Looking for the Apple Store in Glasgow...

I was looking for the Apple Store in Glasgow, to get some doodads for my iPod touch. I walked up and down the street I don’t know how many times…

Mouse

This is a mouse that was annoying me, by scrabbling about right underneath my bed at night when I was trying to sleep. I cunningly trapped him by having a bathtub that he couldn’t climb out of. Actually, I’m not sure how he got into the bathtub in the first place – I’m pretty sure there’s no mouse-navigable path. Anyway, once he was in the bathtub, I captured him (using the lid of a CD-cake, much as you would use a glass to trap a fly) and transported him to a wooded area, where I released him onto a fast food burger container. I thought that might ease his transition from a man-made world to a natural one. However, he was quite shy, and I never really got a good shot of him.

Spud Harvest

I harvested some of my spuds – the first of the three planters. I’ve been neglecting them shamefully, and the plants are basically dead, so it was time. Plus, I cunningly managed to leave my freezer door open, which meant I had to suddenly cook a whole bunch of food, and adding potatoes to the mix seemed a good idea. I think some of them were trying to sprout, as they had odd little manky bits on their skins, but some swift peeler action soon dealt with that. I’ve used about half of this pile in a stew, which should last me a few days. I have now eaten one of the stew portions, and the potatoes were quite tasty!

Spud plants growing happily on my balcony

The journey up was longer than expected (signal problems, apparently), but it could have been worse – apparently, trains heading north through Preston were being turned back, which means we were lucky we got through! In the end, most of the delay was caused by having to take on people who otherwise would have been stranded and taking on extra stops. I have to say, the Virgin staff on board did go the extra mile, heading up the train checking with each passenger to see if they had any trouble with connections, and helping get information on what trains they could get. It was a nice change to the usual state of affairs, with no information at all…

Once I got to Shotts, I had to get a bus to Harthill – fortunately, I thought to check the travel helpline mentioned on the bus stop with the last few ergs of power in my mobile phone, as it turned out that the bus I was expecting to get (Blue Bus 701) had finished for the evening, and the bus I wanted (Stuart Coaches 366) left from a different bus stop, going the other way. Could have been a bit of a pain otherwise.

I treated myself to a Chinese take-away, not feeling terribly like cooking. I wish I’d gone for an extra portion of chips, as it turns out that travelling takes a lot of energy…

Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed! Nothing wrong with my brother’s place… but there really is no place like home!