Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm - Winston Churchill

Last week didn't start very well. I'm not the greatest fan of Mondays, this particular Monday started far too early and it went down hill from there. It was one of those mornings that felt like one step forward and two steps back but I plodded on with my paperwork with the occasional cup of tea to keep me going. Eventually I decided that it was time for a lunch break and I went to put the kettle on. Our fridge-freezer is taller than me with the fridge at the top. I opened the door to reach for the milk, I had been to the fridge several times during the morning with no problem but this time two bottles from the top shelf launched themselves towards me. A bottle of water gave me a glancing blow on the head and a full bottle of diet Pepsi flew out like a torpedo and hit me on the calf! I cried out, hopped, danced and fell over a cat! I missed out on lunch, I was too busy dealing with a badly bruised leg and a very indignant cat!

Glasgow Central - photo by kilnburn

Tuesday evening went a bit pear shaped, Euston had one of its increasingly frequent periods of inertia which I believe was due to signal failure somewhere or other. Eventually Robbie gave up and took himself to St Pancras, bought another ticket and caught a train to Kettering, and I headed to Kettering Station to pick him up. I got there early but I didn't mind waiting, it's a nice little station and I like the old buildings. Considering the earlier disruption a surprisingly cheerful Robbie emerged from the station. He told me that there had been news reports suggesting that Abellio would be awarded the ScotRail franchise. It was still just rumour, but an announcement was expected the following morning and he dared to hope that the rumours might be true. Robbie made a very early start the next morning and he was in London before the formal announcement was made. The rumours were true, the ScotRail contract had been won by Abellio. Robbie was delighted, he and the rest of the bid team had spent months in Glasgow working on the bid and now their efforts had been rewarded.

I loved Glasgow when I first went there many years ago but it had been a long time since I'd been to Scotland and Robbie working in Scotland gave me an opportunity to  fall in love with Glasgow all over again. In the autumn of 2013 Robbie arranged to take me to Malmaison in Glasgow as a birthday treat. It was a bit of a joke on his part, but great fun, he had booked the Big Yin suite which is inspired by Billy Connolly who is a favourite of mine. It has a four poster bed, a very nice double bathroom and a roll top bath in the living room. 

Robbie knows how much I enjoy a nice long bath so this was his way of teasing me, but I have to admit that it was fun. I enjoyed the bath, I wasn't so struck on the four poster bed, it was very solid and a bit scary, but it was reasonably comfortable.  

I don't think I would go back to Malmaison because the food was horrible, the service was poor and the room was a bit tired, but as a one off experience the suite was interesting.

Work for the ScotRail bid began in ernest in January and Glasgow became Robbies second home. He caught the Sleeper to Glasgow on a Sunday evening and he returned home late on Friday evening. During the week he stayed in the Premier Inn in George Street. It is an interesting building just a short walk from the centre of Glasgow and very close to the Merchant City area with beautiful buildings and lots of nice places to eat. Unfortunately Robbie didn't get to see much of Glasgow, he was far too busy with the bid to have time for sightseeing, but he enjoyed his walk to and from work each day. Often when he was finished for the night he would call in at Queen Street Station to watch the trains and to experience the hustle and bustle of the station.  

I was able to spend time with Robbie occasionally when he was in Glasgow. I didn't really spend much time actually with Robbie except when we had our evening meal but having so much time to myself worked out rather well. I was still working on my book at the time of my first visit, so having the room to myself gave me plenty of peace and quiet to get my writing done. I would write until lunch time, then I would allow myself an hour or two to walk into the city centre to visit the shops, look at the wonderful building and discover more of Glasgow. Then I would go back and do more writing until about 9pm when we would go out for dinner. Glasgow was even more beautiful in the dark. 

A building nr George Square, Glasgow

By the time I returned to Glasgow the book had been submitted to the publisher and I had more freedom to explore, I loved it. One of my favourite walks took me past Buchanan Galleries, past the Doc Shop and along Sauchiehall Street. There is something special about Sauchiehall Street, it isn't the grandest street in the city, in fact parts of it are quite shabby but it has character. It seems to be a favourite spot for street entertainers, some of them are very good. It seems to attract some interesting characters too, I met some interesting people on my walks, and most seemed happy to stop and chat. I'm looking forward to Robbie having some free time so that we can go back and explore Glasgow together.

“A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old." - Abraham J Heschel

It has been a very difficult few days. On Sunday lunchtime I had a frantic phone call from my step father, my mum had blacked out and fallen on the kitchen floor badly cutting head open - I have never seen so much blood! He had already called an ambulance and I dashed to their house (in a village about 6 miles away) to be with my mum. As I ran down the lane to their house I realised that there was no ambulance there and I assumed that my mum must be already on her way to hospital. When I opened the front door I realised that I was wrong, my mum was sitting on the floor propped against the kitchen units holding a blood soaked towel against her head. The kitchen floor was covered in blood and my step father (who is terminally ill) was standing there ashen faced looking totally helpless.

I did my best to make my mum comfortable and then I rushed around getting everything ready for a trip to the hospital. The ambulance control had told them to leave mum on the floor and to leave the blood as it was. We waited and waited but no ambulance came. After an hour I spoke to the ambulance control they still insisted that I should not move her and they said they would make mum a high priority and an ambulance would be there soon. I told them that I needed to clean up the blood as it was making it impossible to move around the kitchen to look after mum, and when I got off the phone I cleaned the floor. Still no ambulance came and I was very worried about my mum's condition, so I called my brother (who lives in a different county) he came with his car and between us we got mum up (she was very wobbly) put her into the car and took her to the hospital. By the time we left her house we had waited two and a half hours for an ambulance!

At the hospital her condition was taken very seriously, they said her pulse was dangerously low and she was kept on close observation in the resuscitation area. She is still in hospital, they think she may need a pacemaker, but they are still doing tests. I am disgusted that a woman who is over 80 can be left to wait so long for emergency medical care. We will be making a formal complaint, but our first priority is to look after mum.

It Could Only Happen to Robbie

There are some things that only seem to happen to Robbie. When I got home last night I found Robbie sitting in his PJ's with one trouser leg rolled up. It crossed my mind that he could have joined the Masons, but it seemed an unlikely explanation (unless they have a railway section) so I had to find a more obvious reason for the new style. As I took a closer look at his leg I saw that it was badly cut in a series of scratches that ran up and around his leg. According to him he was innocently walking home when a rose jumped out and grabbed his leg. Apparently he'd had quite a struggle to free himself! I hope he hasn't ripped yet another pair of trousers, it is bad enough when he falls over and writes off his trousers without finding new ways to destroy them. His leg is hurting him quit a lot, I really hope it will not turn septic.

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days? Today started badly and so far it has gone from bad to worse. Sam came home limping badly yesterday, he had somehow managed to cut the soles of both feet during a swimming lesson and he was in agony because it was very painful to walk. He was still in pain this morning and he didn't want to go to school because he has to walk long distances between classrooms. I was determined that he should go but I would write a note to explain his problems. He got very upset and angry and he was still telling me off as I drove him to school. His nose started to bleed and he got a huge splash of blood all down the front of his clean white shirt. By the time he got out of the car the passenger seat was littered with blood stained tissues and he looked as if he had been attacked.

Dave the cat was in the car with us because I had to deliver him to the vet for his teeth to be taken out. He had to be there at exactly the time that Sam had to be dropped at school in a different part of Northampton, so Sam had to be at school a bit early and Dave had to get there a few minutes late. It is so stressful having to deal with the traffic when you are in a hurry. As I pulled away from Sam's school I could hear Dave being sick in his cat carrier, he is always travel sick, but I'd hoped he would be OK today because he had been starved (much to his disgust). I had to clean his carrier up before I could take him in to the vet, it isn't easy to do that in a Micra! Dave decided to hide under the front seat and it was a real struggle to get him out. I hope he forgives me for getting his teeth done, it should make him a lot more comfortable when it is done.