Category: Street

Serendipity – 6 August 2016

Posted on by Zogman

6 AugLast night was a late night. It was Saturday morning about 1am when I finally dragged myself to bed. As a result, we woke late this morning, or should I say ‘later’ this morning. We had intended to go to Edinburgh, hereinafter referred to by its proper name of Embra. It was touch and go whether we would go or not, but finally we decided that we should just go, as there was nowhere else that interested us.

In Embra we walked through the Conference Square canyon.  I hadn’t realised just how ugly the Conference Centre was.  What a waste of concrete.   From there, up the Grassmarket through the crowds and on to the Royal Mile. That’s where the real ‘Maddies’ were. For a fair few blocks, the Royal Mile is pedestrianised at festival time and so it was today. Scamp was interested in a couple of groups of a cappella singers and I was just interested in taking photos of the nutters.

The fringe is interesting, but after a while you get fed up listening to the hype from these self centred eejits and have to get back to reality. That is what we did. We walked down The Bridges and on to the St James Centre. What a disaster that is now. All that’s left in the entire centre is John Lewis. Everything else is closed. It appears that the whole site is being rebuilt while the JL shop remains open. It is a really depressing site (and sight) and will remain that way for FOUR years. The new centre isn’t due to open until 2020. There are loads of ‘artists impressions’ or AutoCad renders of the proposed new retail opportunity. It looks very smart, but it is very difficult to work out what you are looking at as there are no landmarks on the beautifully rendered artwork, and let’s face it, it’s Embra. It has a few landmarks!

From the disaster that was the St James Centre, we walked through St Andrew’s Square (there are a lot of saints in Embra!) and on to George Street. Like the Royal Mile, part of George Street was pedestrianised for the festival with lots of drinks venues pitched on the roadway. We stopped at one for a beer (an expensive beer at £2.50 for a half pint!) and that’s where the ‘Serendipity’ came in. We were sitting at a table across from an older woman. As usual, Scamp got into conversation with her, but I must admit that for once she didn’t instigate it. It turned out that she was on a bus tour to see the Tattoo and she had come from Cambridge. She knew Baldock and also Little Downham. However, she had lived in South Wales before she got married and knew where Scamp’s aunt lived in Maesteg. Thirdly, she had been to Inverness last year and had gone on another bus tour to Skye and stayed in the Pink House in Portree! It was almost as if she had read our minds and plotted three places where we had synchronicity.

When we left her and George St then turned onto Princes Street, we could feel that the weather had turned.  It was cooler and there were spits and spots of rain in the wind, so we headed for the train and home. No lunch out today, but dinner was provided by Golden Bowl and was delicious. Rain and high winds forecast for tomorrow and I’ve got an appointment with the physio to see what’s wrong with my shoulder. Maybe he’ll just give it a rub with the magic sponge and it will be as good as new. Maybe!

London – 16 July 2016

Posted on by Zogman

16 JulyTook the train into Waterloo and found ourselves on the South Bank soon after that.  We walked along and crossed over Waterloo bridge then walked through Somerset House, but unfortunately the fountains were switched off to make way for an open air concert.  Bummer.  Scamp swithered whether our not to have a drink on the balcony of Somerset House, but finally decided that it was just a little too posh.  I have to agree with her, but it was getting very hot and I would have welcomed a drink, posh or not.  We walked along what turned out to be The Strand (Red on the Monopoly board) and finally settled on a little Italian restaurant with the strangest painted (?) leather seats.  Service was slow, but the food was really good.  It was very busy when we went in with lots of theatre-goers, but they soon vamoosed when it got near the time for the matinee.

When we left there, we walked through Covent Garden and the associated galleries selling all sorts of tat.  We tried to get a seat in a few pubs, but they were all full, so we went to a Cafe Nero instead.  We sat and watched blokes on scooters doing ‘The Knowledge’ with their maps and notepads clipped to their windshields.  Walked on down The Strand and eventually Scamp chose the Golden Jubilee bridge as our crossing point back to the South Bank and from there we walked back to Waterloo Station (also on the Monopoly board) and home.

Not the best London visit.  It feels like we need a target or a theme.  After The Strand and Waterloo Station, maybe we should aim to visit a colour set next time.  That might be a challenge.

Scamp made dinner tonight (stir fry) and we watched another excellent Hazy movie pick – The Martian.  Both Hazy and I had read the book and the movie stuck quite accurately to the book until nearly the end.  Impressed.  That’s three good movie pics on three consecutive days.  That’s good work.

Tomorrow?  Tomorrow is a new day and a new beginning.

Kingston Town – 15 July 2016

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15 JulyToday, after a late start, we walked along Chessington Road to the bus stop and got the 71 to Kingston.  It was a bit of a dull day, but warm.

Wandered around Kingston looking for the market.  I was beginning to think they’d moved it just to annoy me when we heard a commotion in the street.  It turned out to be an amateur dramatics group acting out, er, something.  A something without real words.  Bits and pieces of singing and screaming, but no real dialogue.  What it did have was some superb acting and mime, plus loads of humour and a bit of pathos.  Really entertaining, live and free.  Worth putting a couple of quid in their bucket.  After that, we found the market with a little help from Mr Google.  We are so spoilt in Glasgow with streets in a grid pattern, making it almost impossible to get lost.  Kingston is one of those old fashioned places where they built the houses, churches and schools, then made the roads round them.  With the market found, lunch was now possible and it turned out to be Japanese and from one of the kiosks in the market of course.  I had Chicken Yaki Soba and Scamp had Chicken Curry.  Enormous portions, far too big really, but very tasty, so we ate the lot.

After lunch we had a walk along the river admiring the variety of boats and spotting a cygnet with the swans on the stream that runs into the Thames.  Mrs Swan was sitting on the eggs the last time we were there in May.  It looks like only one egg hatched.  Such a pity.  After that, we got the bus back to Chessington.  There’s a bus every 10 mins on average.  What a difference from one every half hour from Glasgow to Cumbersheugh.  People will only use public transport if the public transport actually exists and is economical to use.  That’s a lesson Scotland could learn from London.

Frying pan pizza for dinner and it tasted ok, given that I was using a new to me oven.  Just remembered that I forgot to make the bread from the remainder of the dough.  Must do it in the morning.

Tomorrow is a mystery.  Not a clue what we are doing.  Let’s go with Scamp’s usual maxim.  It depends on the weather.

Fitba’ Crazy – 12 July 2016

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12 July bSo here am I, the man who says he’s only been to one football match in his life, sitting in the stand watching the Homeless World Cup in George Square in Glasgow. How strange.

I just thought I should write a wee bit on Day One while I was sitting in George Square waiting for the teams to come out again for the second half.  I don’t know why I was so determined to go to this football thing.  I think it was the fact that it wasn’t expensively paid prima donnas who were the stars, in fact it was exactly the opposite.  The people who were playing and those who were running the show were homeless and for a week they were stars.  Good luck to them.  If I could have managed the time I’d have gone back for more.

Other than that, I put my sewing machine experience to work on repairing three pairs of jeans.  I’d torn the pockets on a couple of pairs and worn through the pocket on another – not from my mass of coins, but from the wear and tear caused by my keys.  I managed to fix two pairs by my own fair hands and the third with a little help from Scamp.  Really quite proud of my achievement.  If I hadn’t gone to that Sew Macho class in Glasgow way back in January, I wouldn’t have had a clue.  Not quite Sewing Bee standard yet, but finished what I set out to do and that’s what counts.

It stayed dry all day.  While I was watching the football in Glasgow there was the slightest drizzle, but it didn’t last long and it didn’t get any heavier, in fact, the sun came out after that for a while.  For Scotland, for summer, it was actually quite pleasant. Let’s hope it’s the re-start of summer.

Extra! Extra! – 6 June 2016

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6 june bI got the train in to Glasgow today.  The fast train, but also a bit of mystery tour.  What should have been a 15 min journey took just over half an hour.  The reason was the closure of the tunnel at Queen Street Station.  They are electrifying the line and are using that as a chance to repair the tunnel that hasn’t had any decent work done in it for over forty years.  I knew it would be a long journey, but I wanted to experience the trip through stations I hadn’t been to in ages.  Ashfield, Dawsholm Park, Maryhill.  All names from the past.  I quite enjoyed it.

I’d gone in to Glasgow to get a 37mm UV filter for my new toy, the 12-32mm lens.  This 37mm diameter piece of glass cost me £18 in Merchant City Cameras in Parnie Street.  That’s almost 50p per millimeter.  Ok, pedants, I know it’s not really 50p per mm, but 3.4p per mm² doesn’t have the same gravitas!

While I was coming to terms with the hole this filter had made in my finances, I noticed the crowd outside the Trans Europe Cafe in Parnie Street.  It looked like a Lights, Camera, Action thing and after talking to one of the extras, well, I think he was an extra, it wasn’t Johnny Depp.  I’m sure I’d have notice him if he was there.  Anyway, the extra told me that it was a comedy being made for Netflix.  I don’t think I’ll ever see it, because we don’t have a Netflix, just a ‘cooncil telly’.

Got the rattliest bus ever home and sat in the garden to soak up as much of the sun as possible while Gems went through their paces.  Thunder storms and heavy rain forecast for tomorrow.  Coming home from salsa tonight, even the CITRAC signs were forecasting heavy rain and they are never wrong (sarcasm).