Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress
RUSSIA’S Catherine the Great was famous for her voracious appetites – for sex, power, adventure and collecting. Now some of her finest treasures are coming to Scotland It is early morning on a glorious...
View ArticleChitra Ramaswamy: Work, but not as we know it
I WAS working out of the office the other day. This isn’t a euphemism for a sneaky day under the duvet reading Fifty Shades of Rude, or whatever that mummy porn is called. (Incidentally, why do mummies...
View ArticleWine: Use competitions to help you buy wine with confidence
THIS time of year is when the UK’s wine award-winners are announced. A few weeks back, thousands of wines were sniffed, swirled and assessed by a whole troop of judgesThe International Wine Challenge,...
View ArticleRestaurant review: Whiski, High Street, Edinburgh
‘WOODEN and worn, the place has an unselfconsciously couthy and welcoming aura’I HAve learned the nice way that just because a business is on the Royal Mile, Scotland’s most-visited street, it doesn’t...
View ArticleLouisa Pearson: If a two-year old can stomach festival conditions then so can I
THE OTHER day, a friend posted a photo on Facebook of her toddler at a music festival. He looked somewhat unimpressed by the muddy grass, soggy tent and what I imagined was the tinny, distorted sound...
View ArticleRuth Walker:Recent studies may dispute that exercise can combat depression,...
ENORPHINS.Those lovely, cuddly, feel-good hormones that flood the body when we exercise, make love or eat a curry.For long enough, they have been at least part of the argument that says exercising the...
View ArticleLifelines: The summertime blues
Bernadette Lynass from Family Mediation offers adviceHOME ALONEBoth my husband and I work full time and we usually arrange childcare for our daughter over the school holidays. However, she is now...
View ArticleInterview: Philippe Larue, wine merchant
NEXT time you are savouring a robust artisanal bottle of red or crisp, white thirst-quencher with your restaurant meal, don’t worry if there’s a suave Frenchman eyeing your every sip.It’s probably wine...
View ArticleTravel: South Africa
TWO very different gardens highlight the social and political divisions in South Africa, and give hope of the possibility of real changeTwo gardens. Both alien to me. One is in a township in Cape Town....
View ArticleTravel: The Landmark, Dundee
DUNDEE is not an obvious choice for a weekend break. However, with the V&A set to open on the banks of the Tay in 2015, the city is already preparing for the Guggenheim effect.New hotels and...
View ArticleTom Kitchin: ‘Some of our best loved desserts use strawberries
WITH Wimbledon in full swing, I like to think it brings with it sunny days but the reality is, unfortunately, more likely to be rain.I really enjoy playing tennis, and though I seem to have less time...
View ArticleLynn O’Rourke: My husband will no doubt be horrified when he reads this, but...
AND when something catches your attention in that way, you can’t help thinking how it might work in your own home.Which is what will horrify my other half, because just when he thought it was safe to...
View ArticleAviva looks at turnaround plans
Insurance giant Aviva is thought to be studying proposals to close or sell a raft of divisions as part of a turnaround plan.Chairman John McFarlane will reportedly reveal that some ten to 15 businesses...
View ArticleScottish Lib Dem Jo Swinson is touted for ministerial fast track
JO SWINSON is being touted as a replacement for Michael Moore as Scottish Secretary in a UK government reshuffle expected over the summer as the Lib Dems seek to end the embarrassment of having no...
View ArticleFootball casuals: An Eighties study on ‘Dressers’
THE HEADLINES focused on post-match violence, but a new archive reveals the real goal for casuals was to look the partIt was a Thursday night in 1984, the height of the Thatcher era. An apprentice...
View ArticleHealth and beauty: If gyms fail to inspire you in the quest for fitness,just...
THIS week, I discovered Edinburgh has a place called Granny’s Green Steps. Who knew? There is also, of course, Playfair Steps. And Castle Wynd Steps. And Jacob’s Ladder. I climbed them all, running....
View ArticleMums the word with Janet Christie
T in the Park may be a muddy memory for Eldest Child and his crew but I’m still dealing with the aftermathKnowing the only way to avoid going myself and wandering ten paces behind him crying was to...
View ArticleGame review: Rainbow Moon
Strategy role-playing games have a nasty habit of being difficult to understand, frequently burdened with pages of stats and packing a cast of anime oddball stereotypesNot so with Rainbow Moon, a...
View ArticleParenting: The world’s biggest cultural festival is on our doorstep – and...
LIVING in Edinburgh, the most frequent question I get asked by visitors to the city in August is “any shows you can recommend?”This year, according to nine-year-old Ellen, the hot ticket is Horrible...
View ArticleMinistry of interiors: The Milan Furniture Fair
IN A vast, noisy exhibition space in the Tortona district of Milan, dozens of curious visitors are gathered around a bath. They coo, furrow their brows, stroke their beards.Some poke it tentatively. As...
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