Navigation Fail

Friday:  Driving over the Kingston Bridge in very heavy traffic and pouring rain, en route to Kings Park for Jess's oboe exam, I managed to get completely lost.  I couldn't work out where the satnav was trying to take  us.  Time was running out fast.  In desperation, I parked the car and called a taxi.  Problem: where were we?  There was no street name anywhere so I had to find someone who knew the street.  Then the taxi took ages to arrive and so we got to the church extremely late.

On the way home, I was being directed to the Squinty Bridge which had a big tailback of rush-hour traffic.  So I tried to be clever and drive on to the Clyde Tunnel, only to find that the access road was closed and only one tunnel open.  That meant driving all the way to Braehead and back round to join another big traffic queue.  A round trip that should have taken 45 minutes has ended up taking over two hours!

I hope Jess has passed her Grade 3 exam.

Is This What Used To Be Called A Trunk Road?

Kitchen Day Today!

Today is KITCHEN DAY.  And also CARPET DAY.  First problem: Ikea got the order wrong and only sent 1 worktop when there should be 3.  The joiner was not best pleased because he'd agreed to work extra time before his holidays on the understanding that this was a quick simple job.  Now he can't finish till Ikea sends 2 more worktops over from Braehead.  We decided to replace the dishwasher as well and Curry's have promised to deliver a new one by tomorrow, Friday.

Our new grey bedroom carpet looks great but they had to take the doors off because it is thicker than the old carpet and they'll have to come back and trim a bit off the bottom of both doors.

Getting There ... Slowly

Our new bed has been delivered and needs to be built up.  I went to B&Q today and got two sheets of plywood cut up to make a wardrobe.  It will be a built-in one with sliding doors and it will take a day or so to make.  By the end of the week, the new carpet should be fitted so we might be able to start using the room in a week's time.

Thundering Down

Hope Jess is having better weather at Toward than we are here.  The rain came down like it does sometimes in France.  The gutters could not cope, traffic was gridlocked all afternoon.  As well as that, there was thunder & lightning.  One bolt came so close that it sounded like a bomb had gone off in the gardens.

My New Pen

 I found this pen in a shop in London near our hotel.  It says on the label that it is not suitable for children under 36 months old.

Welly Poem

Found this poem today:-

Wellies are wonderful
Wellies are swell
They keep out the water
And they keep in the smell!

Booked Up

Finally decided on how we were going to France next month ... we've booked a ferry crossing that will take us to the port of St Malo in Brittany and then we drive down the west side of France.  The idea is to avoid having to drive round Paris.  In theory, it takes about an hour to cross Paris by car.  In practice, there are usually huge traffic jams.  You always have to have a loo stop just before Paris because we've often ended up stuck in traffic, not moving, for three or four hours.

80 Degrees North

That's as close as we got to a polar bear ... and you wouldn't want to get any closer.  He's eating his lunch of fresh seal on an ice floe at the edge of the polar ice-cap.

The Ocean Nova

This is our ship - the Ocean Nova.  Built in Poland, her captain was a Russian. She is quite small so she can in closer to land.  Also, she is specially strengthened to stand  up to Polar ice

Two More Photos Of The Storm

   

Storm At Sea

This is us crossing the Norwegian Sea heading North to Svalbard.  It took two days and it was stormy like this all the time.  The film clip is taken through the window of the lounge on the top deck of the ship.  That means that we are about 15 meters above the level of the water.  You can see why nobody was allowed outside!

Beware Bears

 This road sign says "Applies to all of Svalbard".  In other words, beware of bears wherever you are.  People carry rifles any time they go out of town and they are allowed to shoot polar bears only in self-defence.

The first shot is fired to miss, so that it will scare the bear off.  If it keeps on coming, your only hope is to shoot to kill.

Hens' Horror Movie

Spitsbergen

 

It was like this even at one o'clock in the morning in the Arctic.

Back From The Arctic

Arrived home at 9pm.  The train from London only took 4 hours .... amazing!  It will take longer than that to unpack.