch up with my friend Gill who it was great to see after quite a while.  Helensburgh is pretty much being completely renovated at the moment and is starting to look amazing.  

I also took some time this week to explore Glasgows emerging specialist coffee culture - I don't mean any old coffee but that which tastes as amazing as the coffee I used to drink in Aus where the coffee is elegant and smooth and rich of flavour and perfectly combined with silky milk to provide an all round beautiful drinking experience - and where the cup size is a cup not a bucket because this is how such great things should be savoured. This is the best coffee beans ground to perfection and made to perfection by true baristas who are as obsessed about coffee as others are about wine. It's great to see there are some too quality places emerging and that one day we may be a city who enjoys the true taste of amazing coffee rather than what we drink today. If you want to know more then pop into one of the coffee spots near you some of which I checked out this week - It's All About The Coffee on Oswald St (behind the St Enoch car park), Laboratorio Espresso in West Nile St (behind Forever 21), Riverhill Cafe in Gordon St (and Helensburgh), Papercup, Veldt Deli and Artisan Roast all in the West End, Grace and Favour (Bearsden).  You'll realise it's worth the effort.

All About The Coffee

Laboratorio Espresso

Whilst out and about this week I also...

...HUNG OUT...at home reigniting my interest in crafts and started a project to up cycle some furniture (great fun though need the sun to stop shining to really focus on it!!)...

...WINED ON...nothing in particular for once - a quiet week on the old drinking front...

...DINED ON...a beautiful unordered dish at The Courtyard by Riverhill Cafe in Helensburgh.  Johnny the chef has just returned from a trip to Bruichladdich Distillery to learn more about The Botanist gin.  As part of that trip he was taken out foraging by a local expert and having been bitten by the big has been out and about foraging himself in Helensbirgh on his return.  He presented us with a rabbit pasta dish which included sticky willy (you know that weed you used to go around sticking to each other).  It was stunning and the sticky willy was like sweet wild garlic. Beautiful.

I also paid a visit to the new restaurant in town - Hutchesons on Ingram Street which has been completely restored to all it's former glory.  What an amazing interior and homage to the past.  The bar was excellent and able to cater to my whimsical order and the food from the restaurant was also lovely.  If there were one criticism which is merely down to it just being opened is that the staff were overly attentive - I think we knew the names of all 10 staff within the first five minutes as they came in quick succession with menus, water, drinks order, break, food order (not ready), more water, drinks, food order, food arrival, checking food ok. Slightly overwhelming but that will no doubt settle down and the food was lovely.

Until next time - have a good week.