I took a different route from the bust stop today..not along Sauchiehall Street, but the next one up..it goes out from BuchananStreet where the bus station is....past the College of Music.....and building sites..and buildings of all ages...
and the Glasgow School of Art....to Garnethill..and to Charing Cross...
Then the footbridge over the junction to the more "genteel" area...
and the lovely building of the Alliance Française and Goethe Institute
and the lesson...which went well
It was bitterly cold as I waited for the bus today...Baltic, as they say.
Checked in at the Dancing Thistle...reassuring her that the latest money from Sales went through ok. She is settling nicely in her new premises.
Lunch in Waterstones and I saw that I had a missed call...from the Opticians that I'd phoned first thing....walked along to see them and instead of missing part of tomorrow's lesson to get back to Ayr, they had a cancellation.
Time to walk over to the other side of the river where I'd bought the laptop...for instructions on how to find accents...go to settings...change language!!
Back to the opticians...I have the beginnings of conjunctivitis...so five days of eye drops four times a day ..and check back next Tuesday. You never realise how difficult it is when the inside of the upper eyelid needs to be looked at.....
Which left time to finish off with the French Conversation group. Just five of us and our teacher was away...but we managed ok!!
I read about clearing energy pathways in the house, ready for Chinese New Year..the Fire Horse on the 17th of this month I think.
Daughter said it was just common sense!
Whichever way you look at it, it feels better.
I've done the hallway and stairs..
shoeracks and linenbasket will stay...
As it was cold wet and windy out there...Baltic in other words...this was good exercise!!
the wheel in the Saltire bag is on its way out, the bag of sprockets and chainrings need to be taken to the track again, hopefully to sell.
bedroom, living room and kitchen are inching towards improvement.
study and sewing/bike room have had bike stuff returned to them for now...but they are still usable rooms.
Then I put my feet up.....and researched basic hotel prices....
13 nights in a budget Ibis hotel in Limoges...£530 or so... a little discount for longer stay and a little more for being a member...which cost me nothing. Not the one I wanted right near the station....but only 5km out...a decent walk...and there are buses.
Then I looked at one night near Edinburgh airport on the way home....from £160 upwards....and not the nearest....so I went for the second nearest...a five minute bus ride...good old Travelodge...and even that was £122. Monday is an expensive day....
I'm booking direct with each hotel group...far better than the various booking sites..which take a considerable percentage and are not the easiest to work with when you run a hotel.
Landing back after 9pm means that the furthest I could get by bus at that time of night would be Glasgow....
I think that is all I need to organise now...apart from my bag!!
Adding the expenses up it feels a lot in a way..but then I look at what I could have easily paid without being careful....and it is for two weeks. I know how to be frugal too...and the emphasis will be on photography, drawing, relaxing....and a lot of walking!!
I am completely failing to download my coursework and homework..let alone open the download.
I've emailed the course tutor...in French of course.....
They are using powerpoint presentations....I've just had a thought....I wonder if that is Windoze? Although usually if that is the case the tablet and phone DO download it and show the W.....which means that I can't open it...
Seeing as I printed off my flight schedule for May and the SNCF Carte+ with no problems....
You can seriously go off computers......
Brother reminded me...you can open Word docs with Libre Office....
so at least I could read it....and use the reply bit on the AF course page to send the answers. I suppose that proves you either knew them or copied the answers off the powerpoint slide after the one with the exercise!
But....I don't know where the accents are on the laptop keyboard....which is a problem in Welsh as well as French..if not quite as much. On a touchscreen you can choose é..or ê...et cetera.....on a keyboard you get eeeee when you hold it down 😄
So they got an apology....
This has taken five hours of screenwork and my eyes are complaining!!
I did the ironing yoday...the smell...and the satisfaction!!
However just really distraction strategy...
Organising trips is bad enough....and having to do it online is worse!!
Still, I managed to get a membership...and so a 10% discount...on a budget hotel at the airport, on the first night in France...
and I got the printer talking with my tablet and phone....
Flight schedule printed
SNCF Carte+ for discount on the area TER trains printed. I've got a bank card holder that can live in.
Then I tried to order the course book for the AF French course....computer fail, the bookshop wanted you to open an account, but the password setting failed....so I did it by phone!!
All this meant that lunch was at nearly 3pm....and my brain had had enough!!
Logging on to the AF website and doing my homework....will wait until tomorrow. I hadn't realised that homework would be online....
So nothing of much use was done after 5pm today...certainly not after dark!!
A definite achievement at this time of year...three washes through..the ironing is "ironing dry"...ie a little damp...and the rest is on the rack in the kitchen in the alcove by a small radiator with a dehumidifier ticking over nicely, sucking the damp from the air.
I had a bigger lunch..I'm trying to change back to that...then the light drizzle started at 2pm as forecast!! A quick dash to get the linefull in then feet up for half an hour. perusing blogs and messages.
A friend over in Aberdeen has bought a SAD lightbox in Aldi for £20...so I thought..at that price...why not?!
Walk down leisurely to the bus stop for 3pm...3.01....realise that bus pass is not with me.....cue brisk walk back up 500m to home and 500m back again!! I just missed the bus, but fortunately it makes a circuit of the schemes on both sides of the village..and does it in 7 minutes ..I arrived at the bus stop just in time!!
At least that was 7 minutes less of being bumped and jolted around...local roads are awful....abd the buses can't avoid them, so they and we are being jolted to bits!!
A successful shopping trip...one "wellness" light box, then in a different shop some well reduced glass boxes with plastic clip on lids.
This means that I can gradually reduce the plastic "carry out" type boxes as they wear out.
A light supper..rounded off with galettes of course! After all it is Imbolc...St Brides day ..when the milk starts to come in for the lanbs not yet born. When we really notice the lengthening daylight. Halfway between the Solstice and the Equinox....already !
A long text chat with the Oily One. Nice to know how he us getting on and that all is ok...apart from the fact that his big van is running on 3 pistons...which probably means an engine rebuild ...about £500 for all the parts for the job...so he'll be working on his own vehicle instead of other peoples' for a while!
Another trip to Glasgow today!!
This time by car ..in the drizzly showers..and it was a home game for Celtic football club...they are over the road from the velodrome and can use "our" car parks...but it isn't reciprocal when there is a big cycling event on..."it's nae fitba' " !! I was lucky to be allowed in and found one of the few spaces!
It isn't just cycling in our building...there are gyms, fitness suites, indoor athletics track, offices....and a health spa!
The Womens Track Fund had a two hour session on...I wasn't there to take part, just to see a couple of friends..and make a new one...she bought a chainring...
and is borrowing a wheel later this month..which hopefully she will buy!
I left at 3pm...apparently Kick off time for the game but people were still walking towards the ground from the local station.
Plenty of police around on motorbikes...I turn onto the motorway after about a mile..and one was just in front of me.
The speed limit there is 50mph...and it needs to be, and urban motorway with junction after junction...quite satisfying to see the speed hogs' guilty consciences kicking in as they notice the police motorbike minding his own business a few cars ahead if me....
After 5 miles , near the edge of Glasgow I can turn off and there is a Waitrose supermarket..I'd forgotten carrots in my shopping the other day...then I can carry on on the old , quieter road home!!
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