October 2009

…thing is, these boats can handle worse weather than shown here. But the cars and passengers tend to go flying about the place…. hence the fact that the southbound ferry is, as I write, still in port, waiting for the winds to subside. The northbound boat is, however, as far as I know, at sea……

Hard to believe Capaldi was once in Glasgow band The Dreamboys, along with one Craig Ferguson…

It takes eight physical human liftings for a single peat to leave the ground and reach fire or stove. That’s not carbon burning there; it’s human energy. It’s time. Casting, raising, turning, bagging, lifting bag to the roadside, lifting bag onto trailer/pickup truck/pony/passing human, lifting bag off the aforementioned following the trip home, and finally…

Being Scottish, you have to fight past the slight whiff of tooth-grinding sentimentality. Well, I did. But it’s more than worth it, just for Dr John doing Scratch My Back. Killian Mansfield was a 15-year-old ukulele player, dying from a rare form of cancer, who determined to record an album with ‘famous people’. It helped,…

The Virgin First Class Lounge at Euston station is really rather swish, though the access provided to Scotrail customers travelling on the Caledonian Sleeper to Glasgow kind of sets the weary and worn nature of the Scotrail rolling stock in context. Free, proper coffee and soft drinks, biscuits, nuts, apples…cheap alcohol, comfortable seats, computers, showers.…

Well, that’s basically it for Paris, and the three-day break has just been great. Metro was easy, bike tour fab (like, totally awesome in guidespeak – all Fat Tire guides appear to be Americans in Paris) Food up to expectations. Cataclysmically expensive, but I suppose that’s just the way of things. Bring on the Scottish…

…as opposed to fat spare tire on bike tour. Recommended. They’re at 11.00am and 3.00pm, meet at south pillar of the Eiffel Tower.

Arrived in London after a disappointingly 70s and rather grimy trip on the First Scotrail sleeper (‘I’m sorry – we’ve only got on cafetiere and it’s in use’). The rolling stock is a disgrace, though the staff did their best. Still, Once at St Pancras, everything became really easy. Loads of interesting cafes for breakfast…

Out for a wee cycle in the dry stillness of an autumn Saturday night, in the hinterlands of the West End; this is where Kirklee interfaces with Dowanhill, where Maryhill parallels North Kelvinside, and the grand, deserted boulevards sweep across the Kelvin on mighty, magically lit bridges. Like any city, Glasgow’s posh parts are seconds…

Classic autumn day in the wild west end of Glasgow. On the way back from PQ through the park (aboard the trusty folding bike)I saw a fox and a squirrel next to the Kelvin. Tales of the Riverbank! It’s 36 years since I first came to live in Glasgow, as a 17 year old student…