Glasgow Day One

Awake at 3.33, why is it always 3.33 or 4.44? At least it’s never 6.66! Back to bed and sleep until 6.15. The hotel is warm, the heating’s been on all night, but noisy as it’s old, so no double glazing, and I’m four floors up above a main road, Argyle Street.

Mail my brother Robert in Ayr to see if he’s available for a beer one evening this week and find this link to tango in Glasgow. Maybe I’ll visit tonight.

Have a fixed temperature shower, good, but attempt to use the Hand and Body Lotion instead of shower gel, bad. Yes, I am half blind without my glasses. This shower was designed for giants. The head is fixed to the wall at about 7 feet up with no slide or rake and the water almost goes directly over my head!

Go down to breakfast. Only in Scotland, round flat chips, can’t resist despite my high cholesterol (will blog this soon). A healthy, breathless walk back up 4 flights of stairs to my room, to make up for the chips, only to discover that it should only have been 3 flights as breakfast is on the first.

Arrive at the office I’m visiting at 8.30am. Apparently I’m in the financial centre of Glasgow although one delegate later tells me it’s the red light district and that my hotel used to be a ’knocking shop’. No one there, too early as usual. Sit in reception and blog to a Word file for later use.

The training is in a board room using laptops, the very worst environment. The table is a mess of plugs and wires. Why is it that IT companies like this have slow equipment, no internet connection and local networks that don’t work? Is it a rule?

It’s lunch time, though no lunch provided (cheapskates) so back to the hotel for a quick web fix and some fruit. The course went well today and finished at about 4.15pm. Back to the hotel again for food from the local Tescos.

At 7.00pm off to tango in Glasgow. The class of 8 couples plus 2 men together (there were too many men) was vey well taught; technique rather than steps. Started with exercises then covered the Carpa (the tent)
 and the Calasetia (the windmill). The female teacher reminded me of Anna in York. One drawback was the venue. A rather cold and soulless high ceilinged hall and there was no milonga to look forward too; they just do a 90 minute class.

More Radio7 tonight. Tomorrow I may have coffee with my Scottish niece Laura.