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Summer catch-up 2009: Places

Posted: July 29th, 2009, by Marceline Smith

Bruges
Bruges is beautiful, welcoming and small enough to completely explore within a couple of days. I really enjoyed it, and this was brought home to me soon afterwards by a quick stop in noisy, dirty, hassle-packed Brussels. [Simon Minter]

Austin
Once residents of Glasgow, we moved to Texas at the end of February.  By necessity we’ve wound up near Dallas, largely to be near to family.  The suburb in which we live is deathly dull, and Dallas itself ain’t what it used to be, with it’s “Deep Ellum” district – once a thriving mass of clubs, bars, venues and galleries – now a virtual ghost town.  But it was vibrant, liberal Austin we always intended to move to, and still do.  Next year, once our lease is up, we are heading south. [Alex McChesney]

Berwick-upon-Tweed
This weekend I discovered that there’s more to Berwick-upon-Tweed than a grotty bladder break on the way to Newcastle. It has a mile of complete Elizabethan city walls to keep Scots out then and kids with plastic swords happy now. There’s also a beach, the tidiest allotments, a great bar (Barrels) that has a venue, real ale and cheap Leffe. Best of all, the streets have comically plain names: Bridge End, Railway Street. [Stan Tontas]

Hyde Park, Leeds
Specifically the skate park. In the evenings, walking about after a skate with a malt beer from the Abu Bakar supermarket and a nice windscreen of sweat on your forehead. Phew! [Pascal Ansell]

Mono, Glasgow
Obviously, Mono has been brilliant from the day it opened and we all realised here was somewhere you could buy records while drinking beer (this never gets tired). I’ve bought a lot of records in Mono, seen some great bands, played there myself twice and imbibed a large amount of their homemade lemonade. However, this year myself and the Glasgow Craft Mafia have taken up a residency there on the last Sunday of every month and they’ve been some of the most enjoyable afternoons of the year – sitting sewing or sketching by the bright sunny windows listening to good music while watching people wander in for records or lunch, their kids happily entertained by our activity sheets, and then even making a handful of cash to take home with me. I’m almost going to miss it this month. But I’ll be in Oban so maybe not. Yeah, you heard me, I’m in Oban RIGHT NOW. [Marceline Smith]

London
After my Baker Street nightmare I now find myself working in St Johns Wood and loving it. Working on a street parallel to Abbey Road and only a stone’s throw away from Lord’s I really love being in a place that is truly on the map and that changes almost daily. My knowledge of town is no longer confined to Soho as the places to explore are endless and exciting. [JGRAM]

Water Eaton grain silo
A big abandoned grain silo outside Oxford you can see from the A34, and as such I must have driven past it 200 times wondering what it was like and how awesome it would be for a stupid great party. It’s brilliant in there – check it out. [Stuart Fowkes]



Marceline Smith

Marceline is the fierce, terrifying force behind diskant.net, laughing with disdain as she fires sharpened blades of sarcasm in all directions. Based in Scotland, her lexicon consists of words such as 'jings', 'aboot' and 'aye': our trained voice analysts are yet to decipher some of the relentless stream of genius uttered on a twenty-four hour basis. Marceline's hobbies include working too much and going out in bad weather.

http://www.marcelinesmith.com

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