Loving Byres Road, Christmas trees, The Marlborough bar and other stories

And so 2021 continues where 2020 left off. Today, we pay tribute to all home learners and their parents as lockdown 3.0 shuts our schools. Let’s hope today’s wobble with Microsoft Teams can soon be fixed. On a personal team matter, we are changing our publishing schedule. We now aim to post twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. Thank you for following and subscribing.

It starts straight after Boxing Day in some cases. Christmas trees migrate from living rooms to the streets and backlanes. But Glasgow City Council is telling people to recycle their trees and warns that disposing of trees in the street is littering. Residents are being asked to take trees to their nearest household recycling centre (info here: https://glasgow.gov.uk/hwrc) or use one of the recycling points set up in parks in the north west (Kelvingrove), north east and south of the city. Residents can also use the brown bin for food and garden waste, if they have one. A council spokesman said: “We do ask that the tree is broken up and properly contained within the bin. We do not have scheduled collections of Christmas, otherwise. Discarding a tree in the street is littering.”

Glasgow Film Festival 2021 (GFF21) will go ahead this year online only (February 24 to March 7), organisers have said. The programme of online premieres will be announced this Thursday (January 14) and we hope to bring you details in our next newsletter on the day. GFF21 had been planned as a hybrid festival, with screenings at Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) and 23 partner cinemas across the UK and online (athome.glasgowfilm.org). However, there is little prospect of cinemas being allowed to open in time. Festival co-director Allison Gardner said: “While we are very disappointed not to be screening this year’s Glasgow Film Festival in cinemas, the hybrid nature of GFF21 means we are still able to offer the majority of the premieres originally included in the programme for people to watch at home. Audiences can look forward to the same high quality of choice as they’d normally expect from GFF, as well as the opportunity to see the best new, independent films from Scotland and around the world.” 

A Broomhill couple have opened a new restaurant just round the corner from where they live. Giovanna and Phil McDonald say they “jumped at the chance” to move into 340 Crow Road, the premises formerly occupied by the Wee Lochan restaurant which closed permanently last summer. The Marlborough opened its doors for sit down briefly before Christmas, and is now serving takeaway drinks and food under Tier 4 restrictions. The couple have one other business The Taphouse bar in Finnieston, which has been closed under Covid rules. Giovanna said the new business had given the couple a fresh opportunity. She said: “Things are really tricky for bars and pubs at the moment. They are really not viable under the tier system at all. Even when we get to Tier 1 it means a 10.30pm closing and that makes it hard for bars. But this kind of style of breakfast and brunch trade at The Marlborough and the all-day thing works in Tier 3.” You can read the full version of this article on our website.

Efforts are continuing to raise money for outside playground shelters at Hyndland Primary School. A fund-raiser organised by parents has only a few days to run. A crowdfunding page reads: “We learn better if we can stay warm and dry outdoors. Glasgow has a lot of rain. It’s keeping our dear green place very green, but it’s making our outdoor learning, lunch and playtimes wet and miserable … We need strong wooden playground shelters, so we can keep warm, dry and happy.“ You can read more here and donate to the cause.

 

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