An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
In addition to Multrees Walk and the Balmoral Hotel, this stencilled slogan has recently appeared on Barony Street's Glasite Meeting House.
The latter's austere, kale-reek-haunted interior is hardly the last word in bourgeois extravagance.
Can any reader explain?
[A reader has contacted Spurtle to say that the same graffiti briefly appeared on the Royal Bank of Scotland building in St Andrew Square before being removed. Any other spots?]
For the first year of her life my daughter Niamh was a normal growing baby. However, not long after she was weaned she started to lose weight, had little energy and was often very sick. The health visitors told me she was failing to thrive – a horrible term for any parent to hear. Makes you feel like a bit of a failure yourself really.
While other children her age started to walk, Niamh just sat about showing little interest in playing or crawling far. Doctors put it down to tummy bugs and told us it would get better. But it didn’t.
In Issue 188 we touched on some of the once familiar church landmarks which have now vanished from Broughton's streets. By following the links below, you can find photos of them.
To start, here is a modern view of the Albany/Broughton Street junction, taken from Forth Street. If you now look again at the photo of Alexander 'Greek' Thomson's St Vincent Street Church in Glasgow (Issue 188, p. 3), you can see roughly how his unsuccessful competition entry would have fitted into Broughton's topography.
The second of two art-graffiti in Rodney Place (see Issue 188, p. 4) is situated immediately opposite the Union Yoga building by the bus stop.
We had hoped to photograph the artist at work, but by the time we got there the bird had flown.
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Unreliable Geographies by Aeneas McHaar
No. 13: Pilrig, Johannesburg, South Africa
26º 12’ S, 28º 2’ E
The nights are drawing in and the mornings are fair nippy these days as well, so why not take yourself along to the Filmhouse Cinema for a bit of sunshine with the fifth Africa in Motion film festival? They’re showing over 70 films from 28 African countries, and closing the festivities on Bonfire night with a ‘Fashion Extravaganza’ at the Bongo Club – I don’t know what that is but it sounds glamorous.
In Issue 187 Spurtle criticised what we feared was emerging as a contrived and meaningless consultation process between the Council and public on the capital's budget crisis. Many people have since seconded those concerns, although of course Council employees have been unable to do so publicly.
Lottery, a short, comic and poignant play will be performed at McDonald Road Library on 4 November, 6:30pm.
It tells the story of former school sweethearts Fizz and Alan who, in a chance encounter, find their affection rekindled as they reveal to each other how dyslexia has changed their lives whilst hunting for a lost lottery ticket.
Written by Lowri Potts and directed by Lisa Nicoll, the workshop production stars Laura Fell and Fraser Thomson of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama's 'Dramaworks' programme.
Heavy rain is forecast for the next few days, which is of course a sure sign that the Spurtle is due for distribution.
On Monday 1 November, Issue 188 will be delivered by canoe, kayak and galoshes to the usual miscellany of pubs, clubs, shops and galleries across Broughton, and poured into the home addresses of loyal subscribers everywhere. It will also appear online, with a flood of extras, from 8:15am onwards.
Lothian and Borders Police’s new City Centre Safer Neighbourhood Team (Issue 187) is divided into 3 beats, one of which runs from Princes Street to East London Street, Bellevue Crescent, Royal Crescent and Fettes Row.
Officers for this beat are: PC4437 Dane Harrison; PC5159 Neil Gilmour; PC3952 Davy Scott; PC5684 Keith Deuchars; PC11028 Michael Somerville; and PC5852 Karen Reid (Licensing Officer).