Back in Glasgow

[mindstalk]

Emergency relaxation hotel isn't that relaxing. Tiny room, and I can hear snoring through the wall. The website claimed on-site laundry but apparently that was a lie. It's got another variation on the weird electric shower control (Triton brand, all of them) but that's fine. Toilet in the quirky minority. About £50 a night. But still, it's somewhere I can just stop for a while. With wi-fi!

Right now I'm in a launderette, as they call them. 10 minute walk away -- in SF I was used to 2 minutes -- and small, 5 small washers and 2 big ones, and 5 dryers. Owner gave me soap out of a bin, then charged £4 for the single load of wash. I'm lucky there was even a machine free. £1 for 15 minutes drying.

It's sunny and raining. You can see the rain clouds above and back, I guess there's a steady win blowing the rain to the sode.

Shopped at a Waitrose supermarket. For the third time, when I asked where something was I was escorted to it. Seems ineffient but necessary, since they don't number the aisles. I wonder if it's a deliberate choice to provide the illusion of service over efficiency.

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Monday. Haven't done much besides read Robin Hobb, catch up online, and look at travel options. Am at the botanic gardens, despite the light rain earlier. Now it's rather windy rain and I've been exploring the glasshouses more. A sign in Kibble says Japan has rice art, giant pictures made by planting different kinds of rice.

Foreign note: I've seen hardly any water fountains, if any at all. Public toilets, yes, water no.

One thing I've seen frequently are signs warning or exhorting against anti-social behavior, harassing bus drivers, or (in the public libraries) bullying. It's nice that someone cares but potentially alarming that they think it necessary... Mind you, lots of the US could use more prevention of anti-social behavior like loud music or scattering broken glass. Or shooting each other.

For brightness, space, and benches, the Kibble is clearly more popular than the other greenhouses.

Comments

[atsampson.livejournal.com]

Electric showers aren't especially weird -- a large fraction (maybe a majority) of houses and flats have them in the UK these, since they usually do a better job of providing large quantities of constant-temperature hot water than a central heating system does. If you don't have gas heating, it's also rather more efficient than using an immersion heater in a tank. (They're less common in hotels, which is probably why you've not run into many before.)

Did you cross the Tay in Dundee? If so, you drove past my flat...