A beautiful Friday morning.
Scamp drove over to Tesco to post Neil’s granny’s birthday card. Age 90 deserves a card on the day and by our calculations, the card should arrive on time if it was posted early.
After that, we just hung about, me doing Sudoku and Scamp reading until it was time to drive to Glasgow’s South Side to the Battlefield Rest. An independent Italian restaurant houses in a waiting room and tram stop! It’s a strange wee building that sits on its own traffic island at a complicated junction surrounded by ugly high-rise buildings. We were originally introduced to it by my cousin, Donald, an architect and fellow foodie. We had booked last night, just to make sure we’d get a table.
First problem was getting there. I missed a turning on the sat nav and the next one too. I took things a bit slower and found the third one, only to discover they were digging up the road and we had to take a diversion. After another wrong turn we arrived at Battlefield Road and every parking space I could see was either blocked or too small. Then, out of the blue, we found a nice big space just a few minutes walk from the restaurant.
Scamp had Mussels in a Tomato sauce to start and a main of Smokie Crepe. I had Crab Bruschetta, followed by Spaghetti Paesana (Spaghetti with meatballs). Just because we could, we both had a dessert. Scamp, of course had Tiramisu and I had Pecan and Pine Nut Tart with a big scoop of ice cream. A lovely meal we both enjoyed. It must be well over three years since we’ve been in The Rest. Hopefully it won’t be so long until we’re back.
Since it was such a lovely day we went for a walk over to Queen’s Park, marvelling at the changes in the area and the amount of construction work still going on. We climbed up the long unforgiving hill to the flagpole and viewpoint in Queen’s Park. Great views of Glasgow from the viewpoint, but oh, the cobbled paths are treacherous. We both nearly took a tumble there. Saw a couple of Pied Woodpeckers in the wee wood behind the flagpole. First ones I’ve seen since we were down at Jamie and Sim’s old house. You can sometimes hear them in the woods at Drumpellier, but I’ve never actually seen them there. We followed another treacherous path down to the real, tarmac path and followed it round the park to the exit and from there back to the car. It was a fairly easy drive from there to the M74 and home.
Today was rated as “Excellent” by both of us.
The weather was still fine when we arrived home and I was tempted to take the camera for a walk in St Mo’s, but I knew I had a couple of interesting shots, one of which would make PoD. I was wrong. It was a cropped shot of The Battlefield Rest suitably toned to make it look older. That won PoD.
I got an email from MPB telling me they had downgraded my estimate for the condition of the camera. I didn’t fully agree with their description, but agreed because I know it was a borderline case for “Excellent”. Their estimate of “Good” was probably more realistic. Money should be with us next week, hopefully.
It appears that despite some people withdrawing from dance class tomorrow, because the first dance of the year is on tomorrow night. We’d intend going to both, but Scamp made the decision to go to the class and possibly a tea dance during the week. We did have a quick practise of the Cha-Cha and the Waltz as preparation for tomorrow’s dance so, I shouldn’t make too many mistakes.
If the weather holds tomorrow, we may go for a spin after the class, maybe to the seaside. I’m not sure if we’ll pack buckets and spades. However, I do still have a snow shovel in the boot!