Adventures

Life is never simple

Today was supposed to be very simple.

Debbie and i had planned to go see The Dark Knight at 3:00 this afternoon. We got to Byres Road at about 2:00, and we went to the closest ATMs (the two at Lloyds Bank). I pushed my Barclays card into the slot of the one on the left, and the machine merrily took it. Unfortunately, the ATM didn't seem to think a card had been put in, since after displaying a 'Temporarily out of service message' for a few moments it went back to asking me to 'Please insert your card'. We tried pressing the cancel button to no avail.

The homeless man that hangs out at those ATMs told us the same thing had happened to another woman earlier. Indeed, he had tried to warn me before i put my card in, but a slurry shouting Glaswegian homeless man is not the type of person i usually turn to for applicable advice (lesson learned, i suppose).

I phoned the number that occasionally displayed on the screen, and a nice man told me i needed to speak to someone at Barclays rather than someone at Lloyds, despite the fact that it was a Lloyds machine that had eaten my card. Frustrated, i hung up and proceeded to use the other ATM to withdraw £20 from another account.

This being dealt with (as far as possible at the time), Debbie and i walked down to the cinema. We asked for tickets for the 3:00 show, and the man behind the counter told us there were only front seats left available. We looked at each other and decided to buy tickets for a matinee later this week.

Now at a loose end, we thought i needed a drink (Debbie was driving, so no drinking for her). The rest of the afternoon passed quite nicely, sitting outside, drinking white wine, and chatting about people. This evening, however, i looked at my calendar to find a rather mysterious notation on it for tomorrow: 'Holiday (Scotland)'. Monday, it turns out, is a bank holiday in Scotland, so the banks are closed. This means i cannot get any money or browbeat the Lloyds employees about their defective ATM. Arrrrrgh.

Add to this the fact that i am leaving Scotland (possibly forever) a week on Tuesday, and things start to look a little tight. I phoned Barclays tonight, and the woman i spoke with assured me i would receive my new card before i leave. We'll see. First thing this Tuesday morning, though, i will be at Barclays with my checkbook in hand to get some cash.

I just wanted to see a movie.

Watching for whales

Yesterday Debbie and i went on a five-hour whale watching tour around the Inner Hebrides. We took the train from Glasgow to Oban on Wednesday afternoon, stayed overnight in a B&B and then made our way twelve miles south to Balvicar on the Isle of Seil for half past nine on Thursday morning. You can click on the map at left for a better idea of where we went.

Oban is a touristy little seaside town with excellent fish & chips and numerous B&Bs. Debbie found us a great place to stay: Raniven Guest House. The woman who runs the place is exceptionally helpful, and our full English breakfast was delicious; i would definitely recommend it. I took a few pictures of Oban and its harbo(u)r, and you can see them on Flickr.

The whale watching tour was run by a company called Sealife Adventures. The skipper of the boat, David, was very enthusiastic, and his assistant Monica spent a lot of time telling us not only about the wildlife in the area but also the geological history of the Inner Hebrides. There were only twelve passengers on the trip including Debbie and myself, so we had plenty of room to move around the boat. Our fellow whale watchers were a teenage boy doing a project for school and a French family (parents, one set of grandparents, two daughters, and three nephews). The nephews only spoke French, and the grandparents spoke some English. The parents and their daughters, however, spoke English fluently, because they live in Manchester. It turned out that the father is a chief executive of some kind for the northern European division of Adidas. Their next holiday will be in Beijing for the Games.

We ended up being disappointed by the whales; they all kept well out of sight, but we were treated to some porpoise that came quite close to the boat. We also saw seals and loads of birds. We went through the famous Corryvreckan Whirlpool area, and even though the whirlpool wasn't fully formed the seas were very rough. No one got seasick though. It was a really fun trip even without the whales, and as Debbie said, we can be reasonably sure that we were near whales; we just didn't see them.

One thing we hadn't taken into account on this trip was that we would be covered with a thin film of salt by the time we set foot back on land. The first order of business was to get somewhere that we could wash our hands and comb our very windswept and salty hair. Debbie and i hitched a ride back to Oban with the teenager and his grandfather, a funny old man who told us all kinds of history of the area. Once we got back to town, we headed for the Oban Chocolate Company, which we had spotted on Wednesday evening. There we washed our hands and settled in for some excellent hot chocolate and apple shortcake. Thus provisioned we took a walk through Oban, stopped at the sweet shop so i could buy some rock (i also got giant Parma Violets and Scottish Tablet), and gorged ourselves on chips (Debbie had fish while i just had chips & gravy - yummy), before getting on the train back to Glasgow. A very satisfying trip indeed.

Walking

I went for a walk this afternoon. More of a stroll, really, since i wasn't in any sort of a hurry. I stopped in some shops on the way, and it started raining quite a bit, but i just kept on sauntering. I finally got a bit tired and took a bus home, but i just checked on Google Maps, and it seems that i walked more than 2.5 miles.

My route was Argyle St -> Byres Rd -> Great Western Rd -> some little back streets -> North St -> St Vincent St (where i caught the bus). I tried to make a cool map showing you where all these streets are, but Google Maps isn't playing well with me today. You'll just have to look it up yourself if you're really that interested. Somehow i doubt anyone will be rushing to do so.

I just hope i managed to walk off some of that bacon & egg sandwich and hot chocolate i had for lunch...

P.S. My dissertation is up to 10,000 words (it needs to be between 12,000 and 15,000)!

Movin' on up

So i moved yesterday. My lease at the Uni accommodation was up, so i found a room to rent for the rest of the summer. I'm really happy with it, because it is closer to campus and to Byres Road, the main street that runs up the west side of the campus. I only moved about half a mile, but i feel so much better. I no longer live in a backstreet international student ghetto that doesn't even boast a corner shop (the closest shop is down the road and around the corner). Now i even have a coffee shop right around the corner and a bus stop merely one block away. One of the best parts is the view that greets me every time i walk out the front door of the building:

Way better than this:

Another of the best parts is my flatmate, Kerra, who is a really nice med student.

In other news:

After moving yesterday, which took about an hour, i met Debbie down at the West End Festival. The festival lasts two weeks, and there is a parade and street party to kick it off. We watched the parade, which seemed to have a plants and insects theme, then we walked around drinking beer and listening to various bands. It was a lovely day, and i managed to get some sun on my white shoulders, thus partially evening out the farmer tan. You can see a bunch of pictures i took in my Glasgow set on Flickr.

And what the heck is this?

I was given three of these as change for a tenner at the post office the other day.

I thought these were extinct.

Maybe it's like the US Post Office, which in the early 2000s quickly became the only place to get the Sacajawea dollar.