We agreed that we both needed to buy some things and Glasgow was the obvious choice.
I quite fancied having another go at oil painting after watching some short tutorial videos on Sky Arts. I’ve got the basic materials, but I need to get some solvent. Turps is frowned upon now because of the smell and the dangerous fumes. I was looking for a solvent called Sansodor (Franglais for Without Smell) and Cass Art in Glasgow has it. Scamp was looking for a few little somethings for Christmas.
We drove in to Glasgow and parked in Buchanan Galleries and went for a wander around the shops inside the galleries because it was raining heavily. I wanted a replacement foil for my electric razor and luckily I found one in Boots in the galleries. Eventually we had to go outside and we gravitated to Nero and shared an Italian Cream Bun. Then it was out into the rain again.
We walked down Queen Street and I got PoD which was a strip of red and white sparkling baubles outside an Italian restaurant. Lots of wee water drops on the shining balls had caught my eye. I got the solvent and a sketch book too in Cass Art and then we headed up to Sauchiehall Street which is still a disaster area and will probably stay that way for a good part of next year. I was looking for a book and Scamp was looking for something else, unstated. I didn’t find any books that interested me, but Scamp had a fairly well filled bag when we met up again. The rain was getting heavier, so we chose to leave shopping for the day and go home and have lunch.
I tried the foil on my razor and discovered that, although the razor is a Braun series 5 and the replacement was a Braun series 5, they were completely different from each other. No way would that foil fit my razor. I’d have to take it back to Boots in Cumbersheugh to get a replacement. Meanwhile, Scamp had been having problems with her phone. It looked to me as if it was an early warning that her storage was almost full, so I volunteered to get a new SD card while I was out. Getting my money back for the razor foil was no problem, but after wandering around three different phone shops I still hadn’t found anywhere that sold micro SD cards. Hardly anyone uses them now. Most phones have built-in storage. When I got home, disillusioned and wet, I asked Mr Bezos if he had any cards, and of course he did. It’s due to arrive tomorrow.
We watched, horrified as one of the three finalists for Portrait of the Year proceeded to paint caricatures of a posed couple, and, you guessed it … He won!
I dread to think what he’ll do to the final portrait which will be of Lorraine Kelly. They really need to weed out those who cannot paint, at the early stages instead of making a mockery of what is a great show.
I’ve another early rise tomorrow because the engineer is coming to service the boiler between 9am and 12noon.