Category: Global gossip 2007

Before 2008 arrives I want to post this picture of Berlin because it shows one of the best moments of 2007 for me: saving the planet on a family weekend to celebrate my birthday with the boys in the most exciting city I have been to, what on earth could be better.

“It’s just a really special experience…I would say to any musician of any rank, to apply for it because it really teaches you a lot about other people and their cultures and music.” Ben Westbeech (definitely not Westwood!) on Trocabrahma Podcast Episode 2. This is interesting stuff, so far the Trocabrahma series is the only…

Let’s go to Perth to see how a town centre can thrive without traffic. It’s Saturday, the sun is shining, the pan pipes are playing and on the seafood stall huge crabs seem to send a cheery V sign to shoppers passing by. Perth Farmer’s Market is going like a fair bang smack in the…

This is the way to do it. Our luggage is pulled to the plane by a small tractor. Security guards make friendly small talk while they sift through our bags. In the air the pilot calls out landmarks as we race seagulls and clouds over the Sound of Barra. When we land at Glasgow a…

How on earth did they get up there? On our last night in Berlin, as it happens the hottest May night on record, we take a boat up the river Spree to see just how much the city has changed since the wall came down. Perched on the ruin of one of the many bridges…

How do cities meet the demands of the present without losing the value of their past? John Herring joins Global Gossip with some bold answers in his ‘postcard’ from Bilbao. In the 1980’s Bilbao was presented with an opportunity when the industry and shipping facilities blocking up the city centre moved out to the river…

We went looking for the covered market in Belfast ready to be impressed. Friends told us it was good, the landlady in the B&B agreed, and besides, as journalists do, I had already written a little bit about it before I had even left Edinburgh. St George’s Market is in East Bridge Street near the…

I turned on the radio this morning to catch the tail end of a story about Tesco’s triumphant entry into Beijing, hot on the trail of Walmart and Carrefour. No surprise there. The interesting thing is that the Beijing store is so, well, Chinese. But that is not a surprise either. Tesco is a very…

Flying has become about as much fun as queuing at a supermarket checkout. Less: you don’t have to take off your shoes in Tesco. Should I be doing this? I am delighted to get so many offers of posts about city life from my travelling family and friends. Some of them started to arrive in…