Rich and Strange Aeons

Or I could stay in all day reading. For all my time in bed I'm still tired, and I don't know what the tour will involve, so, take it easy.

I read before I left that British toilets would be underpowered and challenged to flush poop, as has been said of Congress-mandated economy toilets. This appears to have been a slander: pretty much all toilets have been frighteningly overpowered.

I just noticed that Scotland seems to have its own pound notes. Bank of Scotland or Clydesdale Bank, signed by a Glasgow COO. £5 has Arthur Fleming and St. Kilda, 10 has Mary Slessor and map of a tiny part of Africa. Ekoi, Ibibio, Itu. English 20 is QEII and Adam Smith, Scottish is Sir Walter Scott and Forth Bridge.

Currently eating South Indian garlic chili lamb. Very hot. First s. Indian dish with meat I've seen.

Got my first professional haircut in a long time, followed by my first mechanical beard trimming.

Found a coffeehouse open to the heady hour of 10 pm. It belies my statement about toilets, though it's less a matter of low pressure so much as not properly releasing what water it does have. Free wi-fi, but it's not working for either of my computers. Pity, I want to like the place. Their Turkish coffee was rather strong and bitter, but this Arabian rose tea, picked over Arabian mint for novelty, is nice.

Don't know if I'll be posting much on the tour.

Got back to my room a bit after 11pm. Hostel quiet period is 11-7, and everyone else was in bed. Oops! Fortunately for them I didn't have to blast them with the overhead light to get ready in the dark room: my smartphone can double as an expensive flashlight. Sleep wasn't ideal but better than I'd feared; I'll give it another try.

Saturday:
Crossed Kelvingrove Park to find Kelvingrove Museum. There was a statue of Kelvin. I suspect Lord Kelvin the physicist but haven't confirmed this.

I don't much trust my phone-GPS opinions on altitude.

Museum has Glasgow Stories, on sectarianism, violence against women, South Asian immigrants, and James Watt; a small Ancient Egypt room; natural history stuff, Scottish fossils or stuffed animals, Darwin, basic divisions of life; Scottish art, especially the painter John Quinton Pringle, Margaret and Frances MacDonald, Glasgow Boys, Colourists, Glasgow Style; Every Picture Tells A Story with a few examples of what McCloud would call sequemtial art; St. Kilda; arms and armor, but with more explanation and commentary; Scotland's first peoples (Alpine jadeite in Scotland 5000 years ago; crannogs)

Didn't finish that museum before closing time. Figured how to walk to the Botanic Gardens, and found the Kibble Palace still open. Silly name to us, but it's a glasshouse or conservatory, in the old style. Not huge - desert room, carnivorous room, main dome - but that dome is nice. Outer desert plants, inner ferns and bananas, little mazelike path, and amazing echo effect under the cupola. Which reminds me that Host said she could like living in a greenhouse, and I agree. Or at least the idea is cool. (Especially a whole enclosed area in a wintry climate.)

There's a more modern complex of greenhouses, more plants though less spiffy architecture, that or I just don't like dark brown frames. Neat collections though, including a tropical pond. But a papyrus placard attributes pulped paper to the Arabs?! Hello, China? One of the four great inventions thereof?

Now I'm in a Persian restaurant. More nickel and diming: "I'll have this yogurt and cucumber appetizer." "You want bread withthat?" "Um, no?" "You really do." It comes, and is rather strong -- not sure if too salty, sour, or dilly, but it does want to be cut.

Table has a number on it. I've wondered why more restaurants don't use physical labels to cut down on training and cognitive costs of waiters.

Been seeing a lot of redheads. Don't believe all of them are natural, but still. More redheads than blondes? Maybe.

If Edinburgh is so damp, I wonder why I wake up multiple times in the night really dry, when I didn't in London? Something about the bed making me snore more?

Nice easy train - off-peak anytime ticket. Standard class, picked myself a table for convenience and maybe having someone to talk to. No wi-fi or plug. Passed the very base of the castle as we pulled out, that was neat. Someone's playing their headphones too loud... Table is now full, but no inter-stranger conversation.

At Linlithgow, or Gleann Iucha.

1633 says the Iroquois called George Washington "the town burner", for ordering General Sullivan to eradicate their settlements in the Revolution.

Glasgow. Scenery wasn't that dramatic.

There's a Nelson Mandela plaza.
Underground station has angled slidewalks. Underground is the 3rd oldest subway in the world, after London and... Budapest? Hasn't been expanded past its original circle, though due to hard bedrock and old mines.
Made it to the hostel, through Kelvingrove Park... shortest linear distance but the hills are something else. I see why it's a park without roads through it. Hostel is in an isolated terrace, park is shaped like a horseshoe and we're inside the bend. Area looks like it'd be either rather expensive or rather run down. Hostel even has street signs pointing to it.
Hostel is called youth hostel, but there was a no longer middle aged woman asking questions at the desk, so it's not just me.

Some amout of tartan or plaid around, and an Indian waiter in an Indian restaurant is wearing a kilt, albeit dark gray and black. And he just brought me a tiny cup of "homemade Indian chicken soup", gratis I assume. The lunch menu is set price, you choose among starter and entree. There's a pre-theater page, which implies a theater nearby.

In my hostel room. (Wasn't ready earlier.) 8 beds. 2 bathrooms and separate shower rooms. No sockets. One switch for all the ceiling lights and no other lamps. No towel yet. They rent towels for a pound, but don't have any available 1.5 hours after check-in. There *are* two sockets, for 8 people. The room water is apparently not potable. Wi-fi is a pound an hour. Have to buy shower soap... And there's no bathroom soap or hand-drying facility.

Despite the VERY HOT WATER sign and it being a many-room building, the sink has yet to produce hot water at all... I'm told maybe later, when more people are running it. Also that the "no drinking" is because they can't guarantee the pipe water being kept at good temperatures, "should be safe for brushing your teeth but could be a small risk in large quantities", unlike the basement kitchen taps.

Umm, there shouldn't be enough stuff in the water for bacteria to grow on... Still, at least it doesn't seem part of a bottled water scam.

I've met one roommate, here from Aberdeen for a business conference. Man, his business must be cheap.

It's 70 F, which is considered really warm. Mind you, after going substantially uphill in the sun, then up to a 3rd story room, that is kind of warm.

Cleverly forgot Host's spare keys; since I know more guests come tomorrow, mailed them top speed for £7.30.

The plan for the evening: when I first took the subway - one of the smallest in the world, in all senses, cf. Wikipedia - I got an all day pass. (£3.50 vs. £1.20 one way). Might as well use it! There's about 15 stops in a circle, I figure I can get off at each one and look around.

Already I've learned that a stop can be a few blocks from quite busy areas and show no sign. Also that escalators follow London's stand on the right protocol - guess the Tube set the habits for the country. Mind you, you still take the left escalator.
Loud headphones worn by a white man in a business suit.