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Dark beers are officially for me. There, I said it. Quite often now I’ll pass on a lager or IPA, for something with much more akin to being a meal in a glass. I’ve been no stranger to Pilot’s Moccacino Stout - brewed in my very own Leith base. But more recently I discovered this Salted Caramel Milk Stout from Fallen Brewing, another Scottish Fav.

This would pair perfectly with a warm brownie and scoop of classic vanilla ice-cream. The beer is so sumptuous, I’ve never made it past a pint and half. But with quality drinks like this its all about the taste, taking your time, savouring each sip. Even two halves go down better to ensure its still cold to the last drop. At 6% too, just right.

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My friend and colleague Shen picked up this huge letter A for me at the Omni Centre Car Boot. We figured it must have been from a shop as it was part of the word 'A R S E'. Hilarious. A few LEDs wrapped around the inside, and its a feature ornament in my kitchen.

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Finch in Glasgow

Two gigs in one month, its like I’m back in my early 20s. This time, one of my favourite post-hardcore bands Finch played Glasgow Garage G2.

Nate Barcalow and the boys played throuhg the hits from What It Is The Burn, their monumental 2002 album, and most of the new material from 2014's Back to Oblivion. This album is most certainly a grower, and gets better with every full listen. Its an album that does translate well tp their live performance.

The guys look a little more concentrated on their performance and sound, rather than throwing themselves around these days. Which can only be a good thing.

For a band that's broken up a few times, been on a hiatus, and released a dud album in the middle, they still captured the sound of there early 2000s punk/hardcore for me perfect on the night.

Low light on the Fuji X-Pro1

I'm still blown away by the performance of this camera at high ISO. These images were all shot at 6400 ISO, f/1.4. Just a tiny sharpen and tone curve in Lightroom, no-retouch. For a small mirrorless camera I could carry around in my bag all day, that can also shoot gigs in the dark, what else could you need?

Here's a few more shots from the day trip to Glasgow.

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Discovered Rock Rose Gin after attending the Scottish Design Awards.

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St Columba’s Hospice Giant Pub Quiz

Its not often you get free reign on any design job. But other than time and budget constraints, I was given carte blanche with the branding for this event.

After a flick through a book of classic two colour designs, I arrived at a kitsch solution for St Columba’s Hospice Giant Pub Quiz. This is a charity which provides care and treatment for those with life limiting illnesses in Edinburgh and the Lothians, and support for their families.

Having actually gone along to the night itself, it was great to see the branded event, and all for a good cause. This work for St Columba’s was done at Teviot Creative.

The pie & pint were drawn by Kimberly Carpenter.

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Dustin Kensrue

Last night I saw Dustin Kensrue (of Thrice fame) perform in Glasgow. His first UK tour, and my first time seeing him since 2008 during a one off Thrice gig in London. He played most songs from the newly released Carry The Fire, and a selection of old Thrice songs such as A Song For Milly Michaelson, and a personal favourite of mine Words In The Water from Major/Minor.

A new Thrice release could be immanent after their summer tour.

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My new Makr Farm Satchel

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Inside @typeindication's Mini

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A trio of Christmas trees

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Hope for Christmas

For 365 days of the year Bethany is there when people most need our help. Often we meet families and individuals when they are at their lowest point; when they feel without hope.

We are asking you to take just a moment, to donate to give someone hope this Christmas - or on any day of the year that they may need us. Every donation we receive will go straight to support someone in need and help us to give hope, keep families together or just be someone who cares.

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Pilot Brewery, less than a mile from my house. First bottled batch, just in time for Christmas.

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My Movember portrait by the insanely good Laurence Winram. A few of the boys from Teviot Creative headed down to his studio last week to have our criminal selves snapped. More of the same series over on his website.

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Milan

The week back from Cambodia the holiday blues set in hard. We needed to have somewhere to look forward to. Somewhere close, somewhere Easyjet-able. £70 (return) later we’d signed up for Milan. 

For a change we booked through Airbnb, where we stayed at Fabrizio’s apartment right next to Turro, just 10 minutes on the Metro from central Piazza Del Duomo. Having a studio apartment made a huge difference to the long weekend break. Any comparable sized hotel room would have set us back three times the amount, and have considerably less Milanese charm. Check in was a simple meet & greet with our host, some tips reserved for local foodies, and a chilled bottle of wine from the fridge.

Travel Lodge, you have a lot to answer for.

Il Tegamino is the kind of restaurant we'll never get right in the UK. Do one thing, do it REALLY well, keep the prices low and you’ll have dinners packing it out on a Thursday night during low winter. An impressive selection of Neapolitan pizza ranging from €6-8, house wine at €3.50/half litre, what else do you need to know? They even gave us free espresso as their treat.

Piazza Del Duomo and Brera

Here's advice worth its weight in gold. Get here early. We were shortly after 9am, and wandered around almost undisturbed. Without waiting to get up to the roof, and we shared the views with only a handful of other tourists. I didn’t fully appreciate how good we had it until seeing the Piazza on a Saturday afternoon. Thousands of tourists swarm every entrance, I can't image what its like during high summer season, but it made it all the more special with less people around.

The afternoon we spent exploring Brera district. Artisan bakeries, independent shops, hole in the wall bars, it’s all here. And only a stones throw from Duomo. I’d fully recommend this  to get away from the tourist traps near by the main Piazzas. Cheaper, better, slower food, and full of Italian locals. 

(Yes, that's a little dog wearing a puffer jacket)

Navilgio District

Fabrizio recommended the Naviglio district on a Friday evening. Its a canal lined with bars and restaurants each side, which reminded me of Leith in Edinburgh (although warning, the canal was being drained/worked on when we were there so its not looking its best). We drank some exquisite cocktails in Elita Bar and ate free appetisers consisting of arancini balls and bruschetta. Moving onto more bars in the area the principle is fairly simple, your first drink comes with a free buffet. Freshly prepared pastas, cured meats, salad, vegetables and desserts all included with our reasonable €9 cocktails.

I do love the post work culture of food and drinks often found in Spain and Italy, something we don't get quite right in the UK due to our dominant pub culture. Just try to imagine the Friday night social post-work, and your £5 pint comes with food to balance our the alcohol. No need to even go out for dinner. Bellissimo!

Viale Papiniano Market

I managed to pick up half a kilo of Parmigiano-Reggiano, a 2ft cured sausage, and an assortment of fresh pasta out by Garibaldi station. This is 15 minutes south from Duomo, not to be missed on a weekend for food. We also took in some art at Museo del Novecento, at the Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana exhibition shortly before a Pistachio/Nutella gelato two scooper.

Michelin quality without the stars

For our final meal, Trip Advisor led us to Manna Ristorante only 5 minutes from our apartment. How this has not been awarded Michelin Star yet I will never understand. Not designed as a tasting menu as such, but four smaller courses, we were patiently talked through the entire menu by Chef Matteo Fronduti (my Italian isn't too great). If you want to avoid the usual tourist traps and appreciate new and exciting Italian Cuisine, dare not look much further. €125 for four courses including wine, coffee, and service. More of this specifically over on TA to follow…

Summary of thighs – Ham beef, fried chicken, rabbit terrine and duck confit

San Giacomo da parma – Spaghetti, ham, scallops and raw hazelnuts

Loacker – Wafer chocolate and dried fruit, sorbet cocoa and coffee

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I’m looking fairly “get me off this roof and towards an espresso” upon the top of Duomo di Milano

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My new mag from design and publishing agency Human After All arrived this week. Weapons of Reason. It’s coming on holiday with me.

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Stockbridge Market

Today we took a stroll down to Stockbridge, where the Bloxham’s have moved to. Baby Theodore came to the market with the whole gang. Here’s just a few shots that I edited on the go again using VSCO Cam directly on my S4.

  Coincidentally after having this camera body about four years, I only discovered yesterday I can change the size of the Jpeg it’s captures, as well as the quality. Now with a slightly smaller file, the transfer from my Eyefi card is even quicker. Don’t you just love it when old hardware works with my software seamlessly?

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A new blog, a new home

So what can you expect? Only original content for one, I won’t be re-blogging. More posts on the go too thank to the Tumblr App. Although Instagram/Flickr (and more recently VSCO) are great for visual posts on the go, there's not much in the of substance for longer posts, so this suits a place to write things a little more long form.

Why now? My old blog started in 2009, a different time in my life. Parts of it were posted with some naivety, which I've moved across here, warts and all for all to see.

A sixpence

Also what seemed like tiny visual kick up the bum happened last week. I found a sixpence under my front door. I’m sure I’ve spent plenty of time sanding/painting/insulating by this door, so for a coin to appear from no-where seems a bit strange. Weaselling itself up from the floor boards, it made me wonder how a little coin from 1948 has lay dormant for this long. Similarly I didn’t want my old posts, photos, thoughts, and even the odd design tutorial to go underground like my new lucky coin.

So, after a few days soaked in brown sauce to bring it back to life (good tip Karen) it seemed a fitting visual metaphor for me to clean up this blog too.

Unfortunately, the coin is worthless. Damn it.