On With the Motley

[f4f3]

My iPod shuffle is having one of those annoying mornings when it insists on playing appropriate tunes.

Anyway.

Glasgow is having a cold, clear Spring morning. Not so cold that I had to de-ice the car, but clear enough that Ben Lomond is visible from the office, and it has snow on it.

Tomorrow, for reasons involving car tax and personal stupidity, I'll be driving up to the cottage and I'll make sure I stop on the Rest and take some photos (although I'm sure my camera phone won't do the view justice). Last time I came over the clouds were about ten feet above my head at the top, and plunging into the valley was like taking a bobsleigh down an oiled snake, overtaking timber lorries and dodging sheep with wanderlust. Tommorrow will be a bit more sedate, I promise, although I want to pick up some Bradan Rost at the Oyster Bar, so no promises (did I post about my lunch at the Loch Fyne Restaurant last week with Maureen Lipman? Did anyone else?).

Tonight I'm going to the poshest sea-food place in Glasgow - not because it's posh, but because it's beautiful. I've never actually eaten there before, although I've had drinks at the bar and eaten at the cheaper cafe downstairs.

Thursday I fly to London, spend the night in Mayfair and, weather permitting, will pay my respects to St James' park with a morning walk, and, if I'm very lucky, get to catch up with some Very Important People (important in a personal sense, although I've no doubt they would be world rulers if they were so inclined).

In the face of all this, it just seems childish to be depressed, so I'm reapplying the wry smile, hoisting my left eyebrow quizzically and getting back in the game.

You have been warned...

Comments

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

You didn't post about lunch with Ms Lipman, no. Nor did anyone else, that I read, anyway.

Would that stopping depression were as simple as you describe, but congrats if you can rejoin the game!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

You're right - when I say I'm depressed it's not anyway close to being in the clinical sense. It's more like a passing cloud than a black dog. Probably the equivalent of man-flu. So substitute "down in the mouth" for "depressed" above.

I would have expected Itchy to pick me up on that, though, not you!

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

Nope, you can have reactive depression as well as clinical depression. Obviously better not to, though :o)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

If I could get my iPod to stop playing Tom Waits I'd feel much better, I'm sure.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

I would have expected Itchy to pick me up on that, though, not you!

Why? ;)

Seriously, I am not knocking your efforts - I am pleased to hear you are feeling better, and great that it's by choice. It's a sensitive spot for anyone who's suffered from clinical depression though - the idea that if you pulled your socks up and got on with it, you'd be well. Part of the problem can be the very idea that consciously you know there's no reason to feel the way you do.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

Serves you right for buying a shuffle - or for uploading the Tom Waits in the first place!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Agreed and agreed - careless use of the word, and quite right to pick me up, just as Itchy did when I described the Tories as being schizophrenic a while back.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Guilty on both counts.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I am sure a drive through the Alps will cheer, if not cure.

"Poshest sea-food place in Glasgow" - where? I don't make it over often (indeed, not in the past year or more!), but I'd be really interested. We had a wonderful meal in Gamba once- almost by mistake (we thought it was a cafe rather than a full-blown restaurant).

I wish you every success in eyebrow hoisting - you couldn't be worse than Roger Moore...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Gamba is lovely, but I'm off to Rogano's.

[munchkinstein.livejournal.com]

The last time I went to Loch Fyne the loch itself was going past the window at head height. Which possibly explained why the waitress gave us a very strange look when we said we had popped out from Glasgow for lunch.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I like stopping at the shop, partly for the Bradan Rost trimmings (a bargain at 3 quid) and partly for the moment when you step back out into the car park and look up the Loch. I'm never sure what the weather will be doing, but the combination of pure air and the beauty of the view always stops me in my tracks. Ah! Wish I was going tonight, now.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I knew I should not have asked...

I've not been to Rogano. So I look up their website, look at the various menus, and I am now salivating wildly.

Maybe we should venture west sometime soon!

[blonde222.livejournal.com]

f4f3! But I'm in London too on Friday and Sat!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Always a good idea, and I'm pleased to volunteer as culinary guide.

They say Rogano isn't as good as it used to be, and that it's living on the name, but they've been saying that for 30 years...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Aha! Well I'll be leaving after lunch on Friday, so you should have told me!