It’s 59 days to Christmas and it’s beginning to warm up. I’ve been looking at the weather forecast because I want to get a cube of soil for the garden, however I don’t want to get it delivered if it is going to rain for a week and unfortunately, it’s a coming.

On Saturday I eased into the day, went into the library to return my book titled “Filth” written by Irvine Welsh. It’s quite the read! This has got to be one of the most disgusting, disturbing books that I have read in a long time, but I loved it because I can relate to much of the content and it reminds me of the world that I grew up in. I don’t mean that I am like the character, however I knew folk like him and just the language and sexism is so refreshing compared to world we live in today. It was not an easy read; it took me a few weeks to get through it due to the stomach-churning events. Definitely not for the faint hearted.

In the afternoon I did a few jobs in the garage that I have been putting of for way too long. The architraves around the window and hanging a curtain was the priority due to the anticipated rising temperatures during the day. This window is on the eastern wall and so it gets the sun from very early in the morn. This is the wall that I sheeted and insulated earlier in the year and does it make a difference…….so much easier to keep the house comfortable even on the hottest days.

Sunday up at the crack of 7am and after a slow start out on the bike. Took a route that I haven’t done in years, still local but it has many hills. The hills were not really the problem; the heat was the problem. The air temperature didn’t feel that bad, it was the UV I think that was like a knife to the skin. Even my headgear was getting hot. They were predicting afternoon storms and they came to pass late afternoon. One of the worst storms that we have had in many a longtime. The hail combined with the winds made for a very noisy and house shaking wild ride.

The power went off minutes after the storm passed as a huge clap of thunder resonated nearly overhead. The power was off until about 2am when I was awoken by the sound of the doorbell ringing. It’s plugged into the mains and very loud. But at least I knew I could make my toast and have coffee for breakfast rather than having to have cold pizza. Oh yes, I got a pizza after my bike ride even although I didn’t ride that far, it was a fast-food weekend after all.

Today Monday, back to work and the temperature reached 38C. The humidity was only 20% which was quite amazing after yesterday’s mental storms. There is more rain on the way this week and the temps are supposed to fall which is great news, but I think I will have to postpone the delivery of me topsoil. So,…….. only 59 days till Christmas…………….

The temps have been rising this week, although not unbearable. Mind you, the sun through the bus window when I’m heading west, is extremely hot and as long as the air con is working I can tolerate for the short time that it takes to get back.

The back room that leads to the deck has a sliding door and I always leave it open, but a cat at some point has pissed at the door and the room now smells of Fucking cats. I bought a can of spray which is supposed to negate the cats urine, so far I’ve sprayed it twice and there is still a whiff of cat through the apple spray enzyme killer. I think it will take a few more weeks to finally eradicate it. I might have to get the carpet steam cleaned.

I bought some Dogbane or coleus canina whose smell apparently annoys cats and therefore they should stay away. I have two plants at the back door and I’m hoping that they work. I have another coleus in the garden that I’ll put in pots and leave near the bottom of the stairs because they have a similar smell. I personally would rather bump it off but that might be too much paperwork and drama.

Friday was a busy day and so Saturday turned out to be a lazy day partly due to the weather. It was hot hot hot. Air conditioning was on early in the day, however I had to venture out for an hour or so to back fill the retaining wall behind the shed before the rain came. They were predicting storms and of course they were correct. About an hour after I had shifted the earth the hail, winds and rain came thundering through.

After the storm the temps fell and it was a lot more pleasant. No damage thankfully, although the downpipe at the front of the house came loose, I’d forgotten to glue it into place, I shall do that this week. So many jobs to do around the place.

Sunday morning was overcast and cool and prefect for a wee jaunt oot on the bike. I did just over 20km and got back before it got too hot. After lunch did the shopping and then back to the air conditioning. Oh it’s Jacaranda season 😁

I saw this show advertised last week and I thought, I’m going to buy a ticket… and so I did.

It’s been a busy few weeks, even although I’ve had no work for two weeks. Last week I went back to work, which is good ’cause I need the money.

I’m back driving the bus and between shifts I’ve been finishing off the retaining wall and fixing the stormwater pipe which was cracked and I think this is part of the reason why the ground level has been dropping causing the shed slab to crack. Well I’m really hoping that this will fix the problem. It’s been a lot of heavy work and my body has suffered and it’s taken a few days to recover sometimes.

So getting back to the concert. I like Pink Floyd, I’ve listened to them for most of my life, at least over 50 years. I know almost every note, the lyrics and the way it makes me feel. I’ve never been lucky enough to see the original band and of course it’s too late now.

The show got off to a bad start, an omen indeed. The two lead guitarist were silent, but this was rectified after about ten minutes and they started again. You can forgive this technical issue, gremlins can be anywhere.

What I struggled with from the beginning was the feeling that they were not playing in sinc. The drummer was about a heartbeat out of kilter. Everyone in the band could obviously play their instruments, however I struggled with the interpretation of the music and of course the out of sinc playing . And then there were the two drunks sitting in front that also added to the ambience. One of them turned round and looked at me and I mouthed “Shut the Fuck Up!”

The interval couldn’t come soon enough, and when it did I left and headed home. I noticed that another couple that had been sat in the same row as me also had enough and were heading for the hills.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ipswich was still very lively at night, and it feels very safe too. Many of the restaurants were full, great news for the Swich.

At home I watched YouTube for a while and then headed to bed because I want to go out on the bike Sunday, which I did. Only a short run, but it was good to get out because last week I had no energy to go anywhere.

on the 11th of August this year I got the train from Glasgow Central to Chippenham, I may have mentioned this before of course. However, as we all know by now the train journey did not go to plan. I got chucked off the train at Stafford and had to find my own way to Chippenham, well with a lot of help from my friend Roseanne.

She was the one that told me that I could claim for a refund due to the delay that I endured, however the funny thing is that I was only about 10 mins later than the original time at Chippenham where I alighted.

When I got home, I applied via the website (19th Aug) and that was where the saga began. My first claim was rejected as it did not meet the criteria. I got an email from Sasha in customer service and she explained that I had filled the form out incorrectly and if I submit it once more then I should be ok because she confirmed that my train was running late.

I did as advised and once more my claim was rejected. I did another one and that too got refused. I emailed Sasha to give her an update and she asked me to submit another claim with a few amendments and if I had any more trouble she would assist me.

I was getting a wee bit pissed off by now as you can imagine, and guess what my fourth claim was refused. I emailed Sasha with a very short email saying that the AI Bots had once more refused my claim even although I had been told by Avanti that my train had been late. She asked me to give her a breakdown of my plan B trains and times if possible, to assist with the claim. Luckily, I still had the conversation on Messenger between Roseanne and myself with the trains she told me to take and so it was a relatively easy process to get the train times.

By this time I had lost all hope of a positive resolution but was merely going through the process to see what the outcome would be, was it going to be futile?

Now was I surprised today (30th Sep) when I got an email from the wonderful Sasha to tell me that my claim has been successful and I will get a 50% refund for my ticket because my train was delayed from 30 mins to 59 mins and this equates to a 50% refund. £69.03

It only took 6 weeks from my first interaction with Avanti and part of the reason I think for this crazy fiasco is that the claim website is not well designed. When you fill out the claim you need to put in the details of the train journey. On the first occasion I entered the amended journey that I was forced to take and of course this was wrong. So, then I entered my actual journey and was told that there had been no problem even although by now I had been told by Avanti that my train had been delayed. Go figure. There are only around 200 characters I believe where you can give an explanation which of course is not sufficient. So thankfully Sasha stepped in and I was able to explain in detail what had happened.

So there you go, persevere and you sometimes have a win.

One of the best and most interesting places I have visited in years. Paul Lyons, our tour guide for the day was just magic. Magnificent even. His wealth of experience and Glasgow patter made the experience one of the highlights of my trip.

He started off by saying that there were 48,000 panes of glass in the roof, which by the way need to be kept clean. Not a job I would want to do.

In this old platform above, they will hopefully relay the track and put in a steam train, they already have the train so they are just waiting for the track to be laid.

Almost all of the original station from the Victorian times is there. The huge hollow girders that you can actually climb into, not by the tourist of course, but by those who inspect and look after this masterpiece. Paul told us that the rivets were perfectly formed even although they are not on view. This is the pride and workmanship that the Victorians had that we had sadly lost.

We explored the lower levels where you can see more of this brilliant design. When we were told some of the stats about the weight above us and how nothing has changed then it just shows you the genius of the Victorians. At every turn and room, the stories and anecdotes were coming thick and fast and the laughter was infectious.

He also told us that anything built after 1960 seems to be where issues arise from, the older build is just the same as the day it was built. This is a very common thing within the UK as a whole. Blocks of flats built in Glasgow in the 60’s have been and gone, built and then raised to the ground in seconds only to be replaced. Pride in workmanship just does not seem to exist due to the levels of greed and corruption which is not only a Uk thing but worldwide.

One of the more solemn parts of the tour, where we entered the small museum which is a work in progress. Paul is very passionate about his role as historian and is stories and personality are what makes this tour all the better. But as we stood in front of this video being projected behind Paul showing the names and addresses of all the Glaswegians that were killed in World War One, he was moved to tears…..it was a very poignant moment.

Was the sacrifice of these men in vain? The world seems to be on a knife’s edge once more as the fascist and dictators return globally.

The Motto on the Caledonian Railway Company is “Nemo me impune lacessit”, which translates to “No one attacks me unpunished“

It also happens to be the motto of Scotland 🙂

I should have also mentioned that a year ago Paul fell and broke his back and spent nearly 8 months in recovery. He is on pain medication still and at the end of the tour he was obviously in pain and the only reason I know this was that as we were just about to leave I saw him looking as if he was in pain. I asked him if he was ok? and he said that he will be after he takes a couple of wee tablets. Every day he does this tour he is a force of nature and you would never know that this gentle giant had suffered so much over the past year. I’m not easily impressed by folk, however Paul Lyons is one man that is at the top of my list.

If you wish to book your tour then go to the website below and have an experience that you’ll never forget…

https://www.glasgowcentraltours.co.uk/

Well, the sun is still shining and that’s why I am surprised that my nose is running like a waterfall. It’s a three-day weekend and I had things to do and no people to see so it was a perfect weekend. Friday morning woke up and the snot had begun then followed by the coughing. Drugs were taken and for the most part did nothing. The anti-histamine was no match for the torrent of snot.

I persevered and ventured to the garden where I proceeded to fill the green bin. Cut down the agave’s and filled up the green bin. I wonder what the weight limit is on those things?

Saturday was mostly nothing…..

Sunday, I pushed on and went out on the bike. First time for a couple of weeks and I really wanted to get back into training for the longer runs while the weather is fine. My legs are just not up to a forty K ride and neither is me bum, so a few rides are needed to get bike ready.

However, I headed east this time and round a few back streets that I don’t normally go through, mostly to stay away from the traffic but also to go somewhere different. I found a new shortcut path in the industrial area which I will use again because it cuts out a fair bit of dodgy road.

I only did 15km and felt fine, I could have easily done a lot more……mind you there were very few hills on this route so that makes a difference. Back in the house and it was double hamburgers for lunch.

I did the shopping after my shower because I need to go and get drugs, kill two birds with one stone etc. By this time, I had used half a box of tissues and my nose was worse than Rudolph’s. The snot was abundant and my nose was just not big enough to get rid of it all and so it went down my throat which caused the coughing to ensue. It felt that I was about to bring up a lung, my toes were tingling with the violence of each bout. At one point I even stuffed tissues up my nose to stem the flow and had to repeat that process few times. It was such a delightful evening and I was just waiting till about 9pm so that I could dope myself up and go to bed.

I only took one cold and flu tablet but it was just enough to allow me to sleep until about 5am, I never heard next door go out on his bike at 4am ……win win!

Now it’s Monday and I do feel a lot better although the body is feeling a little bit worse for wear. I didn’t use any drugs today; I can’t really when I’m going to drive the bus. Apart from my nose feeling a little bit tender I am surprised that my back feels as if I have had a major workout. All that coughing yesterday had made me use muscles in my back that haven’t been used for a while, I mean I didn’t do any heavy lifting so all I can think is that because the coughing was so violent I have given my body quite the shock.

I’ll go to bed in a couple of hours and I will not take any drugs this evening either. Mind you my back might also be sore from lying in bed too much last night and I am sure by tomorrow it will be fine.

I had to post a travel card back to Ken in Houston and I ended up bringing it back to Australia with me and so I got more stamps and sent it off.

In my haste I forgot to write Scotland at the end of the address because I had already addressed it before leaving UK.

It looks like it took the long way home via America because that’s the only place a town called Houston exists apparently 🤔

But I like that someone has written in capitals “TRY SCOTLAND” 😂😂

A few days before I left the UK I stayed with Michael and Roseanne, they used to live in Pinner near London but managed to escape to the country a while ago.

They now live in a lovely wee town called Calne which dates back to 978,which makes it Anglo Saxon. 100 years later it became a market town. It’s an area that I will hopefully explore in the future.

There are so many historical sites here nearby and I only managed to get to Avebury stone circle which dates back 5000 years. The largest stone is over 100 tons, how the hell did they move these stones and set them up in such geometric patterns. I love visiting ancient places and on this trip home I’ve seen a few. Avebury is by far the biggest and most impressive that I’ve seen on this trip.

A wee wander through the gardens.

The weather was great too and sitting out on the patio with Roseanne and Michael drinking gin and tonics was just grand. In the morning I was treated to square slice with Broon sauce.

I’ve been home a week and really haven’t done much. It took a few days to get over the flight, I felt exhausted for about three days. It might have been the shock of seeing blue skies and sunshine. 

The car started OK, which is always a good thing. I applied for both passports, the British one about $200 cheaper than the Australian one. Quite the rip off. Both have only 7 months left on them so I can’t really use them anymore and I’m hoping to go a wandering at the end of the year. 

The garden and house were all in fine fettle although the weeds have made their presence known and I haven’t dealt with all of them yet. I did cut the grass and nearly filled me new green bin to the top. 

Glad to be back in my own place. I am very grateful to Ken and Linda for looking after me for a couple of weeks and I’m sure that now that I have gone, they can once more roam the house in perfect nudity uninterrupted. I’m just happy that I can also just leave my dishes in the sink for a day or two before they hit the dishwasher without feeling exceedingly guilty. 

The weather was a bit dull for the first few days back but now that the sun has appeared and the clouds have fucked off it feels like a perfect winter, still a bit fresh at night but today it got up to 25 C. 

Spent one day reinstalling WIN 11. For some reason it lost my desktop, and I could not find it anywhere. I looked in the registry and many other sensitive areas and came up empty handed and so I formatted C and reinstalled. I didn’t lose much because I only install a couple of programs on the C and the rest shared over the other two drives. 

I tried to download WIN 11 directly but no good and so I had to install WIN 10 from the disc and get the thousand updates needed to get WIN 11 up to date. It does start a bit quicker now which makes it all worthwhile. I also set up windows restore which never seems to stay active. I think that after each windows update it must switch it off. I’ll have to check that because I know I have activated it and then there is no restore point when I need it. 

I walked into Ipswich yesterday to the library to find something to read and of course I took this opportunity to stop for a Brisket Burger which is just absolutley delicious.

Today, Sunday, I went out on my bike for the first time in around 7 weeks and my goodness am I unfit. I did a 20km circuit that I often do which as a good mixture of terrain and at times my thighs were just screaming at me. I got out of breath a couple of times and my heart rate was up at 150+ a few times, but my legs……well I didn’t have any. I guess I’ll suffer in the morning for my efforts today and it will be a few weeks before I’ll be getting a pizza after my bike ride. 

Back to work in the morn, make some money to spend at the end of the year. 

Get the train it will be easier they said, you can relax they said, however no one predicted I would be sat next to Scum and that the train would leave late and it just got later and later as we headed south. Eventually we were running so late that they told us that we needed to get off at Stafford and get a plan B.

Now I call them Scum because as per Rab C Nesbit’s description of Scum they were the epitome.

My plan B goes like this; suburban train to Birmingham New Street and then from there go to Bristol and on to Chippenham. Roseanne has been updating me throughout the afternoon and she has been more helpful than the train staff.

We got about ten minutes of a warning that the train I started on was changing plans and for an hour leading up to this the train was packed because there were so many people heading south. The Scum were telling folk that there seats had been pinched at Glasgow Central, which was shit, and so they were not going to move and give the folk that booked the seats they were sitting in. Very logical!

The Scum’s child was a Fuckin nuisance. He tried to shut the window blind a few times and I just stopped him and then he began to complain to his mother who looked at me and told him to shut up… but he did not. I would have happily thrown him from the train.

As the journey progressed they had food and large bottles of beer of course because that’s what you do. And the kid just continued to be a pain in the arse talking on the phone to imaginary friends. Even my noise cancelling headphones could not block this wee prick out.

When it was finally time for them to leave they got up and made their way to the door along with half the carriage and then started shouting at the Indian woman behind them because she was shoving into them, I personally don’t think she had much choice as she too was being pushed.

The expletives and racial slurs were many accompanied by clarification of her being pregnant, I think she was just fat. So as usual the perception of the Glaswegian as a Scum drunkered has come to fruition for all to see.

Got to love Scum…

Eventually I reached my destination and Roseanne was there to meet me 😁

Happy Days 😀