Indian Restaurants

Every corner you turn, there's another Indian restaurant. Chicken Tikka Masala is Britain's number 1 dish, but it is said to have had its genesis in Scotland.
Not so for this cookie, he was happy with Britain's number 2 dish.....Fish and Chips.
Each to his own I guess.......

Wedding...Glasgow style

Across the road is a venue which hosts weddings. Sunday was a slow day, and I opted to cook a Chilli, do some washing and watch the French Open Men's Final, all at the same time. Then I noticed a wedding was on, evident by the piper standing out the front. You're not really married in Scotland if you don't have a piper, just pretending to be. Right Celia?

Everyone loves to photo the Piper

Anyway, the whole production began about 3.15pm. The piper began his piping and a selection of guests rolled in. At 3.50pm a bus turned up with all the important guests, another feature Celia stole for her wedding to Scottish Tony.

All the while this bloody Red Taxicab keeps circling with 70's music blaring out of the open windows, quite a distraction. John reckons it the Bride's ex-husband getting square.

 

 

At 4.20pm the Bridesmaids arrived in a Daimler Sovereign, nothing was too good for this lot, however, do bear in mind the first guests arrived over an hour ago. Also bear in mind, I'm trying to cook, watch the tennis and take photos of the Bride so you lot can see how it all turns out


Every time the piper starts up, I run to the window to catch her, but no, no, no.
Where the bloody hell is she?
I look out again, the piper has disappeared, there's still no Bride. I look again at 5.20pm and the Bridal car is there, empty, but she wasn't piped in. I was beside myself. Was the Groom jilted? I saw the piper walk off after his 2+ hour stint. This was very sad.

 Sorry no photos of the Bride, and indeed, probably no wedding. The red carpet was being rolled up and this was about 6pm.
John and I were walking out, so I just had to be the nosy parker I am, and go see. I walked into the hall, a public place but was told I couldn't come in today as there was a wedding on.
What!!!
I can only conclude that she was dropped off at the back of the building and not the front where every body else went in.
Bugger.....

Glasgow

After a days travel via Amsterdam, great airport, by the way, we arrive in Glasgow. Got a taxi from the airport to the apartment. Hop out of the taxi with the large red suitcases and somebody calls my name. I turn to have a man introduce himself as Eric, the chap who organises the accommodation.
'How did you know it was me????'
He just looked at the cases and shrugged.

The apartment is very nice, modern and across the road from The Beer Café, not much help, when they don't sell John's brands. Nevermind, the walk will do me good.

The day we arrive it quite hot and all the locals are out sunning themselves, just like they were in Italy!! Not!! There'll be some sorry skin tomorrow.

Out to Café Gandolfi for food and we jump straight in....Haggis, Neeps and Tatties for dinner.

When in Scotland.......

Laughter.....

'A day without laughter is a day wasted'



The Hotel Berna certainly has a sense of humour. When we arrived back from

 

 Lake Como, en route to Glasgow, I found this little fellow in my sink. Please take me home to remind you of us. Cute..... 

Addio al Lago

Sad, but it's time to move on......we've had a wonderful holiday, tried some wonderfully tasty local produce, sampled some great local wines and wines from other regions of Italy too.
We've been annoyed by rain and wind, but had sunny weather as well, we've been battered by the noise of the constant trucks rolling through and every night as I waited for the most incredible sunsets, the clouds rolled in and it wasn't to be. Wednesday was as good as it got, not too bad....

 

 

 

 

 

We, mostly John, were also stalked by a very large bird of prey who constantly flew by, performing in front of us, and as soon as you picked your camera up, he flew away.  Bastard! As we rode out on the train, he flew alongside the window, looked like he was saying his farewells too.

 

And so, on to Milan en route to Glasgow. I feel we will be back...............

Il Capatavi

This was a must do restaurant in Varenna. It is here you have risotto cooked to order from scratch, and only for two persons. We nick-named the cook The Strawberry Man, because last time we came and ordered the risotto on the menu, we were told he wasn't cooking that one today, he was cooking a Strawberry one. Basically, take it or leave it. We took it of course and it was good, so we didn't know what to expect this time. As it happened, the menu selection was on, Red wine and Smoked Cheese Risotto, with a secret ingredient. Doesn't look much, but it was as tasty as........

Il Capatavi is a tiny place, taking a maximum of only 14 people. All you need is one table of dominant characters and they can overrun the atmosphere, so it's very much pot luck. Sometimes all the tables get talking to each other and it can be really good fun. There wasn't a lot of exchange tonight because John was too busy watching the cook through the little kitchen window. The kitchen is tiny, but well run and very well organised by The Strawberry man and his one little helper and there is only one waiter for the 5 tables.

 

A very happy John and an equally happy Debra.

 

 

Optomistic?

Glass half empty or glass half full................

This glass is fully empty, so an optimistic person would hope there was some more.

I'm a very optimistic person.....and there was!