Rainy Glasgow

Hi reader,

Day three in Glasgow and I still haven't done any actual sightseeing. If you live in Britain, then you're already aware there's been a huge amount of rainfall in some parts of the country during the last 24 hours.

My day started in Milngavie and I had breakfast in the back of my van (porridge, satsuma, jam sandwich and a cup of tea). Then, since there was a light rain falling, I headed to Milngavie Community Centre to write a blog post. At lunchtime I made a quick stop at Tesco for one of their awesome meal deals: a main choice, a snack and a drink for three quid. What a bargain! And the rain was still falling.

While I was parked in Tesco's car park, I made a video call to my friend, British Council colleague and fellow film enthusiast, Dave Persey. 

Dave was explaining to me that he and his kids were currently watching their way through Alfred Hitchcock's catalogue of movies. They've been having a great time. I made the mistake of mentioning that I've never seen the classic mystery, thriller, Rear Window (1954).

"Whattttt?!?!?!?!" he screamed, unable to contain his fury. "This ... is an outrage!"

Only joking, but he did urge me to see it at my next opportunity. Dave, if you're reading, I've already downloaded it and I'm planning on watching it tonight. 

My main plan for the day was to visit Pollok Country Park, as recommended by my friend, Jimmy. In 2007 it was named Britain's best park and in 2008 it was named the best park in Europe.

When I got to the car park, the rain had worsened, so I decided to wait it out for a while. But half an hour later it had become a heavy downpour that showed no sign of letting up, and I'd started to feel drowsy.

I climbed into the back of the van and stretched out on my bed. I felt chilly so I got under my lamb's wool duvet. Next thing I knew, it was 5:30 pm and I'd been asleep for over two hours. And it was still raining heavily.

I had another dinner appointment in the evening with more past British Council colleagues. So I ventured out into the rush hour traffic and started to make my way across Glasgow. I didn't realize the severity of the situation until I started encountering flooded roads. It reminded me of Bangkok in the rainy season, when the streets often look more like rivers.

Check out this guy fishing!

I got to my friends' house by 6:30 pm without too much bother. It was a stressful drive in an unfamiliar city, with backed up traffic and poor visibility, but nothing too bad.

So here's Ben and Jenny with their daughters (left to right), Nina, Katie and Annie. It was great to catch up with Ben and Jenny. They left Bangkok around 2007, so I haven't seen them for fourteen years. I hadn't realized it was that long ago. What a wonderful family they are.

The kids are lovely. Some kids will clam up and become shy around visitors, but the girls were showing me their schoolwork, poems, songs, toys, pictures and chatting happily right up until bedtime. They were cracking me up and I loved talking to them. 

Annie was explaining her Halloween costume to me: a headless person carrying her own head in a jar of formaldehyde. It's really clever. I found a similar example online; it'll look like this:

Jenny made us this amazing vegan dinner, a delicious feast of chickpeas, tofu, curry, chutney, naan bread, rice, salad. It was so good.  

The rain kept coming down throughout night. My van stayed bone dry, and I once again said a thank you to Lee and Davey at Sandersons Accident Repair for their excellent work fixing my leaky roof all those weeks ago. In fact, I enjoyed being cozy and warm in my sleeping bag with the rain drumming onto the van.

This morning, more rain, more floods and more traffic jams in Glasgow. I had figured on going back to Pollok Country Park, but I think it would've been difficult to get there, and swampy to walk around. So instead I'm heading into Glasgow city centre on the bus for an explore.

News reports say this rain is going to continue and we can expect further flooding. Blimey! I'll keep you posted. 

Thanks for reading,

Brian