Author: David T. Macknet

They’re ubiquitous, when shipping into and out of the European Economic Community: Customs Declarations. They must go on every package we send back to the US, and on everything coming over here. Occasionally something gets stopped by customs (we’re recalling having been told that we must pay £115 for a lens which we owned, but had sent to the factory for repairs – didn’t happen, ’cause we kept the sales receipt). But, most of the time, things don’t get stopped.

In this case, what didn’t get stopped (and we’re so thankful) was labeled “Syrup” and “Candy.” Umm… really? The cough medicine must be the “syrup” and the Ibuprofen, therefore, is “candy.” Yeah, sure. Also? The dollar value beneath which things don’t routinely get inspected … would be $15 coming this way, and £15 going that way. So, if you ever need to have something slide beneath the radar, well, there you go.

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It’s supposed to snow this evening, and D. is off to Southampton for work: a 6:15 a.m. flight down there, to arrive back in Glasgow at something like 9 p.m. Truly a long day, for someone who had been so ill. We’re glad that he’s now almost completely recovered from whatever nasty flu-thing he had, but looking forward to a decent weekend without sickness!

-D & T

As we return from our weekly choir practice, we walk past George’s Square. Time and again, we say, “we ought to have brought a camera!” Usually, though, it’s just too much fuss, between music, water bottles, hats, gloves, scarves, coats, and (perhaps) our snow-cleats. This evening, though, we bothered, and were rewarded with the sight of the moon floating above the City Chambers building. Despite the forecast, it wasn’t snowing, nor really even very cold (a few degrees above freezing). We don’t know about stars aligning – we can never see but one or two, due to the light pollution – but we certainly feel fortunate to have been there.

-D & T

This past weekend we went to a “flash-mob” performance of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” at Kelvingrove Museum (although people weren’t quite surprised). You can find the performance here, as a streaming video. It appears that the Sacramento Choral Society had the same idea, and organized a flash-mob of their own … but there were too many people, which resulted in damage to the Roseville Galleria. Oops. Perhaps one shouldn’t invite 5,000 people to a party?

Off to a cold country tomorrow, leaving this one for a different one. Pictures shall ensue (internet-connections allowing), and more description as well. It’ll be interesting to see whether we make it out … and then whether we can make it back!

-D

It’s cold, folks. VERY cold (OK, you folk, in the Yukon, yeah, yeah, we know). Shown here is our friend A. holding a hunk of ice. He and D. worked very hard to break a piece free from the layer atop the fountain in Kelvingrove Park: they took a fence-post (somebody else had the same idea, and helpfully left one) and bashed upon the ice until it broke free. This looks to be about 8 inches thick (we must allow for A’s thick fingers – and, yes, the boy is a computer programmer with those sausages). After fishing this piece out of the frozen fountain, A. was wingeing and whimpering about wanting to let it drop, it was so cold. After the photos were taken, he threw it up as high as he could, and … it shattered upon the surface of the ice in the fountain. No cracks in the ice, no damage whatsoever. The edges were probably less frozen than the middle of the ice, so who knows how thick the stuff was?

It was thick enough for D. to stand upon the surface, though (A. says that it was more than twice as thick as it needed to be to support D., but … well, D. was still cautious).

It’s cold. And it’s forecast to get colder. We’ve both had our ice-cleats strapped to our boots for weeks, now, and don’t foresee taking them off any time soon. Even when we’re on our Christmas Holiday. Where will we be going? To an undisclosed location. Have a guess, won’t you? Some hints: their native language isn’t English, the travel guides say that you shouldn’t go there if you’re looking for culinary delights, their land-mass is roughly equivalent to the size of the United Kingdom. Any ideas? Do keep on guessing – we’re away from next Wednesday through to the following Monday. We expect to eat quite a bit of flat-bread, and to spend lots of time in hot-tubs.

-D & T