online......Ha!!!! with update...

 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!!

online !!

 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!!

Washday

 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!

A different sort of teef!!

 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!!

Glasgow

 Up before dawn today and out just before 7 as the moon was setting

A chilly wait for the connection at Ayr bus station . I thought that I'd just missed the previous bus but heard someone phoning to say that he was running late as the previous bus had been cancelled.

Arrived in a damp Glasgow...and I couldn't work out which bus stop I needed...so I walked down Sauchiehall Street and up to Park Circus where Alliance Française and the Goethe Institute share a pair of Georgisn buildings.

The course went ok...It is covering my weak points...translation ( I've always tried to think in the language that I'm learning, which makes translation difficult dometimes) grammar and spealing to people!! I think I'm at the right level, but it will be a lot of work...but worth it

I liked this diagram...

Then a walk back in the dampness...

The new building and the old church tower are one property

window tax

the Glasgow school of art..still not rebuilt after the two fires. it isn't the one right on the street, but the "wrapped" one just behind.

another construction site further near the centre along Sauchiehall street...I think that they are retaining an amount of the facade.

I had lunch in Waterstones' café..it is the biggest branch that I have seen...on five floors!!!!!

and at the end of the street...

and just before the bus station...

True dat!!!!

No waiting on buses on the way home...and I'm shattered!!.....as the Oily One remarked as we messaged...."brainwork" !!!

loose ends

 A day taken easily! 

I eventually went to town in the car (it needs a weekly run and I have plans for Sunday)

What did I get...

A couple of paint test pots

fresh food shopping..but not a massive amount

topped up the fuel tank in the car

checked with the Nationwide...as I have travel insurance with them and couldn't get through on the phone this morning to the insurance company they use...AND the chatbot was too busy...no I don't have to inform them of my upcoming trip...but it would be good if I can.

checked with the travel agent....all boxes ticked and I have to get an Eurail pass online.

All those bits do add up!!

and I saw the sky from a carpark....

Then home...and didn't get a Eurail card as it looks like the savings are just on weekends....

What did look a better deal on the SNCF  French railways website was a "Carte +".50% reductions...cost €29 for a year.

That was my first purchase on a website in French!!

The alarm is set for tomorrow morning...time for the shorter evening leçon before "lights out"

Teeth! and Autocorrect

 I made a mistake yesterday.....I remembered the dental appointment time as 14.00...it eas 4pm!!

As it was Baltic outside I decided not to go for a walk around town!!

Cue some magazine reading...and the dentist saw me as soon as my top plate returned (later than usual...they were getting worried!) from the lab...

and a very efficient root extraction...and it did have a small spot of infection starting...so a fortunate call to remove it.

Back home on the bus...soup for supper.

 I've been taking arnica tablets , plus a little arnica cream on my face to reduce swelling/any bruising...so I've only needed one dose of paracetamol.

A good night's sleep....and from a fairly bright dawn today has turned pale grey.

The radar forecast on the Met office site is showing light rain/snow...cold and damp.

Not a day for early rising!!!

I've turned off autocorrect and autosuggestions on my tablet and phone.

So far so good. Even correcting mistakes from tapping on a small screen and getting the letter next to the one required is quicker! 

Now if there is a mistake...it is all mine!!!