Fay Young

Category: Global Gossip

  • Streetwise Perth

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Flying down to Barra

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Hot and cool Berlin

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Bilbao – icon for Dynamism?

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Belfast’s undercover success

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Czech mate: travelling with Tesco

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Global gossip heats up

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    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…

  • Time to get our skates on

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Why are Edinburgh NIMBYs so afraid of skate parks? Ray Perman reports from an inspiring enterprise in Dundee where the energy and enthusiasm of young people benefit the whole community. I like skateparks. That’s not a very popular thing to say in North Edinburgh just now when a disgraceful NIMBY campaign has defeated plans for…

  • Lisbon: elevated

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    While Edinburgh is inching towards a decision to install one tram route Kate MacInnes sends her views of a city where trams have been running since 1873. Getting around Lisbon is a joy with the trams, funiculars and elevadors – all a perfect way of climbing up the hills of this great city. Although modern…

  • Brussels: lights, action, mussels

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    It’s around 8pm and the place is going like a fair. I am squeezed between an East European couple on one side and a Spanish pair on the other. The waiter delivering many forms of cooked mussels is French but he is speaking to us all in flawless English. So why does this place feel…

  • Brussels: following yonder (Euro) star

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    I would rather be back in Brussels where the air smells of chocolate and vanilla and they haven’t even finished putting up the Christmas lights in the centre of town.

  • Global gossip

    —

    by

    fay
    in ,

    Today my blog is one year old. I am gradually getting to grips with the site (thank you again to Tommy and to Rob) so now I want to invite my family and friends – and anyone who may have dropped in from cyberspace (well, you never know) – to help it grow. The idea…