Roadtrip

Stefan, our crazy german from work* is moving to St Andrews to study Phoilosophy or some other subject suited to the rarified air up there. On Thursday, his girlfriend, Sarah (who also used to work with us all), and I helped him load an Arnold Clark van with some (by no means all) of his stuff to move up there. It took us almost 2 hours to load the van because of
a) a spiral staircase with a lift in the middle
b) lots of heavy boxes
c) 2 sets of steps down to teh car park from teh flat
d) the narrow path from teh front door to the car park then between teh cars to get to the van
e) the scary landlady who wanted to engage us in conversation and for us to help her find a new tenent.
f) Stefan kept trying to force us to eat Snickers

With all this complete, Stefan and Sarah went off to St Andrews, and I went home for Lasagne.

At 10pm, I picked up Butcher boy from work (note the recurring pattern) and we set off by Ka. Buther Boy had come eqiuiped with Haribo, Capri Sun and his MP3 player and phone so we mixed music and comedy podcasts. 1h50 minutes later, and an exciting tour of Fife later (Butcher Boy also wanted me to learn to slow for roundabouts), we arrived in suburban St Andrews - we had to detoour through the town then out to the modern houses where Stefan will be living. Itw as weird - very quiet, no one about, mowed lawns, neat gardens, nice cars and very nice houses - a long way from the West End (or City Centre) of Glasgow.

Afetr unloading the van and receiving a guided tour of the very well appointed house, and commenting on how the heating seemed to be running full blast, we took our leave (after another Snickers) and headed back. This time the SatNav took us via Leven and Kirkcaldy, which made for an interesting change of route back down a nice fast twisty road, and past the Smirnoff warehouses to the Forth Bridge and then across to Glasgow, were I dropped Butcher Boy off at around 3am.

All in all a fun road trip to end my summer holidays.

Tonight is Sarah's goodbye party as she is off for a year in Germany, which leaves the badminton plans totally up in the air. We could get one of Butcher Boy's flatmates to come, but they are both very good, and I would just be humiliated.....

*He actually left work over a year ago, but we still see him at Cheesy, Rev, badnminton, the pub so it seems like he never left.

Easter ramblings

Tuesday was a bit of an adventure. Glasgow to Alloa via Pollok, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Dunfermline.

The tip to St Andrews was in my role at Asst production thingy for Origin. We have a concert in St Andrews at the end of April, and were up for a reccie of the Church venue, to look at what tech equipment we would need and how we would lay out the stage. The church really is very beautiful, and old-looking. Below are a few nice pictures....Last weekend I had been up to see a friend near Crieff - they live out in the country and have this fantastic view of nice fields and hills out the front door.
They also have a dog who likes posing......
Coming home from Crieff meant a detour as the trains were not running through Stirling due to railway works and the installation of this huge new bridge which will link a new retail park to the town centre.
On Tuesday night I was staying at my sisters new house so I could wait in on Wednesday while she was at work, for the people coming to fit the curtains. Due to her house being on a ridgem, it has great views north to the Ochil hils (which were covered in mist when I was there) and south over the Firth of Forth towards Falkirk. Longannet Power Station can be seen in the foreground.