Flash! Ah-ahh!

By far the strangest experience I've had so far was at the Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Not because they were particularly weird at all - in fact they were amazing. Kibble Palace was a hot-house more so than a green-house in my opinion, but had some gorgeous plants from all over the world, including an amazing collection of fly-traps. They also had reflectors above every section, which probably had something to do with heat, but made for an interesting view above the plants - like tiny mirrors. There was an excellent cafe, and I had lunch there before going on to look at some of the other green houses out in the 'garden proper'. Again, nothing odd about that.

No, what was strange was that I was flashed inside one of the rainforest greenhouses, completely out of the blue! Not that flashers tend to warn you, "excuse me, hi there, just so you know, I'm about to flash you" but honestly, the Botanic Gardens? Of all places! You know those moments when you walk away and then all the witty retorts come flooding in and you almost wish you could go back for a take two? Something along the lines of "of what?" perhaps, or "what am I looking for?". 

I had my camera out and was obsessing over a fern, and had noticed that a young-ish guy  was hanging around when everyone else moved on. But, he was doing laps and looking quite intently at the plants and, actually, I was doing the same thing - so thought nothing of it. 

I turned a corner and heard him say something about taking a picture, and since there was no-one else there I thought, to be polite, I'd just poke my head back around to check whether he was on the phone or in fact talking to me. As I walked back around I said "sorry, did you say something?" and he says "take a picture" and tah-dah! He was giggling like a school girl. He didn't go the whole hog either, this was no overcoat-with-nothing-under-it scenario, he just, well lets put it this way: the clothes were still on but the 'essentials' were on display. 

Wow. The fact that it took me a few seconds of intense confusion to figure out what I was looking at probably helped - I imagine I looked completely blank, possibly even dead bored. 

Unfortunately, my response was an unimaginative "Uh, no thankyou" in my best 'how dull' voice. As you can imagine, I didn't hang around for the reaction, no I hot-footed it back around the corner into a delightful dead-end. So, should he decide to provide me with a take-two of the show, there would be nothing I could do about it. 

I decided to plow on, figuring my best bet was to act bored and un-bothered and therefore not worth the effort etc etc. I finally got up the nerve to cast a casual, bored glance back over my shoulder and, happily, he was nowhere to be seen. Phew!

I warily made my way back through the (ridiculously long) greenhouse, through its multiple sections and doors, to the exit. I didn't see any sign of him, so I left my crazy-lady-being-hunted appearance at the door and walked confidently on. Excellent. 

I must have dropped my wits as well when I left the crazy-lady look at the door, because I decided that since I was now safe, I could continue walking around and exploring.

The river path looked nice. About halfway down the path to the river I thought I heard something behind me. I turned around and saw no-one, but heard rustling back up the path. A fairly sizable bush was having its branches exercised but I decided it was a squirrel or something and kept going. 

As I kept walking I could then hear footsteps behind me, and turned to see who it was - since I was in a public garden, it was fairly likely other people would be walking there too, right? No reason to be weirded out, but lets just confirm. As I turned around though, all I saw was a guy duck behind a tree.Terrific. I'm being stalked by a flasher. Funny though I find it in hindsight, at the time I was becoming slightly concerned;

does he just happen to need to go the same way as me, and is hiding behind a tree embarrassed? One would think he'd have chosen a different route or hightailed it out of the gardens altogether if it was likely he'd develop a sense of remorse after flashing someone - choose a different hobby, no? Alternatively, is he a bona fide nutter and planning a second attempt, or something more sinister? Am I about to murdered clumsily by an indiscreet flasher?  

Next question, do I keep going and hope I come across some more people to tag along with down at the river; or do I risk going back past the tree (that I can't avoid), not knowing what the hell he's planning on doing? 

Well. I wasn't game to go past the tree, so I kept going down towards the river. I could hear him crunching along behind me, and it was partially comforting to know that he obviously wasn't very good at being quiet, which meant it was unlikely he had had a lot of practice, and therefore it was unlikely he was a serial killer. 

I was just starting to wonder if I should call someone so that if I disappeared they'd have a lead, when my phone rang. It was a friend in Australia, who had been replying to a text and had accidentally hit the call button. Given that it was about 2am Down Under, I've decided it was due to Higher Intervention that he happened to wake up and check the phone at such an hour, and then decided to attempt replying. I heard the footsteps falter when I answered the phone, and when I started chatting the footsteps turned to a jog and went back up the path. Talk about saved-by-the-bell! 

I waited a while and then headed back up the path to do something I really should have done the instant it happened; find some form of staff member and tell them. Not surprisingly, it had been about 15 minutes by the time I found someone, and the dodgy flasher was long gone. Still, I'll know for next time...? 
Hopefully not going to be necessary. 

Bye for now!

Inside the entrance to Kibble Palace.

View of Kibble Palace.

Water splashing off a palm leaf.

Dew suspended over a bush by a spider-web.

The bridge over the river I was walking to.

Foos yer doos?

As part of my Scotland Experience, I stayed in Glasgow for two weeks (a very generous friend agreed to have me stay with her) and I loved it. It's a constant buzz, and the people are incredibly friendly - on the way back to my friend's house we were having a chat about how organised I'd had to be and how I may or may not have been succeeding, and a local chimed in "well you look organised" gesturing at the colossal rucksack I was carting. Hilarious! I almost suggested he carry it for me, but sense prevailed and I decided not to push my luck. 

The city itself is amazing to look at. As well as the colourful balustrades on the ground, I was constantly reminded to 'look up' and was again blown away by the architecture and the art & sculpture on the buildings. 

The Princes' Square is a great example - it had a peacock sculpted 

out of metal sheeting above the entrance several

floors up which was incredible, and a great landmark.

The other thing I loved was the impressive options for nightlife and dining out. No, I didn't go clubbing and re-live my student life, but we did go to an awesome bar-come-restaurant called The Hillhead Bookclub and it blew me away! As you walk along peering down side streets, you see this tiny little outdoor setting of three or so tables with chairs around, under a little canopy of fairy lights. My thought was "oh how quaint" as I continued walking, but my friend turns down the side street saying "this is it". I'm open to anything and it did look cute, so I happily followed along. Now, given the outside setting, I was expecting that inside I would find a lovely cozy little restaurant, probably Italian, about 6x6m in floor space and seating maybe 40 people. Ha! 

As we walked up to the entrance I was already starting to doubt my theory. The main door is humongous, made of glass, and takes a serious push to open, but while your face is pressed against the glass door you glimpse a small room slightly on the dim side of lighting...only to realise the small room is in fact a booth, of which there are row upon row, followed by more rows, with the token deer and even a moose are poking their heads out of the walls above you. A bit weird, but by this point my curiosity was piqued and you couldn't have turned me around for anything - I wanted to see this place! 

We made it through the door and the room opens up and reveals itself to be this vast hall; two levels, a bar the length of the room, and on this particular evening - a ping pong tournament just casually being conducted in the middle. Yep, they cleared away all the tables and benches that normally occupy the floor space in front of the bar, and replaced them with mini ping pong tables. And it wasn't just for a bit of a laugh either - these guys were serious. They had their own paddles, with cases and spare...balls? Ping pongs? Which was lucky, given how many were lost under booths, feet and in drinks and chips with gravy. I have never seen so many flying neon orbs - they were everywhere. The other side of our booth was 'in use' as the chosen jacket and bag seat, and we frequently found ourselves conducting our conversation under the table searching for the latest rogue ball. It was fantastic. Apparently it used to be a library, which explains it's colossal size.

 The menu was a riot - look them up online: http://www.hillheadbookclub.com/fooddinner

One evening after dinner we decided Ice-cream was on the agenda, and walked to an ice-cream parlour up the round and round the bend. It was some of the best I've ever had but for the life of me I can't remember the name...

For my birthday we went to a gorgeous restaurant called The Left Bank, which had simply amazing food and cocktails, definitely suitable for my first 'birthday meal' in a foreign country.

While in Glasgow I sussed out: 

• Buchanan street (the shopping, oh, the
• shopping - retail heaven)
• Kelvingrove Gallery and Kelvingrove park
• Huntarian Museum - Zoology Department (the main museum famously known was closed on the day I went, and I didn't have time to go again)
• Glasgow Cathedral & St Mungo’s Chapel
• Necropolis (a huge graveyard behind the Glasgow Cathedral)
• Botanic Gardens and Kibble Palace (Kibble Palace is a green house with plants from all over the world)
• George Square
• The Burrell Collection
• Pollock House
• Stirling, Stirling Castle

I also did several day tours, which I'll do separate blogs on.

All of these places were amazing. 

Best experience:

A plane in the Kelvingrove Park playground.

My favourite places were the Kelvingrove Gallery and the Zoology dept at the Huntarian. The art and sculpture in the Kelvingrove was just mind blowing; the organ was mind rattling in a beautiful, melodic way; and the staff were incredibly helpful. 

The Zoology Dept at the Huntarian was quite honestly awe-inspiring for me, purely because they had just a few things I had never ever heard of much less seen.

They had the tusk from a Narwhale, which had me totally stumped for a good half hour because it wasn't labelled, and just looked like a gigantic, straight spear made of bone. Which would be fine, but what creature on earth has a dead-straight tusk over 3 metres long and about 8cm at the widest point down to less than 1cm at the narrowest?

Well obviously, it's official; Unicorns are real. But I wasn't hugely satisfied with that solution.

After doing laps around the table it was mounted on trying to find the misplaced tag for it, I saw a picture of a group of whales, all with an 'extended tooth' ie - 'giant dead-straight tusk'. Amazing. 

They also had a hanging display of Baleen Plates. Now, I saw the sign long before I saw the plates, and had to triple check to make sure I wasn't about to get all excited over nothing. See, the plates they had were over 3 metres long. Which is dandy until you realise that they belong in the mouth of a whale, and look tiny in that mouth. . . Talk about a reality check. Baleen plates can be anywhere from .5 to 3.5 metres long, and can weigh up to 90kg each. Yup, the whale these belonged to was on the seriously-large end of the spectrum. 

All in all, I highly recommend Scotland, and loved the whole experience, with the exception of about about 30 minutes in the Botanic Gardens, but that's another story. 

Bye for now! 

More of the playground, upping the standards.

A Sculpture out the front of the Kelvingrove.

One of the installations inside the Kelvingrove - I loved this one.
The artist pulled a ton of faces, photographed himself,
 and then made hundreds of floating heads with the expressions!