Geek

I was described as a geek the other day. I have been reflecting on this thought and have decided that it is time to come out - I am indeed a GEEK! I have passed through nerdhood and have officially entered geekhood. I am now going to start going to the cinema to watch sci-fi movies and I'm going to wear my anorak (incidentally - anoraks were first invented by the Caribou Inuit of the Arctic region). I don't have an anorak yet but I'm sure they must be available at geek stores. I am going to start hanging around with other geeks, though I'm not sure if geeks are allowed to have friends. If geeks are not allowed friends then I am sorry...I no longer wish to be a geek. I've been quite a lot of things in my time but this has to be the shortest time of being anything. I'm sick of being a geek already. I was lonely. That's the worst ten minutes of my entire life. I'm glad I never forked out for an anorak. I might still go and see a sci-fi movie though.

Pennies from Heaven

When is a penny worth more than a pound?

Imagine you run a charity. This charity of yours needs a certain amount of money to survive the global financial crisis. Let’s just imagine that the grand sum your charity needs is equal to £1. You could hope that a kind benefactor will donate the whole amount. In he walks, puts his pound on the table and your problems are solved. The problem with that is that only one person recognised that you were in trouble. This generous £1 donation keeps you afloat for the coming year. But what about next year? You have no guarantee that your sponsor will come to the rescue with the full amount once again. Whilst it may be difficult to encourage one person to come up with the full £1 it should be relatively easy to encourage 100 people to part with one pence each – especially if they know that their hard-earned penny is helping a good cause. The other benefit of using many small sources rather than one big one is the fame – or the spread of it. Surely it is better that 100 people know of your plight. 100 caring people are better than 1. In this way a penny is far more valuable than a pound. Here endeth the lesson.

Time Travel in a Cop Shop

Headway Social Group met on Saturday 11th of July to do a bit of time travelling at the Police Museum in Bell Street, Glasgow. That may sound difficult but it was made easy with the help of our guide, Alistair Dinsmuir. He might have made a most unusual timelord but he was an excellent, knowledgeable and entertaining guide as he took us on a historical tour through the life and times of the Glasgow Police. He was keen to point out all the ‘firsts’ that the Glasgow force has been involved in. The first ‘first’ was that Glasgow had the first police force anywhere in Britain. It is often claimed in London that the Metropolitan Police is the oldest force in the land, but Glasgow predates that by 50 years. Other firsts were police dogs and a traffic division. There may have been more but my memory is not what it was.

Some of the group with our guide

It was very interesting to see the development of the modern uniform from it’s beginnings in Victorian garb, including top hat, through English style helmets to the modern-day cap and T-shirt arrangement. Photographs provide a glimpse of how police transport has changed over the years.

Some of the stories he told us would lead you to believe that Glasgow has not always been as peaceful as it is now. Cops used to carry swords. Then they moved on to guns. Then at the turn of the 20th century it was decided that the British bobby should be unarmed as politicians were sure that the world was entering a new peaceful phase where robbers wouldn’t hurt a fly and political unrest was a figment of the wildest imagination. It’s nice to see that politicians haven’t changed much.

Another amazing fact is that the blue police boxes (just like the TARDIS of Doctor Who) used to be red in the Glasgow area. We were informed that this was the case right up until the 1970s. I certainly couldn’t remember red police boxes and neither could the rest of our group. We were starting to imagine that our guide might have been on a flight of fancy by this time – but no! On leaving the area and heading along Wilson Street we spotted one in the middle of the road. A red police box. As if by magic – or maybe time travel – who knows?

Red TARDIS???

I’m sure everyone there enjoyed our wee trip through time. I’m equally sure we all enjoyed a separate room which housed police uniforms of the world. I know for absolute certainty that we were all taken by the enthusiasm of ex-Desk Sergeant Dinsmuir of Maryhill Police Station. Some people are just the right person in just the right job.

Style in Kinning Park!

Some bowling occurred the other night. That’s a good thing as we were at the bowling alley in Kinning Park with the Headway Social Group. None of us are any good at it and none of us pretend to be. For a bunch of bowling duffers it’s quite interesting to see the differing styles of approach. There’s the don’t really care too much approach – that’s the one where the bowler casually walks up to the lane and hurls the bowl through the air in the general direction of those wee pin things down at the other end. That was quite effective. There’s the go in low and slide the bowl approach. This player obviously thinks the game resembles curling – equally effective. There are those who simply drop the bowl at their feet and slowly wait for it to travel far enough to hit something. Sometimes it does!

a stylish bowler

There are those bowlers who have a style which resembles the professional styles of bowlers you’ve seen on TV or in movies or even in the Flintstones. Sometimes the score even matches up to the professional approach. There was even one bowler there who had such a graceful style that every time it was his turn we all stood around in quiet awe as if we were watching a beautifully choreographed ballet. Another bowler was heard to mutter, “a lovely little mover”.

a lovely little mover

Regardless of the style the scores remained equally low. Morale, on the other hand, was high. It’s always a good laugh when the Social Group meets. The bowling is just one of the entertaining pastimes we enjoy, but it is such good fun there that I think we might return for more of the same.

Fun at the Shops

West Dunbartonshire Festival

Margaret and I went shopping to Clydebank today. We decided to go to the outdoor market near the canal. When we got there we discovered a party in full swing. It turned out to be part of The West Dunbartonshire Festival. Shopping pretty soon went out of the window (or ‘oot the windae’ if you prefer).

The first thing we saw or rather heard was an Elvis Presley impersonator. He was fully decked out in the white suit with all the wee shiny bits on it. This was on the Your Radio stage. The guy was completely into the part – complete with patter and throwing roses to the ladies. He was sweating like Elvis as well. Cool!

'Your Elvis'

After that we went to watch the hilarious Rubber Duck race on the canal. This was a fund raising event in aid of the St. Margaret’s Hospice in Clydebank. Approximately 1200 little yellow ducks were lined up at the start. Two canoes bound together by a sturdy plank of wood and crewed by a paddler and a guy with a leaf-blower in each. The funniest thing happened when the race started. The power of the leaf-blowing thingy was obviously much stronger than the power of the paddle because the canoes travelled backwards more than forwards. On top of this they didn’t seem to be propelling the wee duckies much. Quite a lot of the on looking crowd ended up with a fair bit of Forth and Clyde Canal all over them.

Duck Jam

The organisers obviously didn’t think to practice this event and I’m happy that they didn’t because it ended up an entertaining piece of chaos. I wish shopping was always like this.

Happy 18th Birthday Joni

My wee baby girl is 18 years old today. Happy birthday Joni - lots of love - Dad xxx

We Took the Highroad

Headway Walking Group went on possibly the most adventurous walk so far the other day. We walked to a place called Whinney Hill on Loch Lomondside. We all met up at Headway then went for a train from Charing Cross to Balloch. The journey flew in as there was much chit-chat and sharing of sweeties.


The walk started not far from Balloch Station at the entrance to the park. We followed the River Leven until its source at the foot of Loch Lomond. That was the flat part. From there on in it was up hill all the way. The path narrowed and wound its way through the trees following the course of a small burn. A wee bit up the hill and we had to cross that burn. There were quite a few shaky stepping stones but I think I might have been the only one who ended up with wet feet. Balancing might not be my strong point. Once across we had ventured into an area called the Fairy Glen – so called because fairies live there and it’s in a glen! Magic. A bit further up and we climbed a small staircase to a gate, crossed a small road (which leads to a private estate), through another gate and into another part of the wood – still climbing all the way.


On the way up we passed the remains of some poor pigeon which had obviously been lunch for a fox – or who knows? Maybe fairies eat pigeons. I remarked at the time – “Oh look – a fox's dinner”. One of the other walkers remarked that it might have been a cat. I don’t think so. I’ve never seen a cat with feathers. I also spotted a deer in the trees near the path.


One annoying wee feature of this walk was that when we had climbed higher and higher we came to an area where we had to go downhill for quite a long way before climbing again to our ultimate destination – Whinney Hill. At the top the view was tremendous. There is a wee bench up there providing a nice place to rest, ponder over what you’ve just done and take in the view of Loch Lomond and its islands. If the uphill struggle seemed bad enough it was sometimes quite difficult going back down on some of the steep slopes. This was a good if challenging walk. It got the heart racing but I decided to walk at a leisurely pace and let the heart win. All of the walkers should have a nice sense of achievement after tackling Whinney Hill on such a hot day. Onwards and upwards!