Tagged “travel”

I got home from Friday morning’s dog walk to find some records in the post. I’d recently deleted my Discogs wants-list having realised twenty years too late that it is far too addictive, and as a last hurrah had earmarked a last few key wants. One of those was The Blue Nile’s Tinseltown in the rain – a slice of Scottish pop perfection on Linn records – and I enjoyed a brief listen before heading back out.

Prior to Christmas we’d been talking about giving ourselves the present of a trip to London. However the train prices were pretty offensive so we opted for a different type of weekend trip – one that was rural, cosy and Rudy-friendly.

My folks haven’t managed a holiday outside of Scotland in a long time. So it’s been nice to spend a week together in Spain.

Me, Clair and Rudy just enjoyed a lovely weekend break. We stayed at Drinkbetween cottage on Banchory Farm. While only 70 minutes drive from home it provided some lovely countryside isolation, with the bonus of nice nearby towns to visit nearby too.

Like most folks we didn’t holiday abroad during 2020 and 2021, when COVID was at its height. Trips abroad are a luxury and privilege so this was no hardship. However I’ll admit that once restrictions were lifted and things felt safer, we were pretty excited to head for some sun and good food, and set our sights on a first trip together to the south of France.

For a while now I’ve been enjoying this series of bite-sized travel guides from The Guardian, which puts the spotlight on a European town or city and hands over to a switched-on local to share food, shopping, cultural and green space highlights.

I just made a first visit to Chicago. It was primarily to attend An Event Apart but I was lucky enough to have a little time to check out the city, too.

Firstly I want to thank all the friends who provided tips for things to do and see in The Windy City – Aleks, Susan, Jenny, Lucy, Alan and Karen, Collette etc – cheers!

Thanks also to Davie for jetting in from NYC to join me and Liam for a couple of days. I doff my cap to your knowledge of beautifully designed restaurants with really expensive menus 😉.

I also got the chance to catch up with old friend Nick Calingaert AKA Common Factor, a lovely guy and talented producer who DJed for me and my friends at a couple of our club nights back in the early 00s.

We only had a few days, but I felt we managed to cram in some good stuff. Here’s a summary of the highlights.

Eating out #

• Swift & Sons
• Momataro
• Chicago Athletic Club (with its appropriately posh tag-line “Dine and Libate”…)

Bars #

• Danny’s Bar
• Rainbo Bar

Record Shopping #

• Gramaphone Records
• Dusty Groove
• Shuga Records, 1272 N. Milwaukee Ave
• Reckless Records

Cool Neighbourhoods #

• Wicker Park area

Culture / History #

• Architecture Boat Tour
• The Art Institute of Chicago

Things to do #

• Millenium Park
• Cloud Gate (AKA The Bean)

And if we’d had more time… #

• Go see the Cubs playing baseball at Wrigley Field
• Green Mill Jazz Club