Glasgow to Loch Lomond Part One

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

On Saturday I cycled from Glasgow to Loch Lomond and back. I followed the National Cycle Network N7 route. You can find a PDF with information and a route map here. On my way I took some photos and video clips on my phone, some of which I have included here.

I wanted to start early as some of the weather forecasts were saying there would be rain later, however this turned out to be wrong as my sunburn testifies. I started off from my flat at about 6:30am, which is a totally unnatural hour to be doing anything on a Saturday.

Part One : Clyde Walkway to Bowling

I started the route proper on the Clyde Walkway at the corner of Clyde Street and Gorbals Street on this map

The first part of the route to the Tall Ship take you past some of Glasgow best known landmarks and attractions. The Finnieston Crane, wikipedia, satellite. The Armadillo at the SECC, wikipedia, satellite and the Glasgow Science Centre, wikipedia, satellite, my photos of GSC. At the Tall Ship the route crosses the motorway, I took the photo below from the bridge.

The next section is not the most picturesque, it starts off along side the motorway and then take a few diversions before taking an underpass back under the motorway. There is a lot of construction going on in this area so there is not much to see. The route eventually joins a path along the old railway line through Scotstoun, wikipedia, satellite. The tarmac along this section is graffitied with the names of local gangs and I would not be comfortable being there at night. The route through Yoker, wikipedia, satellite, to Clydebank is well sign posted, however at Cart Steet I missed the fact that there was an underpass on the right, satellite This only caused me to take a brief diversion as I knew from the map that I needed to pickup the path at the back of the Playdrome Leisure Centre.

The path from Clydebank, wikipedia, to Bowling, wikipedia, along the Forth & Clyde Canal, wikipedia, is one of the most beautiful parts of the route. On this stretch you pass under the Eskine Bridge, wikipedia, satellite. Below is a photo of the bridge taken from the canal tow path on the Bowling side.

At the end of the canal there is a bike shop which also sells cold soft drinks from what I gather from the signs outside. I stopped at the memorial park in Bowling for a breather and took the video and photo below.

Bowling is the half way point and it is the first time I remember actually seeing the distance remaining marked on the signs.

Tomorrow Bowling to Loch Lonond

Kev

  

Two places at once

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Thanks to the WordPress plugin LiveJournal Crossposter (LJXP) I am at last able do what I said I would when I set up my LJ account which is to run both in tandem. I could have done this by hand but I am far too lazy I am going to contact the author of LJXP to see if it is possible to send the mood from myMooMus to LJ’s mood.

On Saturday I had a great time The Alarm concert it was worth the wait I have booked tickets for The Beautiful South, who are in Glasgow in May.

I have sent out the second beta of myMooMus 2.0. I am hoping that I can get it released so that I can concentrate on other things for a while.

Kev

  

Mood : geeky

Mud Guard? What Mud Guard?

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

W00T! This evening I managed to get out on my bike, my attempt on Tuesday failed when I realised that my back tyre was a little soft and when I went to inflate it the pump died, not sure how as it worked the night before but it wasn’t pumping air any more.

I went to Pollock Country Park and did the ‘Green’ and ‘Blue’ mountain bike circuits. Just at the end of the ‘Blue’ circuit my front mud guard got cought up behind the wheel and jammed.  I only put the mud guards on when I used the bike to go to work, so I think this was the bike saying “Well if you are going to use me as a mountain bike at long last, let me look like a damn mountain bike!” I removed it and dumped it in a bin. You can see details of the circuits here.

I almost swallowed a bug ::eugh:: & I will spare you from the photo of me in my cycle gear that I had thought about posting with this entry

Kev

  

Mood : excited  Tv : Battlestar Gallactica : Lay down your burdens Pt 1

Please remember to feed your passengers

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Please remember to feed your passengers

feed



Originally uploaded by Darkest Before Dawn.

  

Bike!

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Yesterday while doing a little shopping for anti-histamines at Braehead I decide to pop in to the Govan Lidl as I reckoned that the two eggs, carton of orange juice and half used jar of red pesto I had in the fridge was not going to make a very satisfying meal. If you are not familiar with Lidl they are a German low price supermarket and on a weekly basis they have hard goods for sale, one week it could be BBQ equipment the next fitness or computer equipment. This week they had bicycle stuff!! I picked up a wireless bicycle computer for £5.99. A couple of years ago I bought one, for more than double that on eBay, and never got it to work due to fixing provided not permitting me to set the transmitter and the magnet close enough. So the good news is that I have it set up now and after making sure my back tyre is on the right way ::red face:: It took me two goes ::even redder face:: and getting oily hands which are still not clean after 5 washes I am going for a cycle tonight.

  

Mood : high

Ohh I really can’t think of a title

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

The weekend has been mixed. I had a great day yesterday. I spent time with my nephews when my mother and I took them to the park and played with Frisbees and had a picnic. On Saturday I also spent time at the Merchants Square Craft Fair at my sister’s card stall.

There was another stall there that caught my eye Roosters Metacreations I loved the humour in this one

Sunday has not been so good, there is pollen in the air so I have been feeling tired and sleepy. I had lost most of the day before I realised what was wrong and took an anti-histamine. I am also worried about my girl friend who has not been feeling well recently.

Next week I will need to get out for some runs, my weight has been going up over the last few weeks when I have been feeling unwell and I also have the first 10 kilometre race at the end of May. I want to get version two of the myMooMus plugin finished and available for download, I need to move on to other things. The code needs a little clean up and I need to add the new features to the instructions.

I will also be making some more changes to the blog. I am going to an “About Me” section which I don’t think I have ever had before, I may even add a mug shot of some sort, if you are so curious you can’t wait there is one on regularjen from a couple of years back. I also want to add the categories and calendar back to the sidebar.

More tomorrow, when I hope to be able to think of a title

  

Mood : worried  Tv : The Minotaur's Island

A little fable

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

I’ll hope to write a post later today but until then here is a fable I was sent in an e-mail the other day.

Kev

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was

proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?” “That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.”

“For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

  

Mood : awake  Tv : Serenity on DVD :)

Wired!?

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Wired is how I feel right now, it is 2:20 am and my brain is buzzing and shows little indication of being interested in sleep. For years I was used to this when I drank coffee at work and now the same thing can happen when I just have one coffee but I haven’t had any in weeks so it can’t be coffee to blame. I did have a banana and strawberry smoothie earlier but I really can’t see how that could cause this! I have taken two herbal pills that I take when my nerves get jittery so hopefully I they will help, fingers crossed.

Kev

  

Mood : listless

Marry your favourite character

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Okay this is a bit of fun shamelessly gacked from a post by katie–pillar on the LJ Green Wing community.

Marry Your Favourite Character Online

I have to admit I haven’t selected a character to marry yet

Kev

  

Mood : bored

Dizzy

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Today I was off work. I am feeling very dizzy a lot of the time as well as very tired even though I have slept for hours today. I got up last night and almost fell flat on my face which at the time was not as fun as it sounds now.

I will catch up with any unreplied comments on the comment meme as soon as I feel better, but I will reply.

Kev

  

Not had one for a while so here’s a Rant

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Dear Sky please stop showing the “Ricky Gervais on the Simpsons” adverts every 2 minutes. To all TV, Magazines, Radio etc, “Pop Star takes drugs” is not news, or even interesting I am fed up hearing about Pete Doherty. Twice a year we have a debate about the clocks changing, please stop it is just boring and it is not as if it is going to stop it happening that weekend! Ban ringtone adverts, all of them. For pity’s sake Tony Blair GO! I await the magazine with the headline Kerry or Jordan or Daniella “Has No Story To Sell This Week”. If the Americans have a V-chip in their TV that stops them viewing sex and violence why can’t I have one that blocks programmes that contain Jeremy Clarkson? Apple hurry up with some new geeky stuff I am getting bored. People who get annoyed at spelling mistakes on forums. Not everyone can write perfect prose, get over it. Game adverts should have to distinguish between game play and “cut scenes”. I know they were going for cute but the “Baby Boss” in the Triple Velvet advert is just plain disturbing.

Ah I feel better now.

Kev

  

Mood : Ranty

Angel and other bits

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Sci-Fi are showing Angel from the start so I am currently getting into it, although I do want to know how he can walk around in the daylight, maybe it is the LA smog that cuts the sunlight down or something?

The Meme on my last post has gone well and I will reply to all of them but I can only do one a day as they take time. I have also customised the blog credits links.

I had a chat with HR to double check that I can take on other work in my own time and I can. I think the next stage is to work out a business plan. I also need to develop my web site, as opposed to the blog so that it can act as an example of my skills.

Kev

  

Mood : tired

Comment Meme

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Tagged by Waltzingalong

1. Comment with your name and I’ll respond with something random about you.

2. I’ll tell you what song/movie/book/fictional character/SOMETHING reminds me of you.

3. I’ll pick a flavor of pudding to wrestle with you in.

4. I’ll say something that only makes sense to you and me. Well, maybe just me.

5. I’ll tell you my favorite memory of you, should I have one yet.

6. I’ll tell you what animal or plant you remind me of.

7. I’ll ask you something that I’ve always wondered about you.

8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written. Eh, I don’t really care.

  

Ltd

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

During the past few days I have been thinking more about setting up a Limited company and doing Web development and Consulting. At first I would do this in my spare time, my contract allows me to do other work as long as it is not in competition with the company.  Tomorrow I want to take a walk up to the local Business Gateway office and see what information I can get.

Kev

  

Ha! Smart Ass

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

If you popped by earlier you may have been presented with a green background and not much else also my apologies if you rss my posts because you would have got 58 entries of gibberish, yes even more than usual! This morning I tried to photoblog from my mobile phone as I had read somewhere that you could now send an image as well as text to Wordpress. I obviously read wrong and I just got text with the image data in it. The email also didn’t delete from the server and so was uploaded again every 15 minutes thanks to the cron job This screwed everything up. Sorry.

Anyway I did come here to post a link my sister sent me Apple Tattoos  I have been an Mac User since 1986 but I am not that commited

Kev

  

Anya

First Easter Card

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Just received my first Easter email

  

Twelve albums meme

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Tagged by Waltzingalong, sort of

Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

  

Okay so I’m a blog slut

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

As part of the relaunch I started back in March, Darkest Before Dawn can now be accessed at the shorter db4dawn.co.uk and is mirrored on Blogger thanks to Blogger API Client plugin. On LiveJournal thanks to LiveJournal Crossposter and on Multply via an import.

I still have some work to do to get things sorted out here and I will start adding to the other systems as well.

Kev

  

Mood : Slightly Less Sneezy

Type of Writer Quiz

This entry was originally published at Darkest Before Dawn

Gacked from Morgaine LeFaye Type of Writer

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways.And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery… Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever. You’re already naturally a poet, even if you’ve never written a poem.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

  

Mood : Sneezy