Dumbarton Castle

Susan took the day off of work and since we were at a bit of loose end after lunch, we decided to tick off one of the "things we have still to do" boxes and take a trip to the top of Dumbarton Rock to see the castle.

We have been meaning to do this for months, however we just had not got round to it until now.

Susan had been up here many, many times since her Grandfather used to be the custodian of the Castle a long time ago and her best friend, Jacq got married to Rod in the Castle a few years ago.

However, it was my first time up the Rock.

A steep climb up a lot of stairs brought us out looking out over the River Clyde with views to the left up towards the Erskine Bridge and to the right down to Greenock and the Arrochar Alps in the distance.

A short walk along the path leads to a dead-end but gives you a look down the vertical cliff face known as Rhapsody which is generaly considered to be perhaps the world’s hardest traditional rock climb, with the grade of E11.

After a quick look around we walked back along the path and ascended more stairs to the top of the Rock past the French Prison and up towards the Duke of Argyll's Battery, where Susan took the opportunity to straddle a canon!

The view from the top is fantastic and it's a real shame that more people don't come for a visit. So do yourself a favour and check out the link below and come and see a little bit of history for yourself.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/dumbarton/dumbartoncastle/

Goodbye

The day that I have been dreading for a long time finally arrived.

Thomas and Kath were emigrating to Australia with a three month tour of South America on the way.

I am truly delighted that my friends have finally achieved their goal of living and working in Oz, however with them gone it is going to leave an enormous hole in my personal life and the lives of everyone in the group.

However, there was still time for one last night of fun and the unlikely venue for this was One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow where they were staying overnight before heading off the next morning.

Susan and I headed up about 8.00 and were just about last to arrive as usual.

A heavily pregnant and excitable Ann waved from the window as we arrived and after saying our hello's, champagne was ordered from the bar and we raised a toast to our friends.

The patter soon flowed as did the drink and when we ordered pints of Kronenburg and the barman presented them to us in metal tankards, Thomas asked where his Bendy Bully was to a very unimpressed barman. I was pissing myself laughing as Susan just shook her head in a "why me?", kind of way.

As a going away present and as part of Freebay, Thomas presented me with his camping knife/saw. A retractable 8 inch blade with razor sharp teeth.

I was so chuffed that I forgot where I was for a minute and the look of horror on Susan's face told me that perhaps one of Glasgow's poshest establishments wasn't the right place to be waving a big knife about!

We spent the night recounting old tales of fun and shennanigans and as it got late Susan suggested that maybe she would head off and leave me to kick the arse out of it with the guys, but I decided against it as I the night had been fab and that's how I wanted to remember it.

I hugged and kissed my friends and lost it a wee bit as we left, if I'm honest. I blubbed like a little girl on the way back to Dumbarton with Susan giving me her shoulder to cry on, as usual.

And that's it. They're gone and I'm happy and sad at the same time. I read they're travel blog every day and I can only imagine how good it is.

Thomas and Kath, I love and miss you both very much.

Your friend,

Bob.

http://www.getjealous.com/gingertommy

Summer Annual Leave 2007

Much to my delight and to the dissaproving, shaking of heads of my friends I recently had three weeks annaual leave from work for the second time in a few months!

On Saturday 4th August I kicked things off by going to see St. Mirren's opening game of the new season against Motherwell at Love Street with Jim, James, Thomas, Del, Hammey, Robert, Jim Muir, Tom and Estelle's Dad (who was over visiting Scotland for a few days).

We met in the Wee Barrell pub however, the guys had been drinking for a couple of hours already and were already being a bit arsey (what else is new?).

After watching a rather drab game we all headed home to get ready for Thomas and Kath's leaving party that night. The venue was Gabriel's in Paisley where their friends and family had gathered to say goodbye and have a drink and a laugh and to wish them well.

There was beer, a buffet and a karaoke so there was something for everyone. The usual suspects went up to sing with Snelling singing Chocolate Salty Balls and Del's crowd pleaser was Bohemian Rhapsody. I even had a shot at my usual numbers and I couldn't have been that bad since the Karaoke host asked me if I would be interested in joining the company and hosting karaoke parties. I politely responded "no thankyou" rather than being honest and telling him that I would rather eat my own pubic hair!

Highlight of the night was when I sneakily put Robert Stevenson's name up to sing Mr Mister's Broken Wings which he had famously murdered in a pub one night several years ago when we were camping/walking along the Fife Coastal Path. As the DJ shouted out his name, he muttered that he hadn't put his name up and Jim Arthur sussed out what I had volunteered him to sing instantly. Fair play to him, he gave it his all and got the biggest round of applause of the night!

After the buffet, the DJ paused proceedings for Susan McKinnon to make a short announcement wishing them well and presenting them with a scrapbook that we had all contributed to by writing a short story or memory about them and also our favourite photograph of them. It was an inspired idea and they looked emotional reading it. Laughing and smiling as they read it with Snelling's mock front page of the Evening Times with the headline about them emigrating to Oz, a smaller story about millions of pounds mysteriously disappearing from RBS (Thomas' former employer) and a small picture of the Portrush Pig with a Pineapple in his gob with the headline, "Handsome Man Eats Pineapple", stealing the show!

After the event at Gabriels, Susan ran Del and Estelle back to where they were staying for the weekend and I found myself hosting an impromtu party at my flat. At 3.00 I decided to be a party pooper and end the night by calling taxis for everyone. I had an early start the next day and I knew it would take a while for taxis to arrive, but by 4.00 they were gone and I was tucked up in bed.

On Sunday Susan woke me from my slumber to make sure I would be ready in time for today's events. Rod and Jacq had kindly asked us along for a champagne cruise on Loch Lomond followed by lunch in the Marina at Cameron House. The rain didn't dampen things at all, but my fuzzy hangover made me forget to take the camera out of my pocket and take some snaps. Lunch was fab and the fresh air and a couple of glasses of wine chased my hangover away.

Then it was back to Dumbarton to pick up the kids and then onto the caravan at Rosneath, where Jacq and Rod had invited Susan, the kids and I to stay with them for a couple of days.

After settling in, we had a fab night of good food and wine and after a battle Craig, Jake and Georgia finally fell asleep leaving us to chat late into the night.

The next day Rod took us out on his yacht, Taeping which is berthed right infront of the caravan. A quick lesson in the basics of sailing was given and off we went down the Clyde Estuary.

I have to admit that I absolutely loved it although we were only out for a couple of hours. Trying to keep your eye on three excitable kids under 8 years of age and an excitable adult aged 38 wasn't easy for Susan, Jacq and Rod!

I hope to do a bit more sailing pretty soon.

Later in the week, with the weather greatly improved, we headed off to Balloch Country Park and spent the day just doing much of nothing with the kids.

Susan and I were delighted to discover two enormous Monkey Puzzle trees in the gardens of the park. These are our favourite type of tree. Sounds bizzare but I am always amazed that more people don't have them in their gardens. They're funky!

That's why I bought one for Susan for her Christmas. It's only two feet tall at the moment and we will be using zimmers and urinating in our underwear before it reaches maturity, but it's the thought that counts!

Anyway...

By Friday we decided that we needed to do something a bit more energetic and since I needed to go to Niche Optical Tailors for the THIRTEENTH time to hopefully collect my new glasses in perfect condition, we decided to walk from Paisley to Glasgow.

A nice stroll for the first couple of hours and a power walk through Pollock had us in Glasgow within three hours! After lunch and a beer in the Merchant City we headed to the opticians where amazingly my glasses were ready and this time were imperfection free.

Susan and I shook our heads in disbelief as we listened to the owner speaking to a couple next to us trying to justify that sometimes when lenses are cut there are "engraving marks" left in the lenses in purpose!
The same bullshit that they hit me with.

Come to think of it I will probably do a blog entry detailing everything that happened so as to put potential customers off of having to deal with their shocking customer service. Hopefully when someone Googles Niche Optical Tailor they will find my blog entry instead. Their website is as pish as their service!

Watch this space.

Saturday arrived and Gingerbaws and the Fizzicks Teacher came round to try and get my pc back on track.

Ever since Virgin Media took over NTL, I have been unable to record live TV on my Media Centre so the two boffins arrived to fix it for me.

Many hours of trial, error, frustration and laughs followed as they tried to rectify the problem. Eventually conceding that the cable box wasn't going to play ball and the way forward was to use the TV's inbuilt Freeview system.

Robert went home and got a small TV arial that he sold to me for £1! However we upped the ante a wee bit and bought a bigger arial from Argos which didn't work as well with the TV as the small arial, but probably would have been able to send signals to Mars. Thomas happily bolted onto my veranda, with Robert filming a video disclaimer on his mobile phone incase it fell off and hit someone on the head!

Jim and Hammey joined us later on and we hit Paisley for a few beers, unfortunately Robert decided not to accompany us, but we partied on without him!

Sunday arrived with a hangover.

However, a trip to the fabulous Kelburne Country Park near Largs with Susan and the Kids blew that away.

It's the first time that I had been there and I can totally recommend it. It's a fabulous place.

So that was my holidays. Had a ball spending it with the people that I care the most about.