WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE BESTELS – OCTOBER

It’s over half way through October and Autumn is well upon us now , with leaves blowing off the trees, and the clocks going back on hour on Sunday. But don’t despair as DGWGO brings you a wee ray of sunshine into your dark evenings as we have our monthly catch up with the adventures and banter from Dumfries and Galloway Musician ‘ Zoë Bestels wonderful family.

Living in D&G I get the chance to pop in for a cuppa and a catch up with the most interesting, talented and wonderful people and I can’t wait to introduce you to them.

Back in July we backed a campaign on Kickstarter to support Steve Dowling & The Obliviates from Distilled Records to produce their new album and we were delighted to be invited to the Album Launch Party this month. Here’s a wee snipped from the album entitled Austerity –

During the Wigtown Book Festival we managed to pop along and catch up with a few people and get interviewed on Wigtown Festival Radio, which was fun. It’s always nice to visit The Kist and see all our locally talented creative’s displaying their wares. One person it was nice to catch up with was Caroline Townsend-Sawley from Elegant Originals who has been raising money for Cancer Research through her Dryathlon. Well done to Caroline, a tough challenge for a very good cause. Here she is with her hubby Anthony and Phil Jupitus.

My special find this month is the The Bridge Wellness Centre in Dalbeattie. This wonderful new venue offering fitness, wellbeing and therapy resources is the brainchild of Fiona McCulloch. Fiona and her team have created an amazing space that feels so relaxing and comfortable. She hosted our monthly mumpreneur meeting and we loved every minute. Website: http://www.thebridgewellnesscentre.co.uk/

The Hundred Foot Journey

It’s not always easy to write about a film, even when you enjoyed it. Sometimes you simply want to say, go see it, you’ll enjoy it. It’s nice.
I guess that’s what I think about The Hundred Foot Journey but for the sake of this review maybe I’ll say a few more words.
The story revolves around an Indian family who travel down from England in a beaten up, old van to the south of France. They settle in a picturesque village and promptly open up a curry house opposite a Michelin starred French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). The inevitable resulting feud between the two establishments is played out in the kitchens where some amazing looking dishes are prepared. Seriously, make sure you watch this movie on a full stomach as it may have you drooling for a Chicken Biriyani or Boeuf Bourguignon.
It’s a gentle film with a somewhat predictable plot but there are some effortless, if not outstanding performances from Mirren and Om Puri who plays the proud father of the Kadam family. Whilst not overly sentimental, it has its fair share of sweet moments (pun intended) and is beautifully filmed.
The Hundred Foot Journey is a film worth watching. Maybe not an award winner but it’s a lovely, Sunday afternoon watch that won’t tax your brain, won’t have you sobbing or moved to any extreme of emotion but will make you feel good. It’s a nice film, you’ll enjoy it, go watch it.

I’ve been playing a lot of ukulele related gigs recently. Seeing as I’m asked a lot about ukulele gigs/festivals and I find myself explaining how bizarrely brilliant that nearly everyone attending is a ukulele player, I thought I’d just show you using the art of film. So here’s my latest vlog of a rather busy weekend in the life of me featuring quite a number of ukes…

Track of the month:

With their latest EP ‘A Girl Called Bella’ released this month followed by receiving a much deserved 2015 Scottish Alternative Music Award for Best Newcomers, my track of the month had to be from the fantastic Bella and the Bear. This is Leave It Out live from their recent launch at the CCA in Glasgow…