Yesterday was pretty chaotic in HouseGoesHome world, so I thought I’d give you another installment from DD’s travels today while I regroup.
One of the main reasons for my overseas travel was to visit my youngest daughter, who has been living with her Mum outside Glasgow since January.
She has also been working Friday to Sunday in a very successful, newly established gelato store on the Southside.
This job was preceded by a year working for Ciccone and Son’s Gelato in Glebe, so gelato is her unexpectedly found passion.
My visit needed to fit around her work schedule, so we arranged to meet for Sunday breakfast before she started her shift at 11am. After a catching up and some surprisingly good coffee, we walked to the gelato shop where I was amazed to find people were queueing to have gelato for breakfast.
In the cab back to the hotel I asked the driver if Brexit had had an impact on Scotland – and in typically Glaswegian style I was told “Och pal, its f##cked the country – we cannae get doctors, nurses or tradesmen anymore – they’ve all f##cked off hame (home) – the bloody Tory’s have a lot to
answer for!”
Succinct and to the point.
The day was “dreich” – the wonderfully descriptive Scots term for grey, wet and windy – and so a good opportunity for a laundry day. At the down at heel, cash only laundrette, I was shocked to
discover that it was GBP15 (AUD$30) to self-wash and dry my clothes. My mood declined when the pound coins I had brought from Australia were refused along with a 20 pound paper note. They were old currency and so a soggy trip to a nearby cash machine was required to secure legal tender.
As I idly watched the machine spin, I googled how to exchange old UK banknotes as well as the cost of laundry in Sydney and discovered that it would be just $22 at a laundrette in The Rocks. I now understood my daughter’s complaints that things were much more expensive than Sydney.
Exchanging the notes would require a trip to one of 30 specially designated post offices, while the amnesty for old pound coins has passed and exchange would have required a visit to the Royal Mint!
Heading to my hotel via the pedestrianised Sauchihall Street I noted that the street had lost some of its former lustre, with many closed down stores, although there were some new entrepreneurial additions.
I spent a lazy afternoon watching the Rugby World Cup before meeting Rebecca for a delicious dinner in a Glaswegian curry house in Merchant City.
The weather the next morning was wet and windy, so we decided to train to one of my favourite cities – and birthplace of Harry Potter – Edinburgh.
As we traversed the country, amazingly the rain cleared and we were treated to that rarest of Scottish experiences – blue sky and sunshine!
Our first order of business was lunch followed by – at my daughter’s suggestion – a visit to Joelato for the simply the best pistachio gelato I have ever had, accompanied by an excellent coffee.
We headed out into the sunshine and up onto the Royal Mile, which was heaving with tourists, touts and buskers. We paused to listen to some bagpipes and admire a remarkable owl before heading up
to the Castle where they were dismantling the enormous steel framework used for the Edinburgh Tattoo.
Retreating from that chaos, we boarded a hop-on/hop off bus tour and enjoyed a pleasant hour taking in the sights and history of this ancient city.
Less enjoyable was the very loud commentary of two older ladies who incessantly discussed every minute and minutiae of their day. The reputation of loud American tourists is safely intact.
We stayed on the bus until the Grassmarket where we walked up Victoria Street – the inspiration of Daigon Alley in Harry Potter – and another World Heritage site, before meandering through back streets. Re-emerging on the Royal Mile where we
side stepped the crowds and descended the other side past New College and had a quick peek inside the very Hogwarts looking quad.
Our final stop were the squares and space of the New Town before we left the sunshine and trained back to Glasgow for dinner and discussions of what we’d do when my daughter came to stay with my brother’s family in Oxford in a few day’s time.
But before then, I was heading to London and Bath via Bristol, necessitating an early morning flight on the misleadingly named EasyJet, who due to infrequent flights and frequently cancelled services are anything but easy and hence more commonly known as “Sleazyjet”.
After clearing security around 7:30 a.m. I was pleased to see my flight was on time and I settled in for coffee, an egg roll (a Glasgow specialty of a greasy fried egg on a soft white bap) and some people watching.
It did not disappoint, as it became clear that apart from gelato, Glaswegians had a thirst for other types of breakfast too! Nothing says breakfast like a pint of Tennant’s Lager!
Song of the day: ABBA “Super Trouper”
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