An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
Whose life may be counted properly complete without the existence in it somewhere of an early 19th-century Venetian brass ‘hippocamp’ gondola oarlock?
Hard as it is to believe, this Spurtle correspondent was considering just such a lack in the bath last night when he stumbled across two flattened figures on waisted bases and rectangular marble plinths here in Lyon & Turnbull’s ever changing and always fascinating website.
This bleak midwinter, Paul Dow – head chef at the Magnum Bar and Restaurant – has designs to warm the cockles of your heart. Followed shortly afterwards by the cockles of everything else.
Try this: his simple, wholesome heater, and let us know how you got on afterwards.
Serves 6. Preparation/cooking time: 1 hour approx. Set the oven to 220 °C/425 °F/Gas Mark 7.
To get you through this testing Christmas period, I’m sharing some semi-digested grumblings.
They are perfect to read aloud at the festive table or, if you’re avoiding Christmas like me, you can read them alone in a dark room. Sit back in front of a warm fire, grab some mulled wine and growl.
*****
I wholeheartedly support Scotland’s carrier bag levy. I now carry a tattered and worn-out bag-for-life wherever I go, not because I’m mean but because I’m green.
The Scottish Government has produced the following account in recent days, which we thought is of sufficient local interest to reproduce unedited and in full.
The Left-Handed Tea Drinker will return tomorrow with typically cheerful reflections on Christmas in particular and the joys of Broughton in general.
Congratulations to Pip Phillips who raised £224.57 yesterday afternoon by entertaining Broughton Street businesses with a mixed repertoire on the harmonica ranging from Blues to Opera with everything else in-between.
Pip is the marketing manager at Real Foods, so he knows a thing or two about getting messages across at one end and money out at the other.
For no very good reason, Spurtle is running a spot-the-location quiz.
Each Wednesday between now and the end of the year, we'll publish five square photographs featuring Broughton viewed from misleading angles or from straightforward angles but unhelpfully cropped afterwards. We use the term 'Broughton' in the elastic sense of flexible Spurtleshire.
It is now three months since partial pedestrianisation of George Street began as a year-long experiment.
‘Stakeholders’ met last week to discuss their own perceptions of the trial, and to review the findings of a 300-person survey.
A minute of that meeting is reproduced in full, undedited, below. The PowerPoint presentation summarising the survey is attached at the foot of this page.
The minute is clear and self-explanatory, so we don’t propose to repeat it here. However, points which immediately jump out are:
Cumberland Street residents had the fleeting taste of a new sensation this month, writes Fred Street of the New Town Clean Streets Campaign.
A burst water main on 14 December saw the west end of the street closed off for a week, and communal bins not serviced. Residents availed themselves of this opportunity to find out what it’s like to be a Bin Tourist (rather than a Bin Destination) using the newly arrived St Vincent Street and Circus Place bins instead.
Police have issued the following press release appealing for witnesses after a 19-year-old man was assaulted and robbed of his pedal cycle and bag.
The incident took place around 2am this morning (Sunday) on St Vincent Place at Fettes Row. The victim had been followed from Howe Street by six males who were on four mopeds.
When he fell from his bike he was assaulted and his bike and bag were taken from him.