Got the tube to catch the 10 o-clock train.
I must mention the traffic lights in Glasgow. They are almost as bad as Budapest. When you're there if you're a pedestrian and you see a green man you cross the road whether you want to or not. Here pedestrians just get fed up of waiting so cross anyway.
Got the train OK with reservations on a table in the quiet carriage.

Decided to go to the People's Palace. The last time we were in that neck of the woods the TRNSMT festival was on so you couldn't get near it. Got a tube to St Enoch and walked along the river and then through Glasgow Green.
We were a bit disappointed with the palace. Not much there really and aimed a kids. Could do with a revamp. The big greenhouse thing also didn't seem to be open.

Decided to find a pub so walked back a different way. Passed a guitar shop with some very big guitars but didn't have much luck finding a pub and found ourselves on Buchanan St.
 I checked and we were only 7 minutes walk from the Pot Still which Roy had recommended but it was heaving last time we tried to get in. It was very quiet this time. From the name you can probably guess that whisky is a bit of a specialty. Quite a few people came in asking for something specific and the staff always knew where to find it and seemed very knowledgeable. They have a ladder to make life easier. Also spotted they have the same lights as the ones we've just bought for out kitchen. Had a couple of pints of a local IPA. M had a veggie haggis pie.
Decided to walk back and picked up provisions for tonight's tea.
Made a mushroom and lentil pasta dish and M made some hummus.
Tonight's gig was at the City Halls again.
I'd seen some Youtube clips of Rodney before. His big trick is that he plays two guitars at the same time and does all sorts of other weird playing. I assumed this would be the big finale but he was at it right from the off followed by playing a mandolin and guitar ate the same time. He normally rests one guitar on top of the other but for one song he had one of the guitars hung behind him. He also just taps the guitar and did the first drum solo I have ever seen played on a guitar. He's from Texas and was quite amusing.
Managed a half time drink OK this time.
Tommy Emmanuel is something else. A complete guitarist. Folky, countryy, jazzy, bluesy, flamencoy and classical gassy. He plays the guitar like a piano in the sense that he's always playing  a full tune, not just lead or rhythm or bass but the whole package. Most of it pretty nifty too. Truely amazing. He also did some tapping and played the second drum solo on a guitar I have ever seen. He sang a couple of songs too which he probably shouldn't do including quite a cheesy one about his dad. He had 3 guitars there's some stuff about them here. He's also a bit of an entertainer. Does things like looking at his watch whilst playing and pointing with his right hand at what his left hand is doing.
Got a cab back. James and Amy were still up. Said goodbye to Amy. They both went to bed so we watched Witless Silences and night capped.

M wanted to prepare for the interview she has for her PhD funding on Thursday so I had a free day. I thought about trying to visit the 4 football grounds, Rangers, Celtic, Partick and Queens Park (they play at Hampden) but that seemed a bit ambitious. Instead I settled for walking to the Science Centre and then to Ibrox.
The walk took me through Kelvingrove Park which has some fine views.
Spotted this church next to Sikh temple which were both next to a Gaelic school so it says something about the diversity of the city.


 I walked over the Bells footbridge to get over the river. It shows the strange armadillo building.



The BBC building had photos of artists in the windows. I checked to see if there was anyone I knew and found J. Willgoose, Esq. from Public Service Broadcasting who Tom is a big fan of.


To alleviate my disappointment I headed on to Ibrox. Its in a bit of rundown neighbourhood, a mixture of industrial buildings and poor housing.

I did a lap of honour and spotted the memorial for the 1971 disaster. There were quite a few flowers probably because it happened on January 2nd. 66 people killed. I hadn't realised there had been a previous disaster in 1902. This was  at a home international match between Scotland and England. The back of the wooden West Tribune Stand collapsed due to heavy rainfall the previous night, causing 25 deaths.

The way back was made easy by the various landmarks like the sikh temple and then when got up a hill on the outskirts of the park I could see the church opposite James and Amy's. When James lived in Hackney his flat was above a shop with a big sign saying 'Cheap Booze'. Now he has this for continuity.

We had decided to go to the Drygate Brewery but I had spotted that it was near to the cathedral and the Necropolis so we thought we'd kill 3 birds with one stone.
Got a tube to Buchanan St and walked from there which took us past Strathclyde University.
The cathedral looks like it could do with a bit of a clean but is very impressive inside with a fair bit of stained glass.


There was also a rather impressive Father Willis organ. The guy playing it was either a beginner or playing an experimental piece.



There is an under church bit which was open to the public and contained the tomb of St Mungo who was a big noise around here. Glasgow's coat of arms is all about him.
Unfortunately the bit everyone had really come see was closed.
The Necropolis also looked pretty impressive but it was cold so we thought we'd settle for a photo and head for the brewery.


We spotted the St Mungo Museum of Religious Like and Art and so popped in hoping to find more about St Mungo but it wasn't about him at all. A nice view from the top though. A museum of religious life features in M's book.
 We then headed down to the brewery and ordered a couple of flights. Each contains 4 1/3 glasses. We went for one of everything they had on offer.

A bit of a mixture, a lager, cider, low alcohol, a wheat beer, a sour, a regularish bitter and a couple or stouts. I liked the stouts best. They were also the strongest coincidentally. As you can see James looks a bit perplexed. We washed them down with a couple of bowls of chips to keep us going until we got to Paesano's. Possibly the best pizza place I've been to anywhere, including that one in Florence. You cant book and there was a 45 minute wait so we put our our names down and popped back to the flat for a bit. We're all cutting down on meat for January so went for veggie options. Mine was olives, capers and anchovies. All on sourdough bases in a wood fired oven. Excellent.
Me and James then headed off for this evenings gig at the Oran Mor. It turns out its the church with the ring round the tower that we had spotted the previous day. The gig was underneath the church.

We missed the start of the first act Amy Papiransky She's got a great voice and sang some good songs with a big backing band. They had a good sound. One guy played mandolin and fiddle. He played the fiddle right handed but played a right handed mandolin left handed and upside down. She comes over as being very streetwise and very Glaswegian. I liked them and a pity we missed the start.
 The main man was Robert Vincent, a scouse singer song writer who looked like a cross between Jarvis Cocker and Vic Reeves. They were probably a bit too loud as you couldn't really hear the more melodic instruments, fiddle, lead guitar and keyboards. It was a pity as the guitarist also played pedal steel but it didn't really cut through. An exception was a track called Riot's City which featured the fiddle and lead in an extended instrumental section. A lot of the audience seemed to know his stuff and a couple asked him to play a song called Second Chance. He wasn't going to do it but the keyboard player started playing and the rest followed. It seemed fairly genuine as she seem to shouting the chords out to the other band members. It was very enjoyable, just a pity about the sound. I wanted to say who he reminded me of but cant figure it out.
When we got back Amy was already in bed and James joined her as they had work the next day. Me and M watched Call The Midwife and Christine Keeler and had a couple of night caps.

Had a bit of a lie in reading M's book The Amethyst Reliquary. Its very good. Scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast. We needed to get some provisions so walked along the River Kelvin to the Waitrose near the Botanical Gardens where there is a church with an odd spire.


They have a good looking sushi counter. I was after a bottle of whisky and they had one called Tamnavulin with a tenner off so went for that. Vulin means mill I subsequently discovered.
There are lots of interesting looking, independent bars and shops in that neck of the woods.
Wandered back through the university area.
We played a game of Viticulture when we got back. We'd played it before over Xmas. James won again but we are getting closer.
Amy cooked really good fajitas with 'this is not chicken'.
It was a bout a 40 minute walk to the City Halls concert venue for this evenings gig so we got the Clockwork Orange to St Enochs.
We got there in time for a drink and had the festival session ale brewed by Drygate. They are part of Tennents.

First up were a band called Allt. They are a group of Irish and Scottish musicians, Julie Fowlis (penny whistle), Éamon Doorley (bouzouki and fiddle), Zoë Conway (penny whistle and fiddle) and John McIntyre (guitar), who colaborated to produce an album called Allt which means stream in Gaelic.

Going up to Glasgow for the Celtic Connections Festival, staying with James and Amy. Got the 9 12 train changing at Birmingham New St. A bit of a kerfuffle with the seat reservations. I didn't get an option to reserve seats when I booked on Trainline so had to do it later via chat then pick the tickets up from the station. Unfortunately the outbound tickets were for the 7th. Plenty of seats available though. M thought maybe I didn't get the option to reserve was cos I do everything on my phone which is a fair point as I've noticed with the mobile version of the blog that bits are missing.
Got the connection at New St OK and even managed to get a table seat. The service is now run by Avanti. Plenty of room, very clean, comfortable and a well stocked shop. If this is anything to go by a definite improvement on Virgin. But they have just taken over in December. Will they keep it up?
The woman opposite us opened up a massive box of sushi and scoffed the lot. It looked good so we decided we would suggest going for some in Glasgow. As if by magic Amy had booked us into the Nanakusa restaurant. When we arrived the place was empty but they the us upstairs on a small sort of balcony which seemed odd until 5 minutes later when the entire place filled up with Japanese people.  My first sushi and it was excellent so I'm now a convert.
The service was a bit slow due the sell out crowd so we had to get a move on to get the gig we were going to in the Strathclyde Suite in the concert hall.


It was unreserved seating but we easily got 4 seats together, quite near the back but still with a good view. The band came on straight away and I assumed they were the main act but were in fact called SaMaLuc. I cant find anything about them on t'internet so I assume it was a made up name for  Sam Mabbet (The Canny Band), Malin Lewis (Two Octaves) and Luc McNally (Dosca). Sam played the accordian, Malin played various types of pipe and Luc played guitar. They did some stuff in strange timings like 7/8 and 11/8 and some was