Panic Set In

I arrived in a wet and miserable Glasgow after the first leg of my journey late yesterday afternoon.  I made up for that with a lovely evening being fed and watered by Anna and having a good catch-up.  However I realised just how dependent upon Broadband I am when I realised that Anna's Broadband provider had been changed and that I couldn't log on to the router:  the password on the router didn't work.  In fact after  dinner Anna discovered from her son who had set it up that the password had changed it and after a few hours I was connected again.  However it did make me think quite hard.  I actually got quite agitated by the inability to attach myself to my cyberworld via my own laptop. 

A few days ago our news had reported upon the effect that having a day completely removed from all electronic media had had on some students who took part in an experiment.  I have to say that I thought that they over-reacted.  Now I'm not so sure that I wouldn't have reacted in the same way.  To some extent I think my reaction was due to the unexpected nature of the withdrawal.  Even so I think I'll trty and avoid it again.

This will be my last post for a couple of days unless I have a few minutes to spare in Heathrow Airport and can log on.  In a couple of hours I shall be setting off for Glasgow airport and the main leg of the journey.  I shall hopefully arrive in Napier at 0930 on Saturday NZ time which will be about 2130 on Friday UK time.  Of course the time difference will alter again in a couple of days when the UK daylight saving/British Summertime ends.

I'll post about the journey on this blog and then I shall be back on A Hebridean in New Zealand. I hope that you will follow me.

That Time Again

It's just after 11pm or, in my parlance, 2300 hrs on Tuesday 26th as I start this post.  I'm sitting in bed with some Alkan piano music playing.   I don't quite know where this sudden going to bed 'early' and  reading a book or reading blogs has suddenly come from.   I've had a great day and, have shared a bottle of red with a friend this evening (perhaps, given the proportion that I guzzled as compared with her, 'shared' is not quite the correct word).  Tomorrow I shall wake up (this is a prediction based upon the experience of the last 23,500 or so mornings) and by lunchtime the bed will be re-made and the kitchen cleaned and the house will be ready for me to say farewell to it for the next six months.

I would like to think that the plans I had for posting a very brief pictorial review of the last six months will come to fruition but somehow I think that's not going to happen.

Tomorrow afternoon I will start my journey South.  I feel rather like a Godwit or a Swallow in search of constant warmth. 

What?

When Anna and I went to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery to see the Glasgow Boys Exhibition - about which I have not yet blogged much to my shame - we also had coffee in the Gallery's restaurant.  On the table was a curious thing:

What, I wondered, was it?  Well the answer was a

Not the best piece of photography I'm afraid but I think you'll get the drift.  I would have got something a bit clearer from their website but it's down at the moment.   And actually I did wonder what had happened to good old service where a waiter caught your eye or whatever.  There was a bit of conflict in my brain, however, between the me that is the old and the Mr Gadget representing the new.  However it was all a bit academic on the day because I didn't get whatever it was that I'd ordered until after we'd finished our coffee and were just getting ready to leave.  By then I didn't want it and didn't have it.  So perhaps all the gadgets in the world don't necessarily provide good service after all.

Is It Possible?

I've just been looking through some of the photos I have taken this summer so that I could do a posting summarising some of the things that have happened.  All of a sudden I saw something that made me wonder.  Unfortunately it was only part of a photo and by the time it was enlarged it's a bit blurred just where it matters.  But could it be that a certain Blogger and his two dogs were in West Wemyss  on the Fife coast on the 24 August at 1952 hrs?