Glasgow Gallivanting: November 2018

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We didn’t intend to visit GlasGLOW, a Halloween event that ran in the Botanic Gardens for almost two weeks, but after passing by one night and seeing what we could from the road, we changed our minds. About the only tickets left were for 9 o’clock on a Monday night so, after dinner, we wrapped up warmly and strolled through the lights for an hour or so.

Kintyre and Dundee

We had two weekends away in November! Firstly, a couple of nights near Tarbert on the Kintyre peninsula, then three nights in Dundee, mainly to visit the new V&A Museum. Country life and city life: couldn’t have been more different. More on both to come in due course.

Blogger shout-outs

I met another blogger in real life, which I think brings my total to seven – I’ll be losing count soon. Jessica of Diverting Journeys and her partner, Marcus, visited Glasgow for a long weekend and we met up on the Sunday afternoon. We visited the viewing platform at the Lighthouse which, unusually, contained a piano and a mural which read We should have it all. We certainly should!

Then we went in search of Billy Connolly murals before repairing to the Scotia, one of Glasgow’s oldest pubs. It was great to meet them!

There’s been much discussion lately amongst bloggers about comments, and how difficult it can be to make them sometimes. I’d been having terrible trouble – even clicking Like was problematic.  I don’t think WordPress is blameless but, because weird things happened with Blogger too, my chief suspect was a recent update to Apple’s Safari browser. I had no idea how to fix it though, and I’m therefore hugely grateful to Jemima Pett for publishing When Privacy stops you Blogging – Safari and Comments. I’ve made one simple change in my settings and everything is now (almost) hunky-dory. Whoopee! Thanks, Jemima.

A musical month

We found time for three gigs this month. Two big ones: King Crimson, because John likes them, and Seasick Steve because we both do. He was great! The support band, Prinz Grizzley and his Beargaroos, was awesome too.

But my favourite was maybe the small pub gig where my friend Lesley was part of both support (the Carlton Three) and main act (the Carlton Jug Band). Previously, I’d only heard her sing her own music in her own band, Kittlin, which is very Scottish, so I was surprised when this turned out to be another dose of Americana. I’m not complaining – and we got to eat pizza at the same time so it was a great night.

The last bit

I’ve been to two women’s history events this month, but Glasgow’s biggest women’s history event of the year (ha, ha) is still to come. Me! Gulp! On Tuesday 4th December there’s an afternoon of Suffrage talks at the Mitchell – and I’m one of the speakers. This explains the lack of posts recently – any writing time I’ve managed to find has been dedicated to my talk which is still, by the way, five minutes too long. I’m working on it – wish me luck!

Maybe after Tuesday I’ll get back to regular blogging, and finish off my Hebridean Hop. December should be a quiet month – shouldn’t it?

Scotland, UK , , , , ,

69 Comments »

  1. That photograph of Tarbert is beautiful.

    I thought of you when we were in London in November. We spent a happy morning in the Museum of London, and the museum gift shop had many items in it commemorating the suffragette movement.

    I chuckled about your talk being five minutes too long. My talks are always too long, never too short.

    Jude

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  2. Pingback: A Short Hiatus – Myricopia

  3. Goodness you’re never still! Tarbert looks really pretty and I’d love to see those lights in the Botanic Gardens, well I’d like to see the gardens anytime. The Green Man is my favourite.
    I saw King Crimson here in 1972, that makes me feel old.

    I think you’ve visited Ngozi, that’s really sweet of you, I hope it was a success 🙂

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  4. Pingback: Saturday Saunter: 8th December 2018 – Walking Talking

  6. Good luck with today’s speech! I’m sure it will go really well. I’ll think of you while I’m walking 🙂 🙂 Been to Tarbert and loved it, and envy you the V & A. Sounds like another great month. Here’s to many more, Anabel!

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  8. I haven’t had issues with my ability to comment or hit “like” but I have noticed a dip in my stats, so it’s possible that is an issue with my readers. I use Firefox for my internet now, and maybe that helps? I hope you get it sorted soon, and meanwhile, I always enjoy your blog! (Although WordPress says they are making changes to our “editor” feature, which may mean I can’t figure out how to write a new post soon….. Why they can’t leave well enough alone, don’t ask me!)

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    • Yes, I have no problem on my PC with MS Edge, so I think it was just Safari. Thank goodness Jemima found the problem! I have been steadfastly ignoring all the warnings about the new Editor on the grounds that I’ll worry about it when it comes. I’m still using WP Admin rather than the current Editor because I think it’s better, but I bet they take that option away now too 😟

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  10. Thought you might like to know that your Glasgow Women’s library has just had a mention on Ame Lame’s show on Radio 6 ! By the artist and feminist Linder Sterling (who’s originally from Wigan)

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  11. You’ve had a busy month! The best part is that it all looked like fun!

    Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing Jemima Pett’s post about privacy settings affecting our ability to like and comment on blogs. The past month or so has been incredibly frustrating. I followed her instructions and so far it appears to be working! Much appreciated!

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  12. Thank you for the hint about commenting and privacy. Ihave been getting increasingly frustrated when my comments just disappear

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  14. Hi, Anabel – There is serious optical illusion going on your the photo of the museum. It is amazing how it reflects light if I move my computer even the slightest little bit. Very cool!
    I am impressed with everything that you pack into your weeks — and all of your travel. (Impressed and envious!)
    Good luck with your speech! Please keep us posted.

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  19. Wow that’s one fabulously full month Anabel. Sounds amazing. You have a very high meet another blogger tally! I haven’t really met any except two ,who I met without knowing they were bloggers. I think I would feel quite nervous about meeting one I have followed for a while. Like they are celebs.;) X

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  21. Where to start? Good luck on Tuesday. Wow, your months are busy! I love the lights of your Glasglow tour. How do you get your photos to come out this clearly and crisp at night? Do you use a camera or your phone?

    How fun to meet up with yet another blogger and being able to show off your city at the same time. Those murals are amazing! And, yes, Glasgow remains on my mental travel list, with Scotland in general.

    Like you, I’ve experienced trouble with commenting on my iPad for weeks. It seems to be better now, but I totally blame WordPress, Blogger and iOS! Usually, when some time goes by, things get magically fixed. Usually, after all of us being frustrated for a while, blaming ourselves and cursing blogging. 🙂

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    • Thank you for the good luck wishes! Apart from the close up of a hideous face which I think was my iPhone, John took all the GlasGLOW photos on his camera. It sounds as though your commenting problem started at roughly the same time as mine so possibly the same setting is to blame. Check Jemima’s explanation!

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  22. Nice post. It looks like it was a good November for you.

    I was in the Lighthouse yesterday but there must have been a different exhibition on from when you were there. It was a whole bunch of posters and the ones done by young people were better than the professional efforts.

    I check my spam filter fairly often but it’s a bit of a pain.

    I still find meeting blog readers strange, let alone other bloggers! I don’t think I’ve met any others just yet.

    Good luck with your talk!

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  23. Hello, Anabel. I saw Seasick Steve on Jools Holland’s show a year or two or three ago. I liked him quite a lot.
    From your articles, it’s clear to me that Glasgow is a fine city. It has a whole lot going for it. If I ever get there, I know I’ll have a real good time.

    See ya —
    Neil

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  24. Brilliant post. As usual same city but events attended I was completely unaware of until now. Great photos too. Don’t think I’ve met any other bloggers, apart from Carol through hillwalking and fewer males comment on anything either I’ve noticed. Leaving comments this last year on other posts is tricky for me too, involving switching between different formats but hopefully now I’ve mastered that they wont change it further. Like the Tarbert reflection shot.

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    • Excellent! I’ve never been to the Faroe Islands, but would love to go. As for suggestions, it depends what you are looking for of course, but i’ll be happy to advise if I can. Top tip, naturally, is that Glasgow is simply amazing (I would say that, wouldn’t I 😉) and if you came here it would be lovely to meet you if possible.

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  28. I have been trying to always play catch up but I keep falling on my butt. I had to go to google chrome to be able to leave comments because my iPad suddenly stopped working to leave comments how I used to. I will check out that link. My brother loves King Crimson and they are good. Love the Halloween looks…so cool and the gravestone is funny. Love the towns you visited and that’s great that you met another blogger. I love Billy Connelly

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  29. Glasgow is certainly offering plenty for the visitor and locals alike. I love the colour in the GlasGLOW exhibition. I didn’t know there were Billy Connolly murals, I’m sure they weren’t there when I last visited but then that was about 20 years ago I think. There are some good George Best murals in Belfast which have become a shrine to some footballing fans.
    I agree with you on comments, but more problematic are those who post maybe 3 or 4 times a day!
    Even daily postings I have difficulty keeping up with so I’m inclined to just delete as they come in as I just don’t have time to read them all.
    I hasten to say that yours are always welcome to drop into my Inbox in the newly organized Google system of Important (first) then All Others.

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    • The Billy Connolly murals just went up last year, or maybe earlier this year, in honour of his 75th birthday I think.

      My posts are certainly not frequent these days! I also tend to skim over very frequent posters and maybe only read the last one. This was a horrible problem though where I could hardly comment at all without signing in multiple times.

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  30. I’m sure you were happy you stopped at the GlasGLOW; it looks like a fun and photogenic walk. Also, I look forward to reading about your two outings as those photos look inviting and enigmatic. 🙂 How nice to meet a fellow blogger too. That’s always fun. 🙂

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  31. A lot of these shows seem to be part of Glasgow these days. I am sorry they were not happening while I lived there. Many of my regular visitors end up in the spam box. They and you are not lost – I have come to look on it as an ïn-Box”with a different spelling.

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    • Glasgow certainly has a lot more events and shows these days. Last night there was a torch parade for St Andrew’s Day, though for us it seemed to happen in a parallel universe. We went out along Byres Rd before it started, and by the time we got back there was only a lingering smell of burning.

      Odd about the spam. I don’t check mine regularly enough, and when I do it’s full of mile long posts about medical issues which I don’t have the will to scroll through. So I hope I’m not losing anybody 😟.

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