GLASGOW 2014: Highs and Lows

GLASGOW 2014: Highs and Lows

Did you manage to watch any of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony?

What did you think?

I LOVED it! It was very self-depreciating, tongue in cheek, and just shows that we don’t always take ourselves too seriously 🙂

20140723-glasgow2014-opening-1-afp-640_856D738748AF4AF29F4F404474DA0E9D

I loved the dancing Tunnock’s teacakes! I’d love one that size!

images

More importantly, I thought the UNICEF appeal was a fantastic idea, I wonder if that will now set a trend?

There seemed to be a lot of debate on Facebook and Twitter: lots of people loved it, others hated it, I thought it was great fun! Except Susan Boyle singing Mull of Kintyre (and unfortunately fogetting the words). I could have done without that!

I also loved Sir Chris Hoy saving the day, by opening up the Queen’s Baton.

And the Scotland team uniform is growing on me. A little. Except the socks. Yuk!

So, for me, the Opening has been a high. Lots of fun.

Now for the low: Mo Farah has pulled out. Boo! 😦 He hasn’t recovered sufficiently from illness, so I have no doubt he’s done the right thing. I guess it just reminds me that pulling out of a race can be a sign of strength, not weakness. He’s talked before about wanting to add a Commonwealth Gold to his collection, and I’m sure he’ll be disappointed.

Oh, well, I’ll still see Usain Bolt ‘flash’ past! 🙂

Great British Menu

Great British Menu

Are any of my fellow UK-based bloggers (or BBCWorldwide watchers)  fans of the Great British Menu?

gbm_logo(2)

You all know how much I love to eat. I love to watch programmes about delish food too! I watch loads: Masterchef in all its forms, Hells’ Kitchen. The Great British Bake Off, Saturday Kitchen…. I could go on and on……

Well, this week is the Scottish heat of GBM, and I’m fully supporting Jacqueline O’Donnell 🙂

I LOVE her pink apron:

source: jacquelineodonnell.co.uk
source: jacquelineodonnell.co.uk

You may remember that back in January I wrote this post about The Sisters Restaurant? I had the sea bass in a lobster cream sauce:

20140127-174509.jpg

It was absolutely delish!

Well, Jacqueline runs The Sisters along side her sister, Pauline. I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Jacqueline, and all will be revealed tonight in some areas, and tomorrow in Scotland.

What’s your favourite foodie show?

300

300

movieposter

Welcome to my 300th blog post! And, I had to find any excuse to celebrate by posting a picture of fellow Scot Gerard Butler as a Spartan ❤

This probably reminded him of the weather at home:

giphy

Anyone out there doing a Spartan race this year?

If so, this might be the workout for you, courtesy of Men’s Health 🙂

GB Relay Update

Tonight, I saw this post on Facebook:

Screenshot (21)

So, with FREE STAGES up for grabs, now might well be the time for you and your team to bag a few stages!

Happy Friday, all!

Tartan Running in NYC

Tartan Running in NYC

Unfortunately, I haven’t been TartanJogging in NYC today, but many others have been 🙂

Today was the Scotland Run 10K, organised by New York Road Runners, and it kicks off Tartan Week in the city.

Lots of runners wore kilts, and ran to the skirl of the bagpipes. It looks like it was a lot of fun!

The race attracted almost 8,000 runners; I particularly liked the saltire on the race bibs!

Photo from: http://www.nyrr.org/races-and-events/2013/scotland-run-10k
Photo from: http://www.nyrr.org/races-and-events/2013/scotland-run-10k

Maybe I’ll get to run it in the future – who knows?

Piping for the Weekend

Piping for the Weekend

Hi everyone! Here, on the West Coast of Scotland, we’ve reached the weekend, and @TheWelshWookie and I have spent the evening scrubbing the kitchen…… it’s Spring Clean Weekend here! A bit early, but, oh well!

We’re just about to have some pasta, some vino, and relax. Tomorrow morning it’s the living room and bathroom’s turn for a good clean, before the Six Nations rugby starts, of course! 😉

Here’s something to kick start your weekend: a lil’ bit of Red Hot Chilli Pipers covering Avicii courtesy of BBC Radio 1.

Enjoy!

The Sisters

The Sisters

No, not MY sisters. THE sisters!

It’s the restaurant we visited for my mum’s birthday on Saturday night.

Jacqueline and Pauline O’Donnell are the sisters behind these two Glasgow restaurants, and we visited their Glasgow Kelvingrove restaurant.

The venue is quite small, but very comfortable, and it was very busy when we arrived. The menu was amazing: all freshly prepared, locally sourced ingredients, and it was cooked so well. I’d love to make a return visit!

20140127-174456.jpg

To start, I had brioche topped with mushrooms and a port and red onion chutney. The portion was very generous. I then had the fish of the day, which was a fillet of sea bass in a lobster cream sauce, with some chive mash and queenie scallops. Wow. It was amazing.

20140127-174509.jpg

While everyone else tucked into dessert, I had a coffee, as I couldn’t fit one in!

20140127-174537.jpg

The service from our waitress, Kirsty, was fantastic.

I also found out that Jacqueline, who is head chef, will be one of the chefs representing Scotland on the 2014 Great British Menu, which is great! It’s the first time that a chef from Glasgow will be competing, and the first Scottish woman to compete. She will be following in the footsteps of other Scottish competitors, like Tom Kitchin, Alan Murchison and Tony Singh.

I’m looking forward to seeing how she does!

For more information, visit The Sisters Website.

Did you eat well this weekend?

I’ve Only Gone and Done It!

I’ve Only Gone and Done It!

Earlier this month, I posted about Mo Farah’s pledge to move from Metres to Miles in 2014, and how I was considering running my first marathon, too.

Well I’ve only gone and done it. I’ve signed up for  The Loch Ness Marathon this September! Eeek!

logo

I thought: this is the year. It’s the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. It’s the Year of Homecoming across Scotland. Mo’s stepping up the distance. And I signed up!

There was something extra special about signing up for this race: it’s the first race I’ve signed up for in my married name- since I’ll be an ‘auld married wummin’ by then! That was exciting, too!

Be prepared to be very bored with my marathon chat, folks! 😉

marathon

The Ghost Village

The Ghost Village

During our recent trip to Portavadie,  we spent the afternoon visiting Argyll’s Ghost Village, Polphail.

During the late ’60s/early ’70s, Scotland was in the midst of the North Sea Oil boom. And, deep water was needed for the construction of oil rigs. As Loch Fyne is a particularly deep sea loch, some folks thought that it would be an ideal site for constructing these platforms.

And so, money was invested and a whole village, Polphail, was built near Tighnabruaich to house the workers.

But the work never materialised.

And the village was never inhabited.

Now, it lies in ruins, a weird blot on the picturesque, wild, west coast landscape.

But, I love it!

@TheWelshWookie and I visited it with my parents, and with my nephew Ryan. We had a great day, adventuring!

Would you like to see some pictures?

20140109-192325.jpg

20140109-192555.jpg

20140109-192529.jpg

20140109-192510.jpg

20140109-192615.jpg

20140109-192629.jpg

20140109-192541.jpg

20140109-192644.jpg

20140109-192700.jpg

20140109-192725.jpg

20140109-192743.jpg

20140109-192712.jpg

20140109-192821.jpg

20140109-192755.jpg

Back to tonight: I’ve done 20 minutes on the treadmill, 15 minutes on the rower and my plank-a-day. Today’s a rest day from the squat challenge 😉

Have you visited any derelict buildings or places?

Almost St. Andrew’s

Almost St. Andrew’s

On our drive home today, I was thinking about the coming week: with Thanksgiving, followed by St. Andrew’s day on Saturday. As @TheWelshWookie and I will be in Coventry this weekend, I thought we’d better have haggis at some point this week, since we won’t have it on Saturday.
And so, we stopped off at the George Hotel in Inveraray for dinner. And what did I have? Oh, there was only one thing on my mind: haggis, neeps ‘n’ tatties, with a green peppercorn sauce. Yummy. Very winter-warming!

20131124-194443.jpg
In keeping with foods with an ‘n’ in the name, @TheWelshWookie has fish ‘n’ chips:

20131124-194634.jpg
We’re now home. And I’m road testing my new slipper socks…

20131124-194748.jpg
I hope you’re having a comfy, cozy Sunday. Did you have a busy weekend or a quiet one?

A Friday Funny

A Friday Funny

I found this on Sport Motivation’s Facebook Page, and it really made me laugh out loud.

No offence, folks, but…..

1422633_555936901180414_1044429398_n

Happy Friday all! Hope you all have a busy weekend, with lots of running (and caber tossing) planned!