One time bastion of students and indie kids (Belle And Sebastian have been known to busk there), Ashton Lane is now full of slighty more expensive bars and pubs. While the cost of drinking has risen, there is still fun to be had in the tiny West End street.

The challenge: you have 30 minutes to visit (and drink in) as many pubs, bars or restaurants in Ashton Lane as you possibly can. Start and end where you like, but half an hour is the time limit. Because the area is quite small, getting between the pubs is not difficult but hitting them all in time is much harder.

A good one, but be warned that it is also the most expensive crawl so far.

Another pub crawl, this time entirely in the city centre of Glasgow, is the Sauchiehall Crawl. It takes a very different approach to the Subcrawl, and is more of a challenge.

The concept is this: start at the Buchannan Galleries end of Sauchiehall Street (you will have no trouble finding it) and get to Driftwood within an hour. As a walk, it’d be easily achievable (10 minutes or so?). You must, however, have a drink in as many pubs as you possibly can along the way (there are plenty to choose from). You judge the crawl based on the number you manage to get to inside an hour. If you make it to Driftwood late, you lose.

An interesting speed crawl, leaving you poised perfectly for getting to several clubs and bars, or heading into the West End. The West End, of course, will be the venue for pub crawl 3.

A series of posts on pub crawls in the fine city of Glasgow could not be started with anything other than the mighty Subcrawl. Otherwise known as the Clockwork Orange, it’s a bit of a big one.

For those who have never heard of it (or been to Glasgow), the premise is simple: Glasgow has a 15 stop, circular underground. The idea is to get off at every stop, go to the nearest pub and have a drink. A great way of getting the full flavour of Glasgow (seeing pubs all over the place), but with some problems.

First, you should aim to clear Govan, Ibrox and Kinning Park as quickly as possible. Not the best of areas, especially for non-regulars or tourists. Secondly, you miss the East End, Merchant City, and some other nice areas of the city. Not that the Subcrawl will give you a chance for sightseeing, since you’ll be rushing around the underground.

The whole thing takes up to 10 hours (for large groups, with a food stop) so will wipe out an entire day from pub opening, but well worth the effort.

A quick request: does anyone know of any good flash radio stations? The best one I’ve seen so far is the absolutely fantastic Captain’s Of Industry player, featuring stuff by a lot of good rock bands.

Requirements: preferably rock, indie, metal, punk or otherwise listenable guitar and drums based music. It also has to use Macromedia flash to deliver the sound.

I’m asking because I want music to listen to in the lab, and I’m sick of trying to get Real player working on Linux.

Thanks.

Yes, it’s that time of year when this fine site celebrates its birthday. Solitude started two years ago today, promising that a new version of VKPS (from whence Solitude came) would be dropping soon. We are all, I’m sure, still waiting (it’ll be a while yet).

Last year, promises were made about more on web design, an undisclosed project, more fiction and more toys. In true Solitude fashion, none were delivered.

This year I’ve very recently talked about my plans for the site’s future, so will not bother to reiterate those. The new sister site of Solitude has indefinitely slipped due to my home computer being incapacitated. I had originally intended (a month or so ago) that it would launch today, but circumstances outwith my control conspired against me.

Being more realistic than previous years, post content will remain somewhat light for the first half of the year while I finish this last crucial part of university life. It will hopefully pick up after then, with some interesting stuff along the way.

Hopefully, we’ll see you for another year.