milestones

Cannae believe it is already
thirty one days into 2008!!!

How time flies!

I find that I'm still struggling a bit from the long Christmas holidays, work wise. Excuses excuses...

Tomorrow will mark six months being employed as an assistant project surveyor.

The 13th will mark six months working at the present office.

The 14th will be our first Valentine's Day.

And the 18th will be us together six months.

The 25th will be one year I've been on Blogger!!! Wooohhoo...

Man, time indeed flies!

unsung heroes

Many of us probably take the salt gritters for granted.

If the ground is not gritted, we moan and blame them.

If the ground is gritted, we are pleased but often take it for granted.

Yes, no doubt that these salt gritters, just like many working class, are paid.

But think about it.

They have to wake up at some ungodly hour in the morning.

They need to know when to grit and when not to grit.

(Don’t think the public would be pleased to know that their hard earned, hard-to-let-go-but-no-choice-of paying council tax money is being used to grit the grounds and roads during summer.)

And I’m sure they are not just hired or salaried to grit the roads and pavements only. What about the days that they don’t need to grit the grounds?

Anyways, I just thought that it is so nice of them to grit the ground.

I almost slipped on the frosted pavement within the work compound this morning.

On an unrelated incident...

Yesterday as I was walking within the work compound, passing the few office blocks and warehouses, a car almost hit a pedal cyclist.

I think the driver of the car was avoiding a group of men walking on the left hand side of the road and then she probably wasn’t paying much attention. Although the road was wide enough, she had a wee swerve to the right.

Anyways, that is not what that matters.

I was walking on the right hand side of the road. A pedal cyclist cycled past my left and then he was going to pass by the right side of the car. However, the car just turned sharply without indicating, into a parking bay on the right, narrowly missed the cyclist.

That was honestly a near miss incident.

Thank God the cyclist was fine.

During my trip to Shetland months ago, I cycled from Lerwick to Scalloway. It was a 14 miles cycle between the towns. I couldn’t cycle to save my life but managed to cycle there and back, all 28 miles (!), with majority of the time what I called ‘bike-pushing’. Luckily I went on the trip alone.

The point is that as a driver, you wouldn’t realise what it is like being a pedal cyclist until you experienced it for yourself. Although the traffic in Shetland was not as busy compared to a city and the roads were wide enough with a rather large verge, it was still quite a scary situation.

You can’t cycle fast because the cross winds were so strong and can flip you over from the side. You can’t cycle too slowly because besides defeating the purpose of cycling, you will also get blown down. Cycling in Shetland IS definitely an experience.

Anyways, we easily take for granted that we, as a driver are protected within the car, ignoring other seemingly ‘unimportant’ road users. Everyone is important on the road, whether they are in/on a smaller or bigger vehicle/mode of transport, whether they are walking or running, and whether they are in the same vehicle as you.

I know I’m not the best of drivers but it is still everyone’s responsibility to use the road safely.

disappear

I might as well disappear.

There are quite a few things on my mind.

Perhaps I’m feeling one of those really low tides.

Perhaps I’m just bogged down with too many things.

Things on my mind.

Things to do.

Things that are somewhat mind numbing but trivial issues.

Just things.

I feel lonely.

Even though I know I’m not alone.

I must have said this one too many times.

Not that I’m not happy or have not been happy lately.

It’s just...

Perhaps there are just too many things on my mind.

Perhaps there are just things that are being dictated to me.

Perhaps things are not going how I want it to.

Just perhaps...

And why?

Why is it that it seems that things are spiralling out of control?

I guess I don’t know.

I guess I’m ignorant.

I guess I like people to boss me around. *yeah right*

I guess I like to know that people run my life. *ditto*

Don’t you just...

Don’t you just hate it when it seems as though you don’t exist when things happen.

Don’t you just hate it when all else is happening without you knowing.

Don’t you just hate it when...

...when you are not in control.

When you know that you could have.

When you know that you would have.

When all else fades and disappear.

When...

Like I said,

It just seems as if I don’t exist.

Yes, I might as well disappear.

Honestly, I just might as well...

leeego

Do you lay-go or lee-go?

'sporty' weeekend

Happy 200th Post!!!

The weekend has been a very hectic one... sort of.

Running:

There wasn’t much time to prance about, I would say so myself.

Friday - morning: Ran to the train station. Woke up late because went to bed late. Arrived on time but the train was cancelled, had to wait for the next one. And I was chairing a meeting at 10am and in charged of getting the rolls as well. I reached there at 9:40am. Luckily a quick call to AD earlier and had delegated rolls duty to. Talk about timing!

Friday - evening: Ran from the bus stop to Buchanan Bus Station. I was held up at work. There was heavy traffic. I almost missed the bus up north.

Sunday - evening: I was aching all over (read on to know why) and didn’t want to move. I said to TOH that the bus station is near. Little did I realised it wasn’t as near as I thought it would be. And we were running short of time. Fast paced to the bus station.

Sunday - later that evening: I wanted to take one of the buses to go home from Buchanan Bus Station. Just as I almost reached there, the bus left. Oh well… So I walked to where I normally take the bus. The same bus was at the traffic light, and it turned green. There was other (light) traffic. I ran across the road when it was clear. Got the bus in time.

***********

Saturday was a fantastic day. TOH and I had so much fun.

We went to the driving range...
Aiming for the buggy!

Took a hike up the wee hill...
and took a pic of Pittodrie Stadium.
Aberdeen 0 – 1 Hearts

Exercised the mind and skill...
Had sooo much fun at the ‘coin-pushing machine’...
It’s amazing how far £2 can take you.
We even won a dog-key chain from it. *can you see it?*

We Bowlingo-ed...


And then Sega Rally-ed...

Air hockey-ed...
I beat TOH 7-4!

Shopped at the newly opened Aldi, down at the beach...

Carried the plenty impulsive, curious, unnecessary purchases...

Rushed home...

Dined and went for drinks with SR.

What a busy weekend! I’ve done my exercise for the year!

It was great nonetheless!!!

last night

TS was in town last night.

So we went to our usual haunt.

The last time when TS was down we went to Sarti on Wellington Street for dinner.

The Wellington Street outlet has a deli counter on your right and the left wall is filled with various Italian produce and wine. Since it was just before Christmas, fairy lights adorned the shelves.

The food was good - real Italian food. I had the Capricciosa (pizza with egg, anchovies, olives and capers). One word: YUMMMY!!!!

I loved the place.

Last night we went to Sarti on Bath Street instead, literally just around the corner.

The Bath Street outlet is located in the basement. As you step down the steps, there are a few tables just outside the door, very Italian courtyard, nice place to sit during the warmer months, or if you need to smoke. When you enter the restaurant, you can see the open kitchen directly in front of you, it has a large bar on the left and a nice and cosy ‘cave’ - the cantina or wine room, on the right.

We were seated at the cantina. I had the Frutti Di Mare, seafood pizza. After dinner and dessert, I had a good nosey around the products and wine selection. I was very impressed!!!




Everyone should give Sarti a try: tasty authentic cucina Toscana, excellent atmosphere and reasonably priced. It has now made it to my favourite place to eat in Glasgow list!

TS asked me if I had brought TOH to Sarti and I said to him, that as embarrassing as it sounds, especially for one who has a good sense of direction, I haven’t brought TOH to Sarti because I cannot remember the place for the love of god!

Anyways, now I know where all three branches are and I have no excuses!

After dinner at Sarti, we headed off to Beer Café on Candleriggs. Sadly, it was pissing down rain.

Anyways, Beer Café has a live jazz band on every Thursday, and that is the reason we go there. Unfortunately, I find that the band is not very consistent. The worst performance, IMHO, was one that I been to with TOH at the beginning of the year. I’ve also recently noticed that the lead guy has a bad habit of ‘highlighting’ (if that is the right word to use) a player - after their solo performance, one too many times.

Otherwise, this is a good place to go and enjoy the various beers from around the world. My favourite is the cherry beer.

As much as we keep going back to the same places every now and then, there are still many more places in Glasgow we need to explore. One of theses days... I hope.

showers

It look so nice outside
- snow showers coming down.