Driving Miss Daisy

We went to Celtic Connections in Glasgow last night (Way to Blue; Songs of Nick Drake). I met Jo at Leggart Terrace - Ross drove her in there - and, guess what? - they were almost on time - of course, they couldn't exactly get lost this time, could they?

Colin and Johanne took the train down - at just £15 return for over 55's, it's a no-brainer - we would have loved to have taken this option too, but we had to travel back straight after the concert as Jo had to be in Stonehaven early this morning for her appointment at the Cardio clinic. Anyway, we went for a pre-theatre supper at Sarti's Italian restaurant, which was fairly exotic looking inside - check http://www.sarti.co.uk/restaurants/renfield-street-glasgow/history-renfield-st-.aspx for the history of the building.

After dinner, we gave the girls a touch of Glasgow "culture" - a visit to the legendary Horseshoe Bar (http://www.horseshoebar.co.uk/), where many an entertainer first made their name. It has listed building status and the web site has some interesting tales on it. I didn't have my camera with me, so just managed this poor quality photo from my Blackberry:

The concert was great - see music blog for more info - and we got out of the Concert Hall pretty quickly, only to find a huge queue at the ticket machine in the car park. Then we had to queue to get out of the car park - and then took a wrong turn and had to go all round the houses to get back on to the motorway. Further frustration came when we got to Moodiesburn and then had to go through miles and miles of the huge roadworks that have been going on for ages. It's all 40 mph limit with average speed cameras in place - very frustrating when you're driving along on dual carriageways, with little traffic and no work actually taking place, and you're in a hurry to get home.

The weather was OK - apart from one very short bit of road just north of Dundee where there had just been a very localised freak snow/sleet shower which suddenly made the roads white for about half a mile - the police were out trying to warn motorists about it. After that, it was OK and it actually got a bit milder as we drove further north, so we decided to go over Cairn o' Mount. We even ignored the Road Closed signs at Clatterin' Brig - there had been much criticism of the police in the local paper for not keeping the signs up to date - and it seemed so relatively mild - but it soon turned to white and it was a bit of a struggle at the top, and then slowly and carefully down the other side, but we made it home in the end about 1 a.m.

It didn't seem like long until the alarm went. I had decided I wasn't going to Fraserburgh after all, but thought I should instead take Jo to the cardio clinic. The news on the radio was that the police had had to close the Cairn o' Mount road overnight due to snow - no wonder we were the only car on the road!

So, Jo got on fine - I went in with her. They're going to do another stress test as a precaution, but they don't think the pains she's been getting in her left side are Angina after all - although she'll keep taking the medicine.

For the rest of the day, I've just decided to work (and blog!) from home - and perhaps have a little doze and catch up on lost sleep.