With The Family In Glasgow

Image: Destination 360

Sorry about that video I posted on Friday. When I first viewed it there wasn’t a problem but it seems, somewhere, someone has. Basically it was a witty wee display of two-tone nonsense that would have made you laugh. Guess you’ll just have to take my word for it now.

Hell of a weekend. My quiet night in on Friday evening turned into a quiet night hidden away upstairs. My wife and her friends decided not to go out after all, so I packed away my thongs, plastic indoor swimming pool and cigars and stashed myself out of the way for the duration.

When I got up on Saturday morning the house was empty; daughter to Guide Camp and my wife to a photo shoot. Bliss. I took things easy, did a spot of reading and writing, then got myself ready for a trip through to Glasgow.

I met up with my two sisters, Fony and Binny, and my wee niece, Charlotte, in Queen Street Station just as they had disembarked the train from Perth. It was perfectly timed. We made our way to a delightful little pub in Bath Street (well done Binny for picking it) called The Butterfly and Pig. There, our parents had agreed to meet us also.

It’s a real old-fashioned type of place, with the kind of cutlery and plates you might expect your granny to keep in her scullery in an old Glasgow tenement. The floors and tables were all hard wood and the chairs squeaked with age and firm, non-IKEA constructed builds.

We ordered a round of drinks and some food. I plumped for the fishcakes (pictured below) and here’s the menu description of what I ate: Fish cakes, but not as you know them, open in a pan made with smoked fish, haddock, trout and meltid leeks, potato and baked eggs, we do our best to remove all bones but some may be hiding (9 ponds and 50 weeds). It was delicious.

Shortly before we ate we got round to the reason we had all gathered in the first place. This week sees my parents celebrate their Ruby wedding anniversary—40 years together. However, their anniversary falls on a date they are to be out of the country so my sisters and I all chipped in and got them a wee gift they can enjoy while they are away.

An Evening in Schoenbrunn includes a tour of Schoenbrunn Palace, an exclusive dinner at Café-Restaurant Residenz, then to top it off, reserved VIP tickets for a concert of classical music with works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Strauss at the Orangery. They’ll also get free champagne, a Johann Strauss CD and the obligatory concert program. It’s so good I wish I was going myself. My parents were gob smacked, which was kind of the whole idea. Have fun folks!

With the eating part over we headed off somewhere different for a coffee, settling on Costa Coffee inside Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street. The store is bigger than the three Edinburgh branches of Waterstones put together! I had a quick browse for a couple of books I want to get hold of but they never had them in stock (it seems nowhere has) so I’ll have to order them online.

It was time to take Fony and Charlotte back to the train station and get them back on their journey home to Perth, and after seeing them on their way we all decided to head to a pub for another couple of drinks. That was after I stopped in at the Apple Store on Buchanan Street for a quick look around. The iMacs are so impressive. I had a play with one and committed myself to buying one soon. Forget the Mac-Mini, I want an iMac!

I also went to buy a case for my new iPhone4 but the bloke that served me told me not to bother. He told me how to get one online for free! I found this confusing—a sales assistant that was cheery and nice and told me how I can save money? Most odd (he said with a heavy hint of sarcasm).

In my mind’s eye, I’ve started to see Microsoft as a grumpy, nasty, withering old man with a walking stick who shouts at schoolkids and that I’d like to give a taste of his own medicine. And I’ve started to see Apple as a seductively gorgeous woman with shapely hips, flowing blonde hair and a scrumptious wiggle that I’d like to have sex with.

Too far?

From there we went to a pub called The Bread and Butter and sat in a candle-lit area sheltered off for smokers where we could talk for a while over a drink. Before I knew it, time had marched on and we all had to go our separate ways. We said our goodbyes and I headed back through to Leith getting home for around 8pm—just in time to see my wife dashing out to share a bottle of wine with her pal. I got a book out and settled down for the evening.

Yesterday was a lot more peaceful. I got up early and headed into town for breakfast; coffee and pastry in my usual haunt along with a long read of The Observer. I spent the rest of the day back home working on GREENER IS THE GRASS. And I made a video with my iPhone and posted in on the Internet within seconds. So cool. So very cool and a most satisfying day. Here it is; it’s called What On Earth Is That?

And that’s me back up to date! I’ve not got much planned this week (yet), which means I should get some good work done on the manuscript—I’m hoping to complete it in the next few days—and I’ve got a couple of short stories I want to get down. Then there’s all the other stuff including more drooling over those hot iMacs a little bit more.