Destination Unknown

London 2009 (Day 2)

2009-10-06T17:27:00.001Z

I am so very glad we went to the London Eye the night before, because we awoke to a grey sky Wednesday morning that lasted the entire day. A bit chilly to start, but then it warmed up by lunchtime. This is the point where I wish I would have put my coat inside my backpack instead of just tying it around my waist, because somewhere around the final tube stop of our journey I lost the fucking thing and like I mentioned in the previous post, we didn't get blankets on our overnight train so it was a cold ride back to Glasgow. A bummer about the coat but, since that was the only bad part of our holiday, I've let that go.

Both Ginnie and I slept an hour past the original alarm setting, worn out from all the exercise. A nice hot-n-powerful shower perked me right up and I was looking forward to our next adventure. And coffee. I really wanted some coffee. First stop was back to the place we'd left off the night before, Westminster Bridge, where we continued on to the Westminster Abbey and then further on to St. James's Park. I spotted gargoyles, two crows trying to fight a squirrel for it's peanut (they weren't winning), more statues, tree lined paths, and Police patrols on horseback.

Eventually we arrived at our intended destination, the Buckingham Palace, to watch the Changing of the Queen's Guard. We were half an hour early and yet there was already a huge crowd gathered at one end of the forecourt. Ginnie I went to the opposite end and secured ourselves a spot to watch the ceremony, a space that we were basically squeezed out of less than an hour after the ceremony started. Or maybe it was only half an hour - either way it felt like ten. The ceremony? Not so exciting. Pretty uniforms, a crowd, and even a band, yet the best part was when some bloody tourists (erm, other tourists)were hanging on the fence and the security guard came over to yell at them. I don't know why they had to be told twice (maybe it was two different idiots) but he looked damn serious and there was a big part of me hoping for a third offense to see what he'd do. Heh.Leaving the Palace, we meandered up the Mall to Trafalgar Square and then over to Charing Cross to get something to eat. We stopped at the Princess of Wales pub where Ginnie got her requisite Fish-n-Chips and I got something.... can't remember now what I ordered. I know I thought it was good, the service was fabulous, and I also liked looking at the modern clock outside our window.Lunch over, we hopped the tube back to Tower Hill for a tour at the Tower of London. Normally I abstain from tours, because generally guides are hard to hear and either go too slow or too fast, but this Beefeaters Guide was quite good, easy to hear and had a great sense of humour. He seemed to know just how much info to give before moving us on to the next location. A nice perk to being on the tour was gaining access to the Chapel (no photography allowed), where I sat up front near the grave of Anne Boleyn. How cool is that? Okay, it's weird, but it's cool too. With the tour over, Ginnie and I were free to roam the grounds and take in exhibitions, like the Crown Jewels and Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill (again, no photography). Hands down, my favorite part was watching the free roaming Royal Ravens - 6 official and four 'spares'. Their names (from oldest to youngest) are Gwylum, Hugin, Munin, Branwen, Bran, Fleur, Colin, Gundulf, and Baldrick. I have absolutely no clue which ones I photographed. More info can be found in the article from the Tower link. From the Tower we went to Knightsbridge to visit Harrods and also, we hoped, to see Hyde Park. I should have planned a little better and gone to the park first, but we were worried the shop would close. As it was, the sun was setting when we exited the store and it would have been too dark to see much of the park so we agreed to save that for next time. Instead we took the subway over to Covent Garden to find the Punch and Judy to get something to eat. Over dinner and those ever-present vacation beverages we played crossword puzzles and watched other patrons, passing the ~~minutes~~ hours until we could leave for the train station. It was surprising to see such large throngs of people out so late on a Wednesday night, and I felt suddenly like Glasgow was a small hick town in comparison!

Utterly exhausted, Ginnie and I separated on the train- each taking an empty row- where we settled in for a long ride home...

London 2009 (Day 1)

2009-10-05T11:26:00.000Z

Ginnie and I took the overnight sleeper train from Glasgow to London and the one thing I must say here is - spend the extra £20 for a sleeper berth. I, being unemployed and wiped out of all savings, opted for the 'reclining seat' figuring it would be like sleeping on a plane. No. It is not like sleeping on a plane, for on a train they do not dim the lights and you have people boarding and exiting through a doorway that leads to the cold COLD outside. You also have many, many, stops. Also also? You do not get a pillow and blanket with the sleeper chair.

So we arrive in Euston Station at around 6:30am. It is a bit brisk, considering it is a late September morning, but we've also just come from Glasgow so the temperature was about the same as my normal day high. We exited the station and spotted a very pretty sky, and when presented with the dilemma of what to do next I just shrugged my shoulders and suggested "Let's go this way". Turns out we chose to walk down Eversholt Street which put us in the neighborhood of the Camden Markets. We stopped quickly at McDs for breakfast (ugh) and a consultation with the map, and decided since the markets weren't quite open yet we'd just continue in the direction of Regent's Park and cross to the other side to see the famous Abbey Road crossing. I, of course, kept stopping to take photos but as I was also carrying a parcel that needed to be dropped at Post Office, I was only using the pocket Elph. Parcel finally posted (I'd sold my camera backpack on ebay a couple hours before we'd left Monday night, so I brought it with me to mail) and Abbey Road crossed, our next destination was going back to the other side of Regent's Park. We were still carrying our backpacks, and had already been walking for three hours, so we chose to hop the tube to Baker Street, where we next made a quick stop at the Sherlock Holmes Museum before continuing on to the park.By this time it was rather warm out, with full sun, so when we reached the park I stopped at the nearest bench to shed some clothes and get the Canon 40D out. I was trying to do this quickly, but quietly, as I didn't want to spook the birds. There was a black swan, of which I'd never seen one outside of photos, and also grey herons. LOTS of heron(s?) it turns out, and also Canadian Geese, a bird I'm quite familiar with from Seattle but had never seen on this side of the Ocean before. These were joined by the usual suspects (pigeons, crows, ducks & seagulls) in a cluster around a lady feeding them from a bag of bread. I was surprised at how close I was able to get to the heron, but unfortunately the swan was just too far out in the water for me to get a clear shot. I reverse this complaint when a few minutes later when we happened upon 30 or so heron who kept taking flight five feet in front of my face, but with my lens zoom lens I was too close to get a clear shot.The inner circle of Regent's Park contains the gated area of Queen Mary's Gardens. Here we saw the most beautiful flowers and plants, the amazing Triton Fountain, and the most awesome-ally 'because they were available when I desperately needed them' public loos. We sat on the bench in front of the fountain, enjoying the fine weather and pleasant misting the occasional breeze would bring across our faces, and I seriously considered stretching out and taking a nap right there in the hot sun.Our stomachs, however, had other ideas so against the protests of our knackered feet and wearied shoulders we hoofed it on out of the inner circle towards the tube to Piccadilly Circus, then strolled down to the Leicester Square area for some lunch. After lunch we knew we were fading fast, and after looking at my watch I suggested we go check into the hotel where we could drop off our bags and rest up for a bit and still have plenty of time to see the Tower Bridge and the London Eye before dark.Travelodge Tower Bridge is in a fabulous location being less than 5 minute walk from the Tower Hill underground and Tower Gateway (trains), and one block from a Starbucks. It claims the rates are cheap because of the fact that you are sleeping above the Train Station, but 1) £96 per isn't exactly cheap, even for London and 2) they do not provide any amenities, not even a phone in the room. The room appeared clean, though, and the housekeeper I found was most helpful in getting me the 2nd set of towels the front desk has assured me were in the room (they were not). I also did not hear the trains that night, but I'm hard of hearing and was so utterly exhausted that had I been sleeping on top of the actual trains themselves I doubt I would have woke.

The alarm on my mobile went off, forcing us up out of slumber to refresh ourselves and make our way to the River Thames, where the crowds were absolutely teeming, it being quitting time for most folk. We crossed the river via the Tower Bridge, stopped to take a photo (or 50), and continued along the waterfront looking across to the Tower of London and the Gherkin, and walking past City Hall, Hay's Galleria, and the HMS Belfast.We eventually made it to the London Eye where we lucked out with no crowd and no line. You buy your tickets, are shown where to pickup a pair of 3D glasses, and then ushered into a 4D movie which was very very cool. I think this was created to break up the wait time, which can normally be over an hour, and it shows you aerial views like you get from the Eye as well as bubbles you can touch and a seagull image that flies around the theatre and right up to your face and man I'd love take that theatre show home! Flick over we are shuffled out to board our pod and I was extremely excited because it appeared we were getting a crackin' sunset and I just knew my shots were going to be amazing.

(What I was forgetting to incorporate into my thinking is that while the pods appear to our senses to be stationary, they are in fact moving which creates vibrations and motion and translates to blurry photos. I probably shot 400, but only kept around 10. I also made a little video)

Man, what a ride! Overlooking the River Thames, Big Ben, Palace of Westminster (aka Houses of Parliament), and the Sea Life London Aquarium. There's a bunch of other stuff in the other direction, but I apparently focused most of my attention on that side. Once the ride was completed we stepped out of the pod, continued up the waterway to Westminster Street, and crossed over to St. Stephens Tavern where we flopped down at a table to plan the next day's itinerary and consume some supper with multiple alcoholic beverages. We'd had high hopes for a raucous night out, but instead found ourselves back at the hotel and in bed by 9pm - ooh, party animals us! More photos available here.

Ginnie in Glasgow

2009-09-30T21:27:00.003Z

As is normal for me with regards to a holiday (whether I'm leaving or someone's coming), I'd been up all night and had practically naught hours of sleep so was completely knackered when it came time to pick Ginnie up from the airport. This was her first trip ever outside of the United States and I was really looking forward to showing her as much of this country as I could.

The morning started off on a chaotic note when ember's car wouldn't start, resulting in a mad dash call for a taxi with a quick stop at the ATM to withdraw the required cash. Ginnie was due in from Seattle about 7:30am but still had to get through customs, so I actually arrived with time to spare - which I used to stare at the hotties in uniforms holding machine guns. Welcome to Scotland!

We took a taxi back to the flat, she unpacked and gave me all the stuff from Sally (who's been hitting the dollar aisle in Target again, I could tell), and we chat for a few minutes while I wait for the jetlag to catch up to her. Sure enough, by 10am-ish she starts to droop and I send her off to bed for a nap. Goody, cos this meant I got to take one as well.

The alarm went off and we got going, stopping at the underground to purchase our subway passes and then riding out to city centre. We checked out the Buchanan Galleries mall, the throng of shoppers, the kitsch venues, and made it back outside in time to see Clanadonia performing on Buchanan Street - this time joined by special guest "Captain Jack Sparrow".

I have no words for this.

We stood back to watch as they set up but, when they asked the crowd to move in a little closer and not one person moved, I looked around and decided to be the big girl (indeed) and took a giant leap forward. This gave me another front row spot to take a couple shots (only had my the Elph with me though) and shoot a video.

I had a basic itinerary of things to show Ginnie when she was here, predicated on the weather and moods of us both. Over the next couple of days I showed her city centre, the West End, Botanic Gardens, Kelvingrove Museum, a few pubs, Glasgow Green (with People's Palace and Templeton Carpet Factory), and the Necropolis.
At the Kelvingrove Museum we saw an artist sketching a statue and while I've gotten a bit better about asking to take shots, I was still a little nervous and rushed this. I tried to sneak a couple of her while she was working, but they weren't sharp enough. It's a shame to lose a shot due to a lack of courage; guess I need a trip to Oz.
Finally, on Monday night, we boarded the Caledonian sleeper train for our overnight journey to London...

Day Tripping

2009-09-13T21:21:00.006Z

Yesterday was an amazing Indian Summer day that was so gorgeous it forced ember and I to leave our flats and undertake a roadtrip.

After half an hour I knew that I'd never be able to track everywhere we'd been and that all my shots would have to be combined into a generic Argyll & Bute set. The beauty of flickr, however, is that people you know (and some you don't) will sometimes comment on your photos and let you know where in the hell it was taken.

We drove, stopped for petrol, drove some more, stopped to wander on a rocky beach, drove some more, stopped at a dead end, turned around, and headed back home. These are some of photo tags for what we saw:

A83, A880, A815 (the roads)

Long, Eck, Holy, Striven and Lomond (the Lochs)

The Cobbler

Ben Arthur

The Arrochar Alps

Beinn an Lochain

Glen Kinglas

Maersk shipping company

Kilmun Church of St Munn

boats & sparkles

I stitched together a large Panorama of Holy Loch : View Large on Black

And these are my fav shots from the day:
More photos can be found here.

Edinburgh Zoo

2009-08-30T20:56:00.009Z

This morning I awoke to my mobile pinging notification of a text message. Caroline had received my email from the day before and was wondering if I was interested in going to the Edinburgh Zoo. I'd only been asleep for a short while, and fighting off what was promising to be a nasty cold, but this was the ZOO(!) and I'd been wanting to see the Edinburgh Zoo for over four years.

Now, it being an hour away it's hard to judge the best time to go so while I can wish it had been gorgeous blue sky and sun with better light, it was warm enough and not raining so I think I lucked out with the weather. You can bet, though, if I lived in Edinburgh I would definitely take advantage of the location and pop in on a sunny day during the week.

At first it seemed quite small to me, in comparison to the Woodland Park Zoo, but tonight when I looked up the info for each I found out that there is actualy only a 10-acre difference (WPZ 92 acres, EZ 82).

Patagonian sealion
Chilean Flamingo & Scarlet ibis
ring-tailed lemur
chimpanzee
rainbow lorikeet

Barbary MacaqueThe Edinburgh Zoo has some nice attractions, like the walkway out over the Zebra habitat where you can look down at their fingerprint-like stripes, but my favorite has to be the Penguin Parade. "In 1951 when a keeper accidentally left the gate to the enclosure open, the penguins took a stroll around the zoo and were guided back in by the keepers. The penguin parade has been taking place every day since then and remains one of the most popular Zoo experiences for visitors".

Every afternoon at 2:15pm the crowds are lined up behind the yellow lines and the trainers ask the Penguins if they want to go out for a walk. On this day not many wanted to leave their 'pen' so it was just these few. We are warned to not kneel down and to remove any cameras from their reach as they will peck at anything face-level.

It was shocking to me how many parents blatantly ignored this and just shoved their kids to the front for a looksee. I was torn between wanting to get a good shot and worried that I'd need to shove my hand down to protect a kid's face from a penguin beak. Plus, I'd paid my money and I wanted to see the animals too. (I think it would be a brilliant marketing move for the zoo to have "Adult Only" days.) I was surprised how FAST they walk (waddle?)
The zoo has three kinds of Penguins: King, Gentoo and Rockhopper and they'd all line up to politely wait their turn to be hand-fed their supper. Couple things I learned: 1) they have toes in their webbed feet, and 2) their poop REALLY stinks in that nose-stinging, eye-watering way.

Leaving the penguins we veered off for a mandatory stop at the ice cream truck and then hiked over to the zebra habitat, where I noticed that these guys (Grévy’s zebra) more resemble a donkey than a horse, and their stripes appeared more brown/white than black.
Up the hill from there we stopped for the reindeer doing a perimeter check of their enclosure, and then scurried down to the opposite observation window to look at the Asiatic Lion & Lioness. She was sleeping, completely ignoring us, but the big boy took notice of this guy with a camera and came over to paw at the window. He'd put his hand up and the lion would match his paw - it really was damn cute. At one point the lion was about 2 inches in front of me rubbing his face on the post, but unfortunately the lens I had wouldn't let me get a clear shot of this. I finally remembered I had the wee camera in my pocket and captured a few seconds of the interaction.

Going full circle we ended at the underground Penguin tank where once again I had to settle for the pocket camera. This time I just put the lens against the glass and pressed record, later added a free song and voila we have a penguin video:

All in, we spent about 6 hours there and got to see most of the animals, even spying a red fox in the parking lot near the car on our way out. This guy was so tame that he sat down less than five feet away to have a scratch and nibble.

More photos can be seen here.

What a way to spend a weekday

2009-08-28T15:53:00.006Z

I've discovered that via advance purchase I can buy discount train tickets to Edinburgh, so I planned a day to travel across and meet up with Sarah. We had no specific tasks or agenda in mind, choosing instead to enjoy the day doing whatever we felt like doing.

That's right, we planned for spontaneity.

Collectively we agreed that our first priority for the morning should be coffee and chat, both of which we devoted considerable time to, not leaving the coffee house until nearly lunchtime. We decided to stroll up the hill to the library so Sarah could get her membership, but upon leaving discovered that she'd joined the wrong one.

Thinking to cross to the correct library, we strode off in the entirely wrong direction making our way down the Royal Mile (with a brief glimpse of some fringe activity) and past The Three Sisters. We doubled back to get some lunch, and then set off again towards Grassmarket where we discovered a cute shop with pretty papers and toys. Opting to cater to my inner child, I was sorely disappointed to be told upon inquiry that they'd sold out of Bubbles but was mollified when I spied a fishbowl full of mini rubber ducks. I made my selection and on the spot named the little fellow L'Orange.

You'd think with the fringe happening the potential for crackin' photos would be great, but I was engrossed in our conversation and only managed a few shots for the entire day. I did, however, get excited when we rounded the back side of the castle and upon approaching Princes Street Gardens I saw that the Ross Fountain was spouting water. In the 4+ years I've lived here, I had not once seen water in that fountain. Hell, until just a couple months prior to this I hadn't even known that it would seasonally spout water.

Overcast and sprinkles were working against getting a decent shot, but by ducking under a tree I managed these:
Setting off down Princes Street and then veering back up the Mound towards George IV Bridge, we stopped at the (correct) library for her membership and then retraced our steps down the Royal Mile all the way to Holyrood where we took a left and kept on walking. At one point Sarah realized she didn't know where we were, but I'd been around that route before and was able to guide us back to town to another coffee shop for a hot beverage and a rest.

So all in all we chatted for hours, walked for miles, bought a rubber ducky, and enjoyed two coffees and some cake. Not a bad way to spend a weekday, if I do say so myself.

Heading North

2009-08-07T20:35:00.006Z

On Monday we arrived at Queen Street station with enough time to hit the newly opened Starbucks (thankyajaysus) and fortify ourselves for the trip north. I was pissy when our reserved seats were no longer together at a table, feeling absolutely certain that the fucker across from us had rearranged the tags. After the train departed I found another table and the boys there said we were free to use it - they'd reserved it but some of their friends couldn't come as they'd come down with Swine Flu. I said "aw, that's not good", to which one replied, "no, its not good, but it IS funny".

Ah, there's that humour again. Love it!

Three and a half hours later we arrive in Inverness. We made a quick stop at the Post Office so Sally could mail her letter and another stop at the corner shop so Esteban could pick up another pair of jeans. He'd brought American jeans with him and, well, they were still kinda wet after washing them three days prior so he needed something else to wear other than shorts.

From there we set off on a hike to find the car rental place where we died a slow horrible death waiting for them to get the paperwork together. Unfuckingbelievable how gawdamn slow those people are, and then they wait until all the paperwork is done to take the car to wash and hoover. Clearly they do not know the terms "multitask" or "customer satisfaction". Argh - so we get the car and head over to the B&B and then set off for a wander around town. MaryAnn was eager to show Esteban Leakey's Bookshop, but we wanted to enjoy the sunshine as well. I took them around Eden Court Theatre, across the River Ness, up to Inverness Castle, and then over to Church Street.

We had lunch at the cafe and a good browsing through the books and maps before going up the street to pick up some wine for dinner. Did I forget to mention we were having a family reunion dinner at my cousin's house? The same cousin who I haven't seen since he'd unceremoniously kicked me out just after I moved to Scotland? Well funny enough I am not angry at the guy, although I will admit to wee bit of pleasure at finding out he's been feeling guilty about the whole situation. I was really looking forward to introducing MaryAnn to all the cousins and also getting to meet a couple more we were told were going to be joining us.

Sally and I picked out the wine (um, I carried it she paid for it) while MaryAnn and Esteban went to yet another whisky shop. At this point they'd acquired around 15 bottles to take back and I was certain they'd never make it through customs (I was wrong). While waiting on the corner for them to catch up to us, I heard my name being called and saw it was a friend from Glasgow. She's the gal I met in bookclub that happened to be neighbors with my cousins in Cromarty, and had just moved back up north a few months ago. Yeah, small world.

Anyhoo, a pretty afternoon light wander back to the B&B where we made transportation arrangements with the cousin and then took our showers and made ourselves beautiful. Dinner was lovely, conversation lively, an all-round wonderful evening that I thoroughly enjoyed. I went away with the same feeling I had the first time I met these people and it felt really nice. Guess the whole "stop pushing people away" goal is starting to pay off.

The next morning we drove to Culloden battlefield, the site of the final clash of Jacobite Rising.The Memorial Cairn, which stands 20ft high, was erected by Duncan Forbes in 1881.
This is old Leanach Cottage: "The original farmhouse of Leanach survived the battle and has been restored several times. The roof is heather thatched, a traditional Highland craft."

From Culloden we traveled to Cromarty and had a nice meander around the village, shooting the Cromarty Lighthouse and Cromarty Harbor before making our way along the shore and on up to the Gaelic Chapel of the New Wester Burial Ground. Stepping inside the dilapidated doorway, I was shooting the ivy overgrowth above head when my flash accidentally went off, causing a disturbance of what I discovered to be a barn swallow nest.
Keeping a close eye on the time, we set off once again with plans to follow the route past Urquhart Castle and to stop to spread our Grandmother's ashes in sight of the Three Sisters of Glen Coe. After one week of pretty damn good weather, I was only able to get these shots before the skies opened and it tipped down something fierce. Driving was difficult and the rain so heavy that had we even attempted to get out of the car she would have just ended up as paste on our clothes. Ugh. (we've since discussed it and think we will probably spread her from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, the spot that overlooks Holyrood Park).

A very long end to a very long day to a very packed week, we decided to stay put once home and enjoy a quiet night in while MaryAnn and Estban packed up for their return flight to Amsterdam in the morning.

The Gathering (Day 2)

2009-08-06T11:24:00.006Z

An oft used phrase, "what a difference a day makes", was never more apropos than for Day 2 of the Gathering. Cold, wet, just plain dreich it was. We arrived in Edinburgh to find that the drizzle and early time of day meant nearly vacant streets, however, so it was actually a rather pain-free stroll down to the park where once again we were able to march right in using our super duper special passes.

Esteban opted for a tasting tour of the whisky tent, while Sally and MaryAnn and I went around the food stalls picking up some lovely shortbread and bread-bread and I even splurged on a hot slice of garlic bread. Man that was awesome! The sisters dithered over which cheese to get for lunch while I stood off to the side under a brolly in the grass trying to not create a muddy mess. At some point music penetrated my sleep-deprived brain and I realized that the Red Hot Chilli Pipers were playing and so scooted off towards the stage. I couldn't get too close, lots of bloody heads in the way, but I managed to snag a couple of shots and a brief video clip. These guys sure do rock the bagpipes!

Seems I'd missed most of the concert, so before I knew it we were wandering around the games some more in order to waste time until the start of Diana Gabaldon's talk.Thanks to Esteban's smooth talking of the event ladies, we received advanced notice to line up for standby entry into her talk. I absolutely love Diana's Outlander series (latest one just came out, btw - its on my wishlist) and was so very very VERY excited that I was going to hear her speak. Well worth the effort because not only is she a talented writer, she's also a fabulous speaker (fucking funny as hell). I'm terribly sorry I didn't have a bigger memory card and additional battery or I would have videotaped more (hell, the whole thing if I could have).

She was incredibly nice as well, posing for photos before the show and then staying afterwards to sign everybody's book. We stood there for over an hour, but I got a shot of her signing my book and then Esteban took a shot of the three of us and Diana. Best part is I'm on the end so I can cut me out of the shot and have a nice souvenir photo of my sisters!

While inside the 'talk', we could hear the rain tipping down outside so we were pleasantly surprised when exiting to find the sun had come out and burned away all the clouds. First stop was the nearest beer stall and then we found ourselves at the Clanadonia tent, but this time we were right in front when they started to play so I was able to get better shots. Sally bought me a cd and after the performance went over to the guys to have them autograph it. Flirty and cheeky they were (your typical Scots).We did a bit more game watching, snapping proof that all men are NOT created equal:
And encountered a professional Robert Burns impersonator:
We didn't linger overlong this day as we had an early start on Monday, catching a 7am train up to Inverness...

The Gathering (Day 1)

2009-08-05T11:23:00.005Z

MaryAnn and Esteban arrived on the morning of July 22nd, and as they'd already been in Amsterdam for a couple of days they didn't need to rest up. We hoofed it to the grocery store to stock up on food and beverages, and then spent the afternoon and evening wandering around Glasgow City Centre until it was time to meet Sally at the train station. She'd flown in from Dublin, after spending a week visiting friends, and we were all excited about our upcoming time together.

Once home we had drinks and more chat and set basic plans for our wanders on Thursday and Friday. Esteban had never been to Scotland, so we covered the usual spots around Glasgow (Necropolis, West End, Kelvingrove, Cathedral, Cathcart, etc) and then on Saturday we travelled to Edinburgh for the Gathering 2009.It was nice and sunny, and oh so fucking crowded! If I'd been bitching about the cost (if?! you can pretty much guarantee I'll always bitch about prices) of our special badges, I was more than thankful when it let us bypass the mile long queue and walk right into the Gathering held on the grounds of Holyrood Park (which is overlooked by Arthur's Seat on one side and Calton Hill on the other.). First stop the loo, second stop the Clan Village to locate the "family" tents and then on over to the beverage stall.

When Esteban was captured for an interview by BBC Radio we took off towards the centre area where there was another crowd gathered around a giant big screen TV, but as I figured we'd missed the opening ceremony I wasn't paying too close attention at first so it took awhile to filter through just who it was I was looking at: Prince Charles.

duh.

Weird thing was when they left the stage (he, Camilla and Lord Semphill), there weren't a whole lot of bodyguards around. I was less than 5 feet from them which was ironically too close since I had the ginormous zoom lens on. I dashed down the line a bit hoping for a better shot, alas this was the best of the bunch.
Taking up position at the games arena, I practiced shooting with the zoom lens but was later gutted to realize I had been shooting on the wrong ISO so I had to dump about 700 blurry shots although I managed to save a couple from each sporting event. Esteban and I climbed up the bleachers to save some seats while Sally and MaryAnn went to source some food and drink. The sun then shone so strongly over the course of the next hour that my skin began to turn a rather dark shade of pink and I eventually had to pull out my brolly just to save myself from blisters. I suppose I could have removed myself from the shiny metal bleachers sitting in full sun, but that would have been logical. (side note: Sally went home with a tan, her first in about 15 years. Tanned. In Scotland. That is hilarious.)

Scottish hammer throw Tug-o-War
Tossing the Caber
some sort of sport derived from concept of sumo wrestling
the "wee" fellow, competing on left (above)
After the games we trudged up the hill in search of rest, found by popping into Bobby's Bar for cold beverages. All of us were quite knackered at this point and by my calculations we'd have to stand around for another three hours before the Clan Parade reached the Castle. We'd then have 2 more hours for the ceremonies and then a mad dash down to Waverley Station to catch the last train home. As we would then need to be up early to come back for day 2 of the Gathering, it didn't take much to convince us we were ready to forgo the ceremonies and just head home, so we strode off down the back side of the castle and made our way to the train.

The Trossachs

2009-07-19T09:51:00.003Z

I lay in bed moping for another ten days until Caroline phoned and suggested a photo shoot slash mini-hike. We piled into the car and headed off towards the Trossachs, thrilled at the chance to be outside on a nice warm day.

We drove thru Aberfoyle and then stopped at a scenic view spot overlooking Loch Achray. This was place swarming with (damn!) tourists so the stop was short, but we saw the funniest thing when exiting: a car with a hand-written sign in the back of the vehicle window saying "We're S L O W, we're French". The French drive on the opposite side of the road to the UK, so I assume they were tired of being honked at - heh.

This was the view from the spot,
and then as we drove further down the road we were able to look across Loch Achray to An Tigh Mor Trossachs (Loch Achray Hotel) which sits at the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.

This is another angle showing the peak of Ben A'an, what we inadvertently climbed towards.

We couldn't find the gentle, I repeat GENTLE, walk that Caroline had sourced on the internet and instead mistakenly found ourselves huffing and puffing up some rather steep inclines. I was ever so thankful when a brief rain shower appeared as it brought my red cheeks down to a tolerable pink and then about halfway up we stumbled upon a lovely resting spot with a view.

Breathing and heartrate back to a normal pace we set off once again to find that peak and, after receiving encouragement along the way from hikers passing back to the car park, we were dismayed to find we'd only just reached the base. I was quite willing to push onwards had she been of same mind, but we agreed to attempt this another day.

Two Days in the Duvet

2009-07-09T11:50:00.007Z

Saturday I showered (yay), dressed, and ventured into city centre to meet with my old workmate. We chatted over coffee, her asking for all the gritty details of the recent work situation and me asking for details of her impending nuptials and I was feeling pleasantly numb about everything, enough so that it tickled me that they have decided to fly all the way to Vegas to get married, and I actually volunteered to go look at wedding dresses with her.

I picked up another box of ultra light ash blond hair colour (a different brand this time), and a scented pillow (sandlewood) for my bedroom. Retail therapy is just the thing you need when you've lost your job, have no money, and no immediate prospects for getting anymore money. I may become homeless, but at least I'll have a nice smelling pillow upon which to lay my bleached blond head.

Except the colour didn't work this time either-- it just went slightly lighter and slightly more red. That's it, no more fucking around with my hair! Once could be a fluke, but not twice. The way my luck runs if I tried to do this one more time, all of my hair will fall out. I'm going to leave as is until I get a job interview, and then I'll spring for a haircut and I'll color it back to medium golden brown.

On Sunday Caroline picked me up and it was such a gorgeous sunny day I couldn't wait to shoot the castle. We drove only a few minutes outside Glasgow, passing through Bothwell before we reached Bothwell Castle. We wandered around the outside for a bit where I think I was snapping shots more to hear the sound than because I had anything spectacular to shoot. Don't get me wrong, as castles go these were nice remains, but there is only so much you can do with one lens on a castle exterior. Once inside, the clerk gave us a breathless account of the history and then we shoved off to explore the remains.Unfortunately, Caroline was still recovering from a bout of illness acquired on holiday, so we cut the exploration short and headed back to the car. After a few minutes of air-conditioning she was feeling better, and decided we should stop at the Bothwell Parish Church on our way home. This is an incredibly lovely church, so well maintained, but sadly the cemetery itself hasn't received the same level of attention.On Monday I got up and made breakfast and coffee, surfed the web for want ads, and then popped out for a bit in the afternoon for my appointment at the job centre. We chatted about my options and he printed off all the job adverts I wanted to respond to and gave me an application for one of the positions and then I went home with the full intention of going back out to asda (to pick up a printer) once the rain stopped.

And that's pretty much where my week ended. I couldn't find the enthusiasm to trudge to asda and back carrying a fucking printer in the rain and suddenly just felt so very, very tired. I took myself to bed and the following morning when I awoke I had the thought, "I wonder how long I would have to go without eating or drinking before I wouldn't HAVE to get out of bed anymore" (if you know what I mean). And now I know the answer to that is about 36 hours - although it does slow down quite a bit after the 24. But throw in an additional half a day of sleeping and you'll find it ain't hunger that finally drives you from the bed but the foulness of your own mouth and body. Man, humans sure are stinky when they skip soap for a couple of days.

One of the side effects of the craziness called my childhood is my severe lack of coping skills. I find in life I will meet many problems head-on when they occur, and I will also aggressively defend and protect those I care about, but when it comes to myself I pretty much just withdraw emotionally from the situation and use any number of harmful things in order to deal. I'm trying to grow and change, but in order to do that I'm being confronted by feelings from past issues and sometimes it seems like my both my head and my heart are trying to kill me and I reach a point where I just can't take anymore and have to shut things down again.

It is difficult keeping the focus on myself as I get easily distracted by the needs of others. I want to rush in and solve their problems and while that might work for the short term, I'm probably not doing them any favors either so I've been learning to back off while they handle the situation on their own. Fuck that is hard.

I'm going to try real hard to shut the lid on the laptop and go take a shower now. And then I would like to go into the kitchen to wash the dishes and maybe cook some soup. That is all I'm going to ask of myself today. Tomorrow is another day.

The Here and Now

2009-07-03T19:29:00.009Z

I just awoke from a nice, long nap and feel pleasantly lackadaisical about doing anything else tonight (it's 8:30pm). I'm going to city centre to meet a friend for coffee tomorrow, and I have the photoshoot on Sunday (yikes, still need to pick the destination!) but otherwise there isn't a whole lot of activity planned for this weekend.

Today I awoke to the alarm, set on purpose for 8am because I needed to get up to eat & drink before 9am as I was required to fast from then on until my scan at the hospital at 3pm. I threw the couch blanket and some towels into the wash, then ate a turkey sandwich and drank a large and liberally laced coffee, before hanging the blanket outside to dry. Since I had to go out to the backyard I decided it was beyond time to take out the trash as well. I dug out the packing tape I had brought home from the office, and finished wrapping up the broken glass from the coffee table. That and two large sacks of accumulated garbage plus two sacks of recycling. How, oh how, did I let this much stuff stack up in my house?

I wiped the clothesline off and threw the blanket over and then went back into the flat to open all the windows. It was blessedly cooler this morning and I was hoping for a good breeze to help air the place out. I faffed about on the computer and then set to working on the task of attaching eye-hooks to the frames I've had sitting in the cupboard for months now because I'd decided today was the day to get those sorted and up on the wall.

I posted an entry on 43Things asking for suggestions of what to put in the frames:

Now that my room has been painted and the furniture is all back in place, I’d like to finish it off by hanging some stuff on the walls. I have one large mirror above the radiator, but the rest of the wall(s) are blank. I purchased 7 small frames from Au Naturale, and these will go in a line above my bed. I am in process of converting them for hanging by attaching eye-hooks and wire, but I’m at a loss for what I want to put inside the frames.

The frames are wood, then clear glass, and then silver metal with a 3”x3” square for a picture. Considering the location, it won’t look right to have actual photos in there so I’d thought about putting plain, coloured squares. My friend Caroline suggested textured squares, and I’d even thought of putting in swatches from my curtain material and nightstand swag to sort of tie it all in. Or maybe cutting up an old map? Ideas, anyone?

Abs suggested wallpaper, and that set me to sorting thru my keepsake box where I keep sentimental swatches of paper from gifts, etc and I found a couple really good ones. Once finished I lined them up on the top of my headboard and then zip bam boom had them nailed and hung. The photo is a bit blurry and the bed is unmade and from the pic I see I need to straighten a couple, but I’m quite pleased with the result.That task complete, I dashed outside to retrieve my blanket from the rain drops and then jumped into the shower to get ready for my appointment. Could have saved myself the trouble, really, because it was raining so hard that even with my giant brolly I was quite soaked by the time I reached the subway just two blocks away. It is a weird feeling to have water soak upwards on your legs, thankfully stopping just at the knees.

I reached the lab and waited less than 1/2 an hour to be seen, and as I walked into the Ultrasound lab I saw the previous patient had obviously been there for a prenatal appointment and was going to have (from my untrained eye) a rather large baby boy. I turned to the nurse and said, "I'm just here for my gallbladder - if you find something like that we've got a problem."

Basically they did the abdomen, and the tech said she didn't find any gallstones but that the doctor should have my results in two weeks. Huh, not the gallbladder, so maybe the doc was right and it is a bacteria infection. Back at home I phoned the doc to find out the results of my blood work I had done on the 18th. Nurse checked it over and said according to the notes all was good and the doctor was happy with the results. So now I'm completely stumped as to what in the hell is wrong with me. Unless there is something else wrong that showed up in the scan?

Feh.

I went to Job Centre yesterday and got the unemployment & housing benefits claim going, and I have an appointment with the disability advisor on the 14th. They are also going to get me an appointment with regards to possible retraining. I’m taking anything they throw at me right now, hoping to maintain a positive momentum. There were a couple of jobs I applied for, but I'm too aware of how much I really need to tweak my CV. Ah, well, another task for Monday.

Last night I selected 20 photos for MaryAnn to print & mount (or mat, whichever side of the pond you're on) and she'll bring those across with her. I want to take some new shots into the cafe and if the old ones haven't sold, then swap them out. If I can get it together before mid-week, I would like to choose several to be printed as greeting card sets that can be sold as well. So many projects, it is hard to organize it all in my mind.

I'm giving myself permission to take the weekend off from worry...

Year to Year

2009-07-01T21:23:00.005Z

It's official, I'm unemployed. Again. Monday and Tuesday I went into the office and did some work, but basically just played on the internet and watched movies. After 6 months of insomnia, I slept like a baby last night and at 10am headed in for my final meeting which took less than 5 minutes to be handed my final letter and for me to hand over the petty cash box and my keys. They seemed a bit put out when I made the Director sign for the items. Heh.

I chatted with my workmates for a few minutes and said a goodbye to the cutie pies from upstairs (they give fab hugs) and then took myself home. Its been bloody hot out this past week and I was happy to be back out of my jeans and into the less constricting pants and tank top. I washed the spare room sheets and those are hanging up to dry and tonight I'll move back into my bedroom.

I've been rather numb about this whole situation, veering slightly towards hysteria at one point but specifically steering myself away from negative thoughts. I watched more dvds and then got online this afternoon to check email and journal entry notifications.

I had a long cry over Robyn's (Bitchypoo) loss of Stanley (aka Mister Boogers) and wished like hell I could find the magic words to make her & Fred feel better. Sadly, there just isn't anything that can take away the pain when one is grieving no matter what the loss.

What isn't a loss, or shouldn't be considered one, is my job. I had a look back over the past 5 years worth of my entries (where DOES the time go) and noticed a bizarre trend for this time of year:

July 2004: first entry was about Molly & Ramona. I was still job hunting, while going to school full time. (Man I miss that cat. I miss Molly too, but she's still alive and well and keeping my sister company and hopefully I will be seeing her in December.)

July 2005: first entry was filled with enthusiasm because I had just found a job.

July 2006: first entry was about walking a lot every day after spending the morning sending out job applications (I had lost my job on the 1st of June that year).

July 2007: first entry about the bombing at our airport and how I was still, one year later, looking for a job.

July 2008: first entry was about a wonderful day spent with Gav and the family in Ayrshire. Lots of terrific photo ops and not one mention of Jay Oh Bee (probably because this time last year I had one).

So here we are July 2009 and my first entry is about looking for a job. Rather bizarre, think that is some kind of record? (Maybe someone will give me a frickin medal for it)

I've already phoned the unemployment office and started the benefits claims process, and have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to meet with an advisor, plus I already have a couple of jobs to apply for in the morning. They are both for office management, which seems a silly thing to do considering just how much I despise the work, but I can't afford to hold out for something different. Until I figure it out, I have to go with whatever will get the money in the door.

I'm feeling strangely optimistic that I will do better this time around, if anything because I don't have the soul sucking depression dragging me under and sapping my will to live (not to mention the will to do anything productive). Caroline has offered to take me to the water/photoshoot on Sunday, and I think that's exactly what I need right now.

Sally, MaryAnn and Esteban are arriving in 3 weeks and there is a lot for me to do before they get here. We've got 2-day passes to the Gathering 2009, which should be chock full of photo ops, but I have to say that the biggest attraction for me is the chance to meet Diana Gabaldon. The Monday following we'll be traveling up to Inverness to meetup with the cousins, people I have not seen nor spoken to since I moved here 4 years ago. This should be fun, right?

This is Esteban's first trip to Scotland, so there will be a lot of repeat destinations but with plenty of new ones thrown in as well. Culloden Battlefield, Pitlochry (Edradour Whisky Distillery), and Glencoe (to drop off Grandma). I've also planned an evening for catching some Shakespeare in the Park (Bard in the Botanics) and a few other side trips as well.

MaryAnn is bringing her big zoom lens, and I can't wait to get my hands on that puppy. Last time I used it was in Spain back when I was still using the Rebel, so it will be very cool to see results on my 40D. This should come in handy at the Clan games, for sure-- lots of people shots :-D

okay, I'm off to bed. Have yourselves a good weekend and I'll be back on Monday with more photos...

What you wish for

2009-06-28T20:56:00.008Z

Well now, here I was wishing I had a few more days off work and just a couple hours into my first day back at the office the Director and CFO show up to inform me and one other co-worker that they were closing the Glasgow office and our jobs were being eliminated. I'm a frickin office manager who works a lot of unpaid overtime every week, but apparently they feel my duties can be spread among the remaining staff. WTF?

We had a second meeting on Friday which I thought was to be my last day but it turned out to be a another formal step in the legal procedures where I was to, in essence, beg for my job. Even though I don't have a job to compete for. They did sort of inquire as to whether I would be interested in relocating (not really) but of course I'd be damn stupid turning anything down so now I have to wait until Wednesday for them to give me the official notice. Potential relocation (slight potential, that) but most likely redundancy.

A kick in the head that word - redundant.

Ever since they made the announcement on Wednesday the rest of the staff stopped phoning and emailing me so its been pretty quiet in the office. I'm still going to go in tomorrow, at the very least to assert my presence even if I'm just drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. I'll probably work on my CV (resume) too, might as well make use of the printer, eh?

I did leave early on Friday, had myself a good sized drink (or five) while I faffed about on the laptop and watched a few dvds and then settled in for a nice long snooze. I got up on Saturday and started to tidy up the flat, finally scrubbing all the paint off the bedroom floor. I trimmed and ironed a piece of fabric as a runner for the nightstand and then changed the bed linens and damn my room is starting to look real purdy.

Today I ran a quick errand to city centre but the crowds were too oppressive and I found myself scurrying for home sooner than expected. Ember showed up this evening with the shelf 'legs' and with the two new shelves installed I've doubled my cupboard space in the kitchen. I made a wee error on the bottom shelf measurement, not taking into account the door hinge, but it still fits and I'm quite tickled pink. I didn't like the idea of a the tiny kitchen when I first moved in, but add couple shelves and a pot rack and a lovely rug and it really is rather cute and efficient.

Not much left to patter on about, I'll post an update once I know something for sure on Wednesday. In the meantime, here are a few of my recent shots...

Sod's Murphy

2009-06-23T20:35:00.016Z

I'm nearing the end of my 4-day weekend and while I'd probably enjoy some more time off after the way the last few days have gone I find I kinda want to go back to the office.

I couldn't sleep Friday night, due in great part to the 3 hour nap I took after work and possibly the large cup of coffee I drank after I awoke. After tossing in bed for hours, at 4:30 I said fuck it and got up to make some breakfast. I scrambled an egg with some sausage, had another cup of coffee (decaf, this time), and watched a documentary on how they are training elephants to track poachers. I went back to bed and managed to nap for a bit before being woken by the Orange parade. This is some sort of religious parade, the purpose of which seems to be to generate awareness of their religion but results in a lot of people angry that the bible thumpers have added drums.

I got up, got dressed, and took the subway over to Partick to see if the shop had received any new furniture in. I want a new, larger, wardrobe unit for my bedroom as well as a nightstand and bookcase and rolling tv stand. I walked thru the shop twice, but just wasn't inspired by any of the pieces. I crossed the street to the post office and dropped off the two ebay sales, and then double-backed to the train station to catch the twelve o'clock to Drumchapel. From there I walked about a mile to the retail park, stopping at Sainsburys to pick up several bottles of the ginger/lemongrass hand soap I like so much and then made a bee-line over to the B&Q (exactly same thing as Home Depot) to get my supplies.

I was in there for a couple of hours, going up & down each aisle trying to locate every item on my list. I needed paint for my bedroom, of which I'd use the extra in the lounge closet, lamp re-wiring kit, shelves for the kitchen, brackets for the frames, paint for the nightstand, etc. I made the purchases, loaded up the backpack with the bulk of the stuff and put the shelves into a carry bag and set off for the train station. Part way there I was full-on sweaty and questioning my wisdom in not calling a taxi, but the exercise felt really good and by the time I made it home I was exhausted but happy with a feeling of achievement.

First project I started was the lamp re-wire. I have these two basic clear-glass lamps my sister brought across with her this last trip and while they are in serious need of a bath, they are from my great-grandmother & grandmother and have a lot of sentimental value to me. I recently purchased two lampshades that will be just perfect and I know these will look fabulous on my sideboards, all I had to do was change the wiring to UK (to be fair, they were so old that had I still been in the US I would have eventually re-wired anyway). I gathered my tools, pulled out the parts, and discovered that despite bringing the old parts with me "Bob" had given me the wrong replacement parts. Disappointed!

On to the next project, installing shelves in the kitchen. I'd had a giant board cut down to size which I'd just planned to set onto glass blocks, but "Bob" sold me on the idea of using these brackets. I began to screw the brackets onto the first board, under estimated the size of one of the screws and screwed the shelf to the floor, cussed and unscrewed the screw and continued until all three brackets were in place. At this point I discovered that with all three brackets on I would need to take the cupboard door off to get the shelf in. And then also had to remove the middle bracket. All done, I get the shelf in and reattach the middle bracket and realize that with the distance and crappy walls I won't have the strength to screw the brackets to the back of the cupboard. Frustrated as hell, I sent a text to ember begging assistance.

While waiting for ember to arrive I decided to dye my hair blond. I've contemplated this for months, because I am craving something drastic and since I've already whacked off all my hair a radical change in color is the closest to rebellion I can get. I've got a few extra greys lately, so left the color on the full 45 minutes. Rinsed, conditioned, and then blown dry I discovered my hair remained the exact same color! After years of coloring my hair, this wasn't the first time I'd done this switch up so I knew that to take my hair from medium golden brown to blond I would need to use a very light ash blond (ash to get rid of the red, I don't want strawberry blond). The roots are lighter, but otherwise I still have frickin' medium golden brown hair. I'm not sure if I should consider this a failure, or the universe telling me that blond is just not a good idea. At this point I can't be arsed to buy another box of color, so I'm gonna go with the universe on this.

Ember arrived to look at the shelves, nixed the bracket idea, and decided to cut me 'legs' using the left over piece of wood. Ember then went home and I decided to test the paint color for my room before I went to bed. I opened the plastic bucket and then somehow, I never know just how, the lid flipped out of my hand and landed paint-side down onto the carpet. I blotted it up and left it to dry, figuring I will brush it out when its dry instead of grinding it into the carpet. I decided I'd had enough of the snafus and went in to wash up and go to bed. I opened one of the new containers of handsoap and as I went to put the soap into my existing GLASS dispenser it slipped and crashed into the sink breaking into pieces. Luckily the sink wasn't chipped and I wasn't cut as I disposed of the glass. I washed my hands, using the good ol' plastic bottle the soap comes in, and went to the spare room to sleep.

I awoke after a nice long sleep and thought to start straight away on my room. I got an old tupperware container for the paint, one missing its lid, and brush in hand climbed up the ladder. The texture of this wall paper means I had to paint the entire room by hand, not normally that big of a deal, except these are very tall ceilings and I don't have either the dexterity or stamina that I had before my car accident in 2001. Which was demonstrably evident when just a few short minutes into painting I managed to 'let go' of the container sending paint splashing all down the backside of the door (lucky, that, as I was able to scrap off and save most of it), but also onto my mirror, the radiator, and all in front of the doorway-- the area not covered in plastic. Joy. I tidied up best I could and opted for breakfast and full strength coffee before tackling it again.

All day I would work just a two foot area and then rest. Long going, but no more mishaps and while it took me all friggin’ day to paint it, my room is done. I was literally scraping the bottom of the bucket there getting the last drops and just managed to give the whole room one coat, but since I decided I like the color I won’t need to go over it with another coat. I had purchased this light, cream color but when applied to the gold/mustard/babypoop already on the wall it turned a sort of taupe color. It is so much brighter in there now and I’m quite pleased with the end result. When I moved into this flat, the previous tenants had left behind a couple pieces of furniture the landlord said I could either use or toss. I kept the nightstand and its been in the spare room, but with the new paint in my bedroom I wanted to get myself a better nightstand than the pine Ikea box I’ve been using. I haven’t been able to find anything at the charity shop and I can’t/won’t buy anything new so I’ve decided to go the cheaper route and snazz up the old nightstand. On Monday I got up and took the nightstand from the guest room out to the back yard, emptied out the drawers, sanded the chipped bits, removed the old drawer pulls, and wiped it down. I then set it on some newspaper, shook the can of black spray paint and then applied it with several quick light layers (this avoids drip marks and aids in quicker drying). As it wasn’t windy I would have left it outside to dry, but it started to rain (of course it did) so I moved it back into the close, left it to dry for a couple of hours and then put new drawer pulls on. Its still a little tacky to the touch, so I’m going to leave it sit the rest of the week before I set anything on it.
I quickly showered and enlisted ember to drive me back to B&Q where I returned all the wrong parts and got (I thought) all the right parts for the lamp, and then over to asda so I could load up on some groceries. Back at the flat I put away all the food, grabbed some lunch, and started my next project -- installing a clothes rod in the utility closet. I don’t have a wardrobe in the spare room, and while I do have hooks on the back of the doors, it might be nice for my guests to have somewhere to hang clothes, if need be. I wanted to re-use the rod that we removed from the lounge closet, but it isn’t long enough to hang outright in the utility closet, so I bought two rod hook thingymajigs that will install the rod directly off the shelf. Aside from reaffirming the knowledge that I’m greatly lacking in upper body strength, this was a pretty straight forward project. Hold bracket up against shelf, draw where hole should go, hammer a starter hole, then install screw. The last part took about 15 minutes and produced the same amount of rapid breathing and sweat that half an hour of yoga does.It was late when I re-started the re-wiring project and well, let's just say it didn't go well. The parts were NOT the correct ones (AGAIN) and I only discovered this when it was too late to get the lampholder off which I tried to do wherein I managed to slice up my hand and also drop the lamp onto the coffee table, shattering the glass top. I wrote a scathing entry about B&Q and the 'burning hetred' I was feeling, and then took myself to bed before things got any further out of hand. I watched Beaches and had a good cry and in the morning I awoke with a solution for the 2nd lamp. First lamp is going to have to remain wonky since I couldn’t get the lampholder off.

On my way home from the hospital this morning (just a hearing aid checkup) I stopped at the local Mom & Pop shop and purchased 5 washers to sit at the bottom of the stem and take up the extra space. Got home, assembled the lamp with extra washers, wired the lamp holder, threaded the wire through the stem, wired the plug, added the lampshade, inserted a bulb, plugged it in and voila it works. Fifteen minutes. Just 4 years, 6000 miles, two trips to B&Q, £90 (£25 parts, £15 travel, £40 shades), sliced hand, shattered coffee table, and I finally have my table lamps.Laundry is washed and hung to dry, kitchen is still a frickin' disaster, I've got newspaper strewn about the living room and I just had a very long nap on the sofa with the sun on my face and the fresh breeze blowing through the flat. All said, this has been a very good weekend.

Ayshire in a Day

2009-06-19T23:10:00.001Z

At the end of May, on another one of my vacation days (got to use 'em or lose 'em before end of June!), I hopped a train over to Troon to meet LL where we set off on a day of discovery.

First stop was at a cemetery in the town of Ayr. The Auld Kirk of Ayr, which sits along the south harbour of the River Ayr, is a small but well maintained cemetery with a lot of interesting stones the most intriguing of which were two nearly identical stones with about 100 years difference in age. I saw a crow "sleeping" underneath the bench between these two stones and felt sad, but then had a seagull fly in front of me and I was happy once again. Leaving the grounds we strolled alongside the river towards the centre of town and crossed over the 'new' bridge to head back to the car.Next stop was the Rozelle Country Park where we enjoyed a lovely stroll around the pond, stopping along the way to admire the plant life, watch the squirrels play and count the many varieties of birds in sight. We saw blackbirds, swans, pigeons, seagulls, sparrows and my new favorite - the Wood Duck (so colorful!). Also inside the park is the Rozelle House, with a museum and tea room, but after a quick stop at the loo LL decided we'd go elsewhere for our lunch and we set off for the car.Fortified after a lunch of burgers and cake (heh) the next destination was Crossraguel Abbey. I got a little excited when I caught glimpse of some large ruins, but that turned out to be the Baltersan Castle just 'next to' the Abbey. Crossraguel was founded in the early 13th century and was (is?) closely connected to the Paisley Abbey. Starting off at the Tower House, LL climbed the stairs to try and get a closer peak at what appeared to be a nest. I felt a little nervous, though, considering this 'nest' was large enough to sleep a grown man and was lined with frickin' BRANCHES not twigs. I may have been nervous, but I kept the camera at the ready because while I may not want her to be pecked it sure would have made for a cool shot (just kidding!).

The grounds are so well maintained, and the posted signs provide excellent descriptions for each of the areas and it was fascinating to see the size of the rooms for the visiting monks. We climbed the gatehouse tower, which provides a wonderful view over the abbey grounds and we could see across to the castle ruins. Its so cool to stand inside something so old and allow yourself to feel the history with your imagination. What it must have been like 700 years ago!

Down at the cloisters we got a nice surprise when LL discovered that the old well is now a goldfish pond, and inside the Chapter House were more amazing architectural details quite beautiful to see. Outside the Chapter House I kept trying to snag a shot of the Barn Swallows as they kept flying in front of my head, but when I noticed that I was blocking their nest and most likely freaking them out, I thought it best to back away.

As we neared the Tower House, for the conclusion of our visit, we heard this loud and rather distinct noise and though it wasn't a bird call I'd heard before, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled as we looked up towards the nest we'd looked at earlier. All my life I had assumed crows and ravens were just two different names applied to the same species of birds. I have now, however, seen a raven in real life and there is absolutely no way of confusing the two. First of all, that bird call. Can't describe it, but you'll never forget it. Second, those fuckers are HUGE. Later, back at LL's house, we looked them up in the bird book and discovered that Ravens are approximate 65cm (2 feet) tall. No shit! I kept shooting and shooting, excited and yet still cursing myself for not having a bigger zoom lens. Suddenly she (I assume) took off and while the shots were grainy, I am quite chuffed to have a silhouette of those wings. Absolutely amazing sight to behold.

Our next stop was a quick one at a cemetery in the village of Kirkoswald, which was built at the same time as Crossraguel Abbey. We also wanted to view the Robert Burn's connections, but the Souter Johnnie Cabin was closed. The kirkyard was on a hill, which I thought made for interesting burials, and was one of the most maintained graveyards I've ever seen in Scotland. One of the coolest things we saw was a headstone that is carved on all four sides, and the funniest thing we encountered was the town busybody coming in to make 'casual conversation' with us about the symbolism of the stone I was looking at. LL was confused until I explained that people are often suspicious of large cameras. Usually once I open my mouth and start talking, the American accent screams tourist!safe! and they leave me alone.Unbelievably, we still made one more stop, this time for a wander through the Dean Castle Country Park. Here we saw another bird pond - this one with huts, in addition to a chrome metal dragon, a pig, and some goats.Finishing off this fabulous day, we headed back to LL's place for tea and chat. I was pleasantly exhausted and thrilled over some of the day's discoveries, yet I can't wait for the next adventure!

For more photos, you can view my sets on flickr:
Ayr and Rozelle Park
Dean Castle Country Park
Kirkoswald
Crossraguel Abbey

2 hours and 18 minutes

2009-06-15T20:06:00.002Z

These past ten days have been rather a blur, starting with feeling icky on a Friday and having to go home early to rest up a bit before going to the train station to pick up The Mom.

I haven't seen her in two years and since she'd flown to the UK from Kampala she said she'd take the train up from London to spend the weekend with me. As much as I wanted to see her, I suffered great angst at the idea of just what this weekend was going to cost me - both financially and emotionally.

She looked a whole lot different being about 70lbs lighter than when I last saw her in Seattle. Her hair is greyer, downright white in spots but the weirdest part was the fact that it pretty much reached her shoulders! My mother had really long black hair up until about a year after MaryAnne was born when she whacked it all short and it has stayed that way for 35 years. Big reason why I've had trouble adjusting to my short hair is because every time I look in the mirror I see the Mom reflected and it is hard to feel sexy when I see her looking back. Kind of ooky, ya know? But now she looks so different I'm adjusting to the idea of keeping my hair short. Maybe I'll dye it blonde.

We came back to my flat and I made some dinner and she got onto my laptop, so I pulled the tv out and popped in disc 3 of the Golden Girls, Season 2. Got my first dig in when I said, "Hey, you're their age now!" We chatted for a bit and then said good night and I said we'd make plans in the morning for places to see while she was here.

She decided the next morning that she didn't really need to play tourist, it was really important for her to catch up on her work as she'd been without a laptop or access to email for over a week. I set her up with the movies, checked in on her a few times to make her tea and nibbles and then mid-afternoon I forced her to leave the house. We took the subway to the West End where we stopped at a Western Union so she could pick up some money, walked down Dumbarton Road in front of the University of Glasgow and Kelvingrove Museum, stopped at McPhabbs Pub for some lunch, and then took the subway to city centre so she could stop at Boots for some makeup. And then we went back to the flat so she could get back to work. Total time out: 2 hours and 18 minutes.

Glad I splurged on those all-day passes for the subway.

She kept hinting how she "just needed one more week away before going back to Uganda" and that finger of dread just kept poking at me, poking at me. I refused to bite and offer her to stay. I looked up the train time, we set a time for the morning, and then I headed off to bed.

I got up in the morning only to have her say "there's been a change in plans, I'm staying one more day". This was the exact fucking thing I'd been afraid would happen, and I could feel all the blood drain away. By the look on my face I'm sure she quickly grasped she was over the line and for once didn't try to push it when I told her she could have one day only - firm.

The next morning I took her to the train station and PUT HER ASS ON THE TRAIN. I had to hoof it to the other train station to catch my own train to Edinburgh, so I couldn't actually watch it pull away with her on it, and I was anxious the whole day that she would have jumped off or something. Thankfully she went back to London and then caught her plane back to Kampala.

I thought I was handling this okay, but with all the stress from work and the constant bullshit I've been receiving and then having to deal with the fact that my own fucking mom couldn't even come see ME for TWO DAYS was just too much and I found myself on the phone with Sally crying my eyes out. I don't really understand why 1) I still love her and 2) I continually keep hoping for change thereby setting myself up for the heartache. It's shows how damaged I am that I actually felt guilty for not wanting to sacrifice myself (anymore) to help her. Sally's right, the Mom always comes out on top. But it sure would have been nice to have had a visit without an ulterior motive.

We've got a new sheriff in town who's wreaking havoc at the office. I thoroughly support all the changes because these changes will actually make work life simpler, once implemented, and also because these are the same dead brilliant ideas I've tried to establish but was never supported by the old sheriff and deputy. The problem is, this sheriff is not fully grasping the enormous workloads of her staff and has been setting unrealistic deadlines that's pushed us all way past coping. I fear there may be a mutiny soon and I don't want to be the one having to walk the plank.

See, I'm so stressed I'm mixing my Louis L'Amour and Old Man of the Sea analogies.

Anyhoo, loooong hours, lots of stress eating, weight gain, crankiness overload to downright shittiness and it all comes to a head this past Friday. I was feeling nauseous, but I've been in a lot of pain for awhile so I had just put this all down to stress. Only this time the pain got really bad, and I was spiking a fever but with chills to the point I was wearing a sweater and still shivering even though everyone else was sweaty in short sleeves. I found it hard to concentrate, and then started thinking about all of my specific symptoms and decided to call the NHS 24 line to get a second opinion on what was going on and if it required me getting in to see a doc.

So, um, next thing I know I'm having to explain to my coworkers that because of my symptoms the paramedics were on their way to see me because NHS suspected I might be having a heart attack. So gawddamn embarrassing, but the way my chest and back hurt and considering my Grandmother had her first heart attack younger than me, and the fact that I am capital eff ay tee, I felt a bit relieved the decision had been taken out of my hands.

I cleaned up my desk, shut off my computer, watered the plants and set up a chair so they'd be comfortable while they checked me out.

So NO heart attack.

Blood pressure, heart rhythm, pulse, etc. - all good. I thought the BP was a bit high but he said that at my weight (ouch) and my age (ouch) it was quite normal (120/80, for the curious).

Then they said that the rest of my symptoms were indicative of swine flu.

Unfucking believable.

I went home, ignored the phone call from the deputy asking "you are going to get the test, right? We need to know right away"-- hmmm, I feel like I've been punched in the chest by Mike Tyson thanks for asking how I'm doing.

The pain in my chest, back and shoulder got even worse and at some point I started praying the paramedics were wrong because I really DID want to die oh holy jaysus that was THE most painful thing I have ever felt in my life. And I've experienced quite a few uniquely painful things.

Somehow I fell asleep and when I woke in the morning all of my symptoms were gone. GONE. All. Gone. I realized then that I didn't have the flu, piggy fowl or regular and after thinking about it for awhile it dawned on me that I was probably having a gallbladder attack. I g00gled the symptoms and bingo, we had a match. This, of course, made me fretful of eating anything for the rest of the weekend on the off chance I could have another attack. I think that I had a milder attack the previous Friday, and the symptoms that were coming and going over the past couple of months were leading up to the big one.

Now, I could be wrong, which is why I've scheduled an appointment with my doc for tomorrow morning to get a referral so they can x-ray me and find out for sure. All I know is I don't ever want to have to go through that again and the fact that I'm just 40 and so fucking unfit and man, what if it HAD been a heart attack. I've reached my limit and it is time to get off that damn pot and do something about the condition of my health.

Let's just etch-a-sketch your mind now and replace the images from above with something much, much better: Popsicle shaped like Daniel Craig's torso!

This is one of the many rapeseed fields seen all over Scotland -- the yellow is so bright I just want to drink it up (shot from train on way home from Edinburgh).

Another shot from the train, but strangely crisp. Perhaps we were stopped at a station...
This is Edinburgh, shot taken as I was leaving work one evening. In the centre, back, is the Edinburgh Castle.
This was taken from inside Provand's Lordship (Glasgow). I don't know that I'd have the patience to coordinate with another person like this (just a little jealous).

Isle of May

2009-06-05T09:08:00.004Z

Located on the outer Firth of Forth, the Isle of May is owned by the Scottish Natural Heritage and maintained as a National Nature Reserve. To get to there, we caught the "May Princess" ferry in Anstruther (Fife) and in under 1 hour we arrived at the island, where we were greeted by a ranger who gave a quick talk about what they do there and also how important it was to pack out our rubbish and keep inside the blue trail markings (don't want to step on and crush any wee birdies nesting there).

The sail across was mild, and I had high hopes for it clearing up, unfortunately it did not. It only rained for a brief time (just to the left of me, so funny enough my right side remained dry) but otherwise we did okay for the weather.

After the chat the bulk of the group started off to the right, so my friends and I immediately turned left. Took all of one minute before I became separated from them (though not on purpose), but as we were on a small island with a set time to meet at the boat I didn't worry about trying to catch up to them. I arrived at a cliffside and the view was simply breathtaking. It may not have been sunny, but the choppy green sea and deep grey clouds set nicely against the enormous basalt and greenstone rock. Then, the very first puffin I see has a beak full of sand eel, and I could hardly contain the schoolgirl-like squeal that bubbled up!
He was very patient with the photo taking, most likely because we were blocking his access to the nest, and when the seagulls started to circle I got worried for the wee fella so I moved away to give him some room and turned my focus on making a little video.

So many different species of birds on this island-- puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shags, cormorants, pigeon, and terns; as well as Grey seals and rabbits. I hiked past the foghorn and over to the lighthouse (there are two), got a bit closer to the edge of a cliff than I was comfortable with, saw one dead rabbit, and then discovered a seagull's nest with an egg in it. I was walking down the trail and saw a large seagull sort of back in/out of this hole in the ground, so I slowed a bit in the hopes I wouldn't scare him. As I approached he took off and I happened to glance down to where he was (guess I should say she) and saw a large egg. I was so startled but only had time to snap a quick shot because she wasn't too pleased with me hanging about and I was fast approaching the danger of being pecked.
I headed to the visitor centre to make a quick loo stop and then ventured off up another hill where I chose to stop for lunch. Camera stowed safely away, I kicked back and enjoyed my meal while watching the puffins fly to and fro. They really don't land smoothly, so its quite a comical thing to see. Way too soon it was time to head back to the boat, and as we pulled away from the dock I got a much closer look at some of the seals -- one basking on the rocks and several more bobbing around in the water as they followed our boat. Once away from the shores the water turned more than choppy, so I slipped inside to get away from the spraying waves. Swaying back and forth, and knackered from 3 hours of play in the fresh air, it wasn't long before I fell asleep -- napping the entire journey back to Anstruther.

I'm definitely up for going back, hopefully with sunny weather, and this time I'm going to have a much better lens with me...

Extra, Extra

2009-06-04T08:44:00.000Z

One Friday night, instead of making my usual dash for the subway, I felt like a walk home would do me some good. Well, it didn't start out that way -- I had take items to the post office, which is in the opposite direction from the subway and felt oddly too lazy to backtrack (which would take 10 minute) but rather more inclined to keep going forward another hour to home.

Got a wee bit off track as I tried another route, which worked out well when I was able to stop under the overpass to wait out the rain. My poor £1 brolly had died a couple blocks back and while I was dressed in jeans, etc. I just didn't feel like getting soaked. Go figure.

I didn't have to wait long for it to slow to a mere misting, so after pushing away the thoughts of phoning for a taxi, my fat ass shoved off towards home once again. It finally stopped dropping water in any form and I was able to take a few photos (of course). This always cheers me up. This was a board from a temporary wall erected by the BBC Scotland, and I was drawn to the pattern details. Eh, what I was truthfully drawn to was the spray painted graffiti that said something about 'cyclists do it for miles' but then I was easily distracted by this.

I stopped to take some dandelion shots, gleefully changing the settings on my wee camera to 'macro' and taking this erm, macro shot, that captures some of the remaining raindrops.

Once across the bridge, I came to the warehouse area where there is this abandoned building. It's been this way for years, and I've attempted shots before that just never worked out, but on this night the late evening light gave it an even gritter feel and I couldn't resist. The following week, Caroline and I went to Ichiban for dinner. I was never one for using chopsticks, until last Christmas while dining out with the sistahs I found myself automatically using them at the Snappy Dragon, and now here I was using chopsticks to eat soup! Ok, I used them to eat the beef and the noodles that were inside the soup but still I impressed myself with this new skill. Also, the food was really good.

We finished our meal, walked to the shop for some chocolate, and headed across the water to the Crowne Plaza for a drink before the show, at the Glasgow Science Centre. Verdict: Crowne Plaza is way overpriced for drinks and Star Trek on the giant IMAX screen was awesome. I'm not a huge trek fan, but enjoyed the show enough when I was a kid. I don't know if that's because it was good, though, or because there was only a choice between three programs (back then). Heh. Anyhoo, as it was the late show, I was able to get these shots before we went in. The first is the local helicopter landing at its base on the Clyde River. The second shows the observation tower at the Science Centre and the last one is the sun setting over the Clyde.

Abbey & the Palace

2009-06-03T11:11:00.003Z

I wanted to show Sally where I'd been living (Paisley), and some of the better sites of that area, so the obvious first stop was the Paisley Abbey. As there appeared to be a funeral in progress, we focused our attention on the Town Hall and surrounding area and with the trees in full blossom this gave me an opportunity to try something new.It was quite chilly, so I was thankful it wasn't too long before we could enter the Abbey and once inside I started to show Sally a bit of the historical bits I liked best. Before too long, however, we were approached by two kind gentlemen more than happy to give us a personalized tour of the place. While I've been in there several times, I still learned something new and that has to be one of my most favorite things about travel-- the benefits of something entirely unexpected. Tour over we stopped in the gift shop for a quick purchase and then hustled our way towards the Oakshaw neighborhood, where we popped into Caffe Lusso for refreshments. I showed her my framed photos, and we chatted with the owner and fellow patrons whilst enjoying a nice hot bowl of tomato soup.

Fit for travel once more, I showed Sally the flat where I used to stay and the charity shop where I used to buy books. Before I knew it we were inside and I was looking at the dishes. For dinner guests, I like to set my table with individual and unique plates. I'd been hunting for the past couple of months but hadn't really seen anything dish-wise. I'd found three matching 'crystal' bottles for the cocktail cabinet, and now I had found some plates that would be perfect for the dining area. All this for under 10 quid. Amazing!

Purchase done we quickly scrambled to get home to shower and spruce up for the performance of Quidam, after which we met up with the gals from work at the local Black Sparrow pub. Quidam was absolutely spectacular, and the burger at the pub was outstanding. All said, it was a great day.

On Monday, Sally's last day in Glasgow, we awoke to yet another sunny day and decided it would be nice to visit the Botanic Gardens. First thing was a stop inside the tropical plant building, then back outside for a stroll along the back pathways parallel to the River Kelvin and on up towards the Kibble Palace. We saw many plants, and bees, and birds (oh my), but I have to say the best part was when we bought ice cream cones. There is something so spiritually uplifting about ice cream. Perhaps it is the sugar.Once back at the flat we made a simple supper and Sally packed her bags and we tried to pretend it wasn't sad but really we were both sad, even though we're both quite adept at hiding it (lifetime of practice, ya know). She finally had to lay down for a bit while I stayed up and (most likely) played around on flickr. I woke her up at 3:30 (yup, that's a.m) and by 4 o'clock we were standing at the curb waiting on the taxi. Fuckers were half an hour late, and with me making repeated phone calls and getting crankier by the minute it was the poor bastard that finally showed up who got the brunt of my angst. Once back home I felt rather desolate at the sheer quietness of the place, so I shucked my clothes and climbed into bed and hoped like hell it'd all be back to normal when I woke up.

The Big Four Oh

2009-06-02T10:00:00.004Z

Sally wanted to do something special for my birthday, so after much brain cramping I settled on the fabulous idea of going to the Willow Tea Room for a brunch. I chose the one on Buchanan Street, and made reservations for half eleven.

Sunday arrived and despite my best efforts we managed to be 5 minutes late. I can't remember why, but it was probably because I can't really walk in heels anymore. Heh. Cute place, I'd never been, and though I thought the chairs were interesting to look at, they sure did NOT look comfortable. Then again, anything that forces me to sit up straight is never going to instill a sense of comfort to me. Thankfully Sally acquiesced the booth-style bench to me. Being the birthday girl has its perks!

Funny enough, we didn't realize until later that day that neither of us ordered tea at the Tea Room. Probably because we'd ordered breakfast and to us tea is not a morning beverage (yet apparently champagne IS). Don't really recall what we ate, but the service was nice, the view was nice, and the company was absolutely superb. I wanted to photograph everything despite the tackiness of doing so, but limited myself to just one quick snap inside.

After brunch we strolled along Buchanan Street and over to Argyle where we popped into the fat girl store and thus began our struggle with regards to spoiling the birthday girl. Sally wanted to buy me anything and everything and I, well, didn't want her to spend so much fucking money on me. In the end I allowed her to buy me a couple pieces (she may be smaller, but she's still my big sister)and off we went to another store. Pete & repeat.

All that shopping wore me out and since we were both feeling a bit peckish we thought it a grand idea to stop for an afternoon nibble & cocktail. We chose the outdoor seating at Piazza Italia, and with the sun shining hot again, Sally actually removed enough clothing that she was sitting in, gasp, short sleeves. We have a record first folks!
We had an adorable young waiter, thick with Italian accent and eager to give Sally anything she wanted. Apparently the first thing she wanted was him to swap the table flower out so I'd have the yellow rose (my favorite) and then she ordered herself a nice cold beer and chicken salad. Since it was my birthday, I opted for the garlic cheese bread and piece of Tiramisù. Oh yes I did.I was finally ready to head home and get out of those heels, but happy enough to go back out again once I'd changed into proper jeans and trainers. We walked down to asda where we struggled one last time and I let (let?) Sally buy me a television and a bouquet of flowers. She's wanted to get me two bunches, but christ almighty it was just too much and to get her to stop I had to promise that on her birthday in May I would buy myself (yes, you read that right) more flowers. While she was stuck at the service counter talking to Visa about getting the purchase authorized, I went thru the line with some munchies, a dvd player, and a copy of RocknRolla.I'd forgotten that I no longer owned twenty gazillion vases, so we made do with the ice tea jar and a cocktail glass and with a little care those gorgeous flowers lasted for over three weeks. (Sigh) this was a kick ass birthday.

I was still just 39

2009-06-01T11:00:00.003Z

The day before my birthday, Gavin travelled up from England to spend the day with Sally and I. After a rather slow start to the morning, she and I hustled our butts to the train station where we picked up my rather hungover buddy and quickly shuffled him off to the nearest coffee shop. Caffeine and cakes consumed, we set off for a wander thru Merchant City, without any clear destination in mind.
Just as we approached the end of Ingram Street, the sun burst thru the clouds making the decision to visit Castle Street and the Necropolis an easy choice. First stop is Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow, dating back to 1471. "Behind the house is the St Nicholas garden, a medical herb garden built in 1997. The garden contains medicinal plants in use in the fifteenth century, and is designed to reflect the original purpose of the house."
From there we crossed the street to the St. Mungo's museum (closed for lunch), made a quick stop at the loos, and then off to the top of the Necropolis. I know I'd just been there a couple weeks back, but you can visit this place over and over and continually see something new. Not only are there 3,500 tombs & gravestones (55,000+ people buried) but each time the different light creates a whole new look.One of the coolest thing about the afternoon (aside from the fact that Sally was actually warm enough *in Scotland* to remove one of her coats!) was the abundance and variety of daffodils, and the way the sunlight caused such an explosion of colour.I spent quite a bit of time kneeling down (I really must invest in some quality knee pads) as I attempted the low perspective shots, but in the end my favorite is one snapped quickly thru the bars of a fence as we strolled back to city centre.We had a lovely, but quiet meal at the mexican restaurant (we were hungry!) followed by a relaxing after dinner drink at a local pub. Gavin gave me my birthday presents (yay) but then way too soon it was time to see him off to the train...

Leftovers (photo heavy entry)

2009-05-29T08:33:00.002Z

I've spent quite a few weekends tucked away inside my flat, and yet I still manage to post a fair number of photos - probably because I always have the wee camera in my pocket. Below are some recent miscellaneous shots, taken around Glasgow and Edinburgh.

This is the new Renfrewshire Wheel: Located outside the Braehead shopping centre (in the parking lot), the giant observation wheel "offers views of the River Clyde towards Glasgow and downriver towards Inverclyde and Argyll".

Doorway, on Argyle Street.

Alleyway in the southside (Ibrox, Glasogw)
sign in city centre, marking the territory of Merchant City
fence railing that looks rather like a dragon's tail
bad kitty. (seen in Charing Cross area of Glasgow)
Seen after work on my way home. He'd been more upright, and bobbing to the other side for a few stops, but once he completely fell over I felt fair-game for taking this shot.
seen on the southside (Ibrox, Glasgow)
window shopping (Merchant City)
the Outer circle train is approaching
I believe I can fly.
Clanadonia, as they perform on Buchanan Street (Glasgow)
daffodils in the park
rooftops in Edinburgh
the close of my building
busker on Buchanan Street (the dog belongs to a separate vendor)

Eloquentia, part of the Gladstone Memorial on Princes Street (Edinburgh)

Also in March

2009-05-28T12:13:00.000Z

In addition to the Finlaystone Estate, Caroline and I had another productive shoot up at the Necropolis one fine, drizzly March evening. This is the John Knox monument, which towers over the entire cemetery. I love that Caroline's silhouette at the base shows the scale of this statue.

This is one view towards Glasgow. I think the smoke stacks are part of the brewery.
Here you can see the Major Archibald Douglas Monteath Mausoleum on the right

another view of Glasgow...
John Knox again...
and a panorama I 'stitched' together using the software that was bundled with my camera.

Finlaystone Country Estate

2009-05-27T11:41:00.002Z

In March my flickr buddy, Caroline, and I went to the Finlaystone Country Estate as part of VisitScotland's Snowdrop Festival. Finlaystone is an "established visitor attraction located just ten minutes west of Glasgow Airport. With its spectacular views across the Firth of Clyde, Finlaystone offers colourful gardens, imaginative woodland play areas and tumbling waterfalls."

Had I given more thought to this trek, I would have held off until Spring when more of the plants & flowers would be in full bloom. As it was, it was still a pretty kick ass place to hike about and take photos. At least, once the rain stopped.
We were just 5 minutes into our walk when we had to turn around and go back to the car for my giant brolly. Even then it started raining just a bit too hard, so we ducked back into the Visitor Centre to wait it out.
The rain slowed to a mere drizzle so out we trod to the nearest snowdrop patch. Luckily for us this was also near a waterfall.
From the waterfall we followed the path that took us to the play-land area. This was so cool - there was a large train set and a huge wood ship and a hill and a giant knarled tree. It was like being possessed by Peter Pan otherwise I cannae explain how my fluffy ass came to be climbing around in and on the ship. And the hill. And the slides as well had they not already been fully occupied by actual children.
We quickly headed in the opposite direction of the scouts and found ourselves deeply entrenched in this enormous water drenched Rhododendron.
It sputtered a bit more, we got stuck in some mud, we got lost in the woods where we very nearly had to do as a bear does there, and then found our way back to the mill whereupon I vowed to come back later in the year to get better shots with everything in bloom...