Think of Belgian food, and what comes to mind…chips with mayonnaise? Waffles? Fine chocolate? Well if that’s scraped the bottom of your Belgian culinary knowledge, it’s time to get yourself educated. Luckily, help is at hand in the form of a very excellent Belgian Food Festival running for ten days from Thursday 23rd April to… Read more »
Posts By: Nicky Marr
Pride comes before a fall…
It wasn’t quite on the agenda for our Easter holidays, but now that we’re getting over the drama of a nasty skiing accident which left Mr Marr with a double fracture of the shoulder and a hefty medical bill, we’re trying to look on the bright side. And watching him try to butter toast and… Read more »
The foolhardiness of leaving a teenager Home Alone…
It’s hard to know who the bigger fools were; me and Mr Marr, for imagining that our almost 17 year old was trustworthy enough to spend the night ‘home alone’, or Daughter #2, for imagining she could hold an almost-all-night house party for 30 of her friends without us finding out. It turns out that… Read more »
Spanish Orange and Almond Cake – Gluten Free!
I was delighted to hear that BBC Radio Scotland’s Kitchen Café was having a ‘free from’ special this week (2nd April), and even more delighted to be invited on as a guest. Here’s a link to the programme – it will be online till the end of April… http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nxj65 Our daughter Rachael was diagnosed with… Read more »
Happy Birthday Twitter, and underwhelmed, again!
Happy Birthday Twitter – the social media site turned nine years old this week. Let me put that into context; 2006 was the year that Gnarles Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ seemed to be at number 1 all summer, and the year Daniel Craig made his debut as Bond in Casino Royale. It took me a while to… Read more »
Electoral Register Confusion, 5×50 & Mean Tweets
Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? I know how you hate it when things creep up on you unannounced, so consider this your seven week warning – there are now fewer than 50 days to go until the May 7th General Election. It’s time to sit up, start paying attention to what the… Read more »
North Coast 500 – genius. And Mum’s a spy!
It’s really is the most fabulous idea, the creation of The North Coast 500, a 500 mile driving route clockwise around the top of Scotland, starting and ending in Inverness. In fact it’s such a brilliant idea that I can’t imagine why we didn’t think of it before. The route, already dubbed ‘Scotland’s answer to… Read more »
Lessons in coaching, great beer and warm milk.
Let’s get something out in the open. Up until about two years ago I had been mightily suspicious of people who called themselves ‘lifestyle coaches’. Arrogance was the word that came to mind. Whatever gave them the big idea that they had all the answers? Were their own lives so perfect that they could tell… Read more »
MPs’ salaries and second jobs. An absolute minefield.
The MPs expenses scandal was just that – scandalous. Almost five years after details of fabricated and exaggerated expenses claims started being published by The Telegraph, the ripples are still being felt. In spite of a raft of cross-party resignations, disciplinary actions and criminal charges, the reputation of Westminster still needs time to recover. Which… Read more »
Superstitious about the A9 on Friday 13th? Not me!
I’m not superstitious at all, so when I learned that one of the questions to be put to the panel last Friday night was to expose potential misgivings about attending an event on Friday 13th, I was absolutely certain about my answer. I would categorically state that superstitions play no part in my life. As… Read more »