William "neuro" A.'s Profile

A couple of updates from my previous review.

The steak baguette is freakin' awesome!  Steak, onions, mushrooms, mustard, it's all good!  The breakfast bar seats are still there, but there are now a few tables to sit at.

In addition to baguettes, rolls, sandwiches and panini, they now also do meals which you can take away cold to heat up later, or you can get them heated to eat there and then or take out.  Haggis, stovies, pasta ... nom.

Still recommended, and the sandwich prices are a bit cheaper now too!

I was off to the ABC2 to hear some good choons, and it got suggested we go to the Noodle Bar for eats beforehand. Ooh, haven't been there in donkeys years, says I; because I work in Edinburgh these days, I don't get a chance to nip into my old fave Glesga munchy eaty places, so this idea was pretty sweet.

Since the last time I was here (aaaages!), the decor on the walls hasn't changed one iota, but the seating has improved, with a couple of big round tables in the middle: great for groups. The food is just as cheap and just as good as it always was. The portions are more than ample, and served fairly promptly by the friendly staff.

Considering how many Chinese food places there are in the city centre, it's great to find one that is still cheap *and* good! Ideally placed near the Charing X end of the main shoppy bit of Sauchiehall Street, it's brilliant for grabbing lunch while at work or doing some weekend shopping, or nipping in for a quick meal before or after a sesh or gig nearby.

(Keep going) TO THE NOODLE BAR!

The Apple Store in Glasgow is only one of two in Scotland (the other is in Aberdeen), so I guess it's a bit of an Apple mecca for us Scottish Apple geeks.  I've been an adorer of Apple kit since I was a kid getting a shot on an Apple IIc, and now having two iPods, an iPhone, a MacBook Pro and a Mac mini (not to mention the ton of old Mac gear I have stashed away) means I have to make use of the Store in an "existing customer needs help" capacity.  The problem is, once you're an Apple user, it's tough to visit and not be entranced by the accessories and software available.  Look, shiny!  Wait, did I just buy something?  Ah, crap!

From the outside, the Apple Store appears quite respectful of the Sauchiehall Street aesthetic - something they actually had to be after planning permission to totally redo the exterior was denied by the city council.  Inside, they've totally ripped up the two floor structure used by the previous tenant (The Pier), and replaced the second floor with a mezzanine, allowing you to go upstairs and hock loogies on the throbbing mass of oohing and aahing potential customers ... I mean, to see the lovely people below.

Downstairs is the main shop floor: plain wooden tables (from IKEA perhaps?) are adorned with the latest Apple goodies, all set up for you to play with.  iMacs and Macbooks are left running as regular machines, unlike the locked down machines running demos in other computer stores like PC World, so you can play with the computer as you normally would: browse the web a bit, play some music, watch video clips.  The iPods and iPhones are preloaded with content, so you can fiddle with those too.

To buy stuff, just look reeeeeally interested in something expensive, like a 27" iMac, or a 32GB iPhone 3GS.  You'll soon get poked at by a roaming Apple salesperson.  If you're rubbish at looking interested in stuff, just flag one down as they're passing; they'll either help you out or grab one of their less busy colleagues.  You can buy stuff without cash anywhere in the store: all the salespeople have wireless credit card terminals on them at all times.  If you want to pay cash, there's a till on the left hand side of the floor.  In case you want a slightly different configuration of computer from the ones on display, just talk to the salesperson; they can organise any possible onsite upgrades or tweaking, or get you a custom configuration ordered up and arranged for delivery.

Upstairs in the mezzanine are accessories, third-party products, software and the Genius Bar.  This is Apple's combined service and support desk.  Problem with your Mac mini?  Broken your iPhone?  Can't connect your Macbook air to a camera?  The Geniuses are here to help.  You book a session with a Genius online at http://apple.com/uk/re... and at the alloted time, go up the stairs and let the Genius Bar folk know you're there.  If you want new headphones for your iPod, the latest OS X software update, games or apps for your Mac, or any other accessory you can think of, go upstairs.

The Store also has classes and howto sessions on using Apple products, and making the best of their features for blogging, music creation, making movies, doing business and so on.  There are occasionally live music sessions too, although not as often as at the flagship store in London's Regent Street (which are usually recorded and put up for sale on the iTunes music store).

Tip: if you want priority repairs, and can afford it, pony up 70 quid for a year's worth of Apple ProCare.  Repairs go to the top of the queue.  I've had a MacBook Pro's motherboard replaced in an hour instead of the three or four days you can wait when they're busy.

Bottom line, this is a good example of an Apple Store, albeit a bit of a small one.  They don't stock the full line of products you can buy at the online Apple Store, but most of the things you'd need for day to day stuff can be easily found here.  Just protect your credit card well, it can be easily abused in the name of such excuses as "oh, that could be useful", "I like the look of that", and the classic: "ooh, shiny!"

This Pizza Hut is gone now, replaced with a Mexican fast food place.

Any time I'm in the city, I usually end up staying at Club Quarters (a corporate hotel on Clay).  If I'm there, it means I'm there for meetings and the like at my employer's head office, so I have to trek up Battery to get there.  Right outside the hotel, on the corner of Clay and Battery is the first of three Battery Street Starbucks.

Now, I know, it's FiDi, there's lots of coffee places apart from Starbucks to visit, but dammit, it's handy, and I'm lazy!  It doesn't matter if it's 8:30 and I just wanna grab a latte and a paper and head up to the office, or if it's Saturday morning and I want a muffin ... mmm, muffin ... it's right on the corner and it's handy as hell.

There's usually a homeless guy sat at the corner too, so maybe drop him a buck or two out of your change if you feel generous enough?

A fave Starbucks of mine, along with the one on the corner of Battery and Clay in San Francisco - http://www.yelp.com/bi...

I've spent a few times in here as it's right across from the Apple Store on Buchanan Street, and it's a handy place to camp while waiting for a repair to get done (Apple Procare is the mutt's nuts, by the way).  It's Starbucks, so the coffee is virtually identical wherever you go, but the baristas in this branch have always been friendly and helpful.

Also, the proximity to the Apple Store is handy; if for some reason you can't get onto Starbucks' own WiFi service, you can pick up Apple's from across the street.  Hee hee.

It's over a decade since I hit the Sub, so I really only have two things to say about it.

1) If a club can survive being razed to the ground in a fire, it can survive anything.

2) i built the website for the Sub Club in 1996, so I still feel a special affinity to the place despite my lack of attendance.

Also, you know, Optimo.  Brilliant!

Waxy's is like seven pubs in one, it's massive.  One of the best Hogmanays I've ever had was in Waxy's a few years ago.  I knew some of the staff via friends, so we ended up in one of the lower bars, watching BBC One on one of the big projection screens.  It's quite an experience to have a great dram of whisky in one hand, shaking the hands of friends with the other, singing Auld Lang Syne at the top of your lungs, the bar staff up on the bar, and Jackie Bird, the alive one from the Corries and Paolo Nutini on the telly singing along with you.

It's also a good place just to nip into if you're shopping or working in the City Centre and you want to grab a pint and a bite for lunch.

But yeah, it's massive.  I defy you to go drinking with friends and see the whole thing in one sitting.  They should do guided tours of the place!

ps. Francesca, servers?  This is Scotland, get tae the bar yersel!

God, it's years since I last went to the Garage.  I've seen a few bands play live here, Skunk Anansie sticks out to me for some reason.  At the far west end of Sauchiehall Street before you get to Charing Cross, it was always a good place either to start or end a night, as there's plenty of pubs nearby to head to or head from for drinks.  Sticky floors, big speakers, dark and dingy ... it may have changed since 1996, but that's how I remember it.  And it wasn't that bad!

Ah, the Water of Life.  Uisge Beatha is one of those "what is it?" bars in Glasgow.  It's not directly in the City Centre (it's out west along Woodlands Road heading towards the University), it's not a student pub (but close enough to the Uni to attract students), but it has live traditional music, great drinks, fantastic atmosphere, and gorgeous decor.  There are two main rooms off of the main bar, but you'd be best grabbing a pint or a dram and heading left down the wee steps into the lower room for the best experience.  It's a guid, friendly Scottish pub, and all the better for it.