Rotary Trip to Scotland

Today started off with Will Smith waking me up via an iTunes alarm on my computer. They have a different electricity “language” over here and my alarm clock doesn’t speak it. So I’ve had to rig up my computer to wake me up.
So, I went and got a brief workout in here at the hotel, and then had a quick shower and breakfast.

We were met around 11 by Andy Slater who gave us a projector, dvd player and any cable we might need for our presentations over the next few weeks. We then headed into Glasgow with 4 Assistant Governors and Andrew, had lunch at a great hotel restaurant in the middle of the city - I had an amazing chocolate mousse with the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had on it. And then we took a bus tour of the city, on the top of a double-decker. With a recorded tour played through headphones, and not always in sync with where we were, and with a very catchy bit of music to fill the gaps. Glasgow is a fascinating city, and we’ll be back there at various times to visit museums and (myself only) the RASMD (Royal Academy of Scottish Music and Digtal arts (or maybe Dance, I’m not sure)).
It rained for the first time today, but in spurts and not for long.
Bruce MacPhearson and his wife hosted us for afternoon tea/coffee (I had apple juice) and then we headed to Kirkintilloch for a Rotary meeting and our very first presentation! We had one minor glitch while testing everything - the batteries in the remote were dying - but it was soon rectified and we were ready to go for after dinner.
The dinner was great - they made a special dish for Adrienne because she made a mention of liking vegetarian food on her bio, and made sure the main course had no wheat so I could eat it! How hospitable. After dinner it was showtime and we ran through our presentation with little difficulty. We were well received and have an idea how to improve for next time.
Tomorrow we have two presentations: a lunctime matinee at our hotel and then a dinner show at a club about 10 miles away. We also move in with our first host families tomorrow, so that will be a new adventure.

I had a whisky tonight (a celebratory drink from Thorns for our first presentation going so well) that was unlike any I’ve had before. Glenmorangie. Here’s my attempt to describe the taste:

It went up instead of down.

Most whisky I’ve had will have a bit of a bouquet that gets up in the sinuses a bit, but the brunt of the flavor hits the throat and travels downward. This one had a light, almost ginger, flavor that jumped up into the sinuses, sparkled for a bit, and then stayed up in the mouth and throat as you swallow. Very tasty and interesting.

Before retiring, Adrienne was taught the fine art of Spades, with Adrienne and Melissa taking on Bill and myself. I don’t want to say who was winning when we called it a night, but it was the boys.

Scottish language note for the day: “restroom” means “bedroom” or “place where you rest”. Which makes sense. “Gents”, “Ladies” or “toilet” means “place where you go the the bathroom”.

Scottish driving adventure of the day: we were heading into Glasgow and were stopped at a light or something. I was in the back seat, fairly oblivious to the trip, mostly looking at buildings and such. I happened to look left out the window as we started moving and saw a bus coming at us at high speed, and only about 20 yards away. My thought was “wow, it’s just like Universal Studios tour where they stop the bus on the train tracks and a train barrels down on you. I’m glad we’re moving”.
I found out later that the car following us, which had Thorns and Melissa in it, followed us through the intersection and just barely made it! Melissa said she looked over and all she could see was the bus driver’s shoes.

So, until next time. Which may be a couple days out, or tomorrow. Not sure what sort of internet access I’ll have at my host families’ homes, so we’ll play it by ear.

Thanks for all the comments!

Peace

Jason

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Jason's trip updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.