Ash and Wind

The winds on Monday were so strong that some trees were blown down and lots of branches and leaves were scattered over the roads. It was Davie's first day of work experience in Boots and after school I went into town to meet him for tea in TGI Friday's (his favourite restaurant). Alasdair was going to meet us there but he couldn't get into town - all the trains were cancelled because of the weather. Renfield Street was jammed with buses when I arrived because there were so many people trying to get on them. David and I had a pleasant meal, he had really enjoyed his day. The staff at Boots had been very welcoming to him and he had been filling shelves, putting prescriptions in alphabetical order and giving out advantage cards. He really liked the young pharmacist who was mentoring him. Meanwhile James was in London and his plane was delayed by the windy weather. When he got to Glasgow it had to circle round before it could get in low enough to land. As a result he wasn't home until nine - a fifteen hour working day. He was very tired. However he was lucky to get home before the ash cloud from Iceland arrived from the north - a couple of hours later and he would have been stranded in London overnight. This is the second time that volcanic ash from Iceland has closed airports; the first time in April 2010 it lasted for a week, and there was a huge amount of disruption. Many flights to and from Europe were cancelled and people were stranded all over the world! This time it cleared after a day. The next day the roads were shiny with rain, and when I was driving up to East Kilbride I saw a strange sight; every car had a plume of spray behind it that was lit up by sunlight, it looked amazing.

Alasdair has now sat four out of his six Highers. He doesn't give us a lot of feedback about how he got on, but he seems to think that he's doing ok. Next week he has Biology and today I got him some Biology revision notes from my school to give him some extra practice. So now it is the holiday weekend and my aim is to finish my final diploma essay by Monday evening. We shall see.