Coffee at the People's Palace

The weekend got off to a great start when we had dinner at Alison and Bill's last night. We had a lovely evening and the time flew by; we got home rather late and had a lie in this morning. James decided to do his annual maintenance of all our bicycles and Ally was studying, so David and I went over to the People's Palace to meet Jamie for a coffee; Jamie was racing on the Clyde with his boat club. It's ages since we have been there and we didn't go to the museum, we just went to the cafe in the Winter Gardens, which I have always loved. We had a very pleasant coffee and chat marred only by a Boys Brigade band who started playing discordantly and loudly, so we then went outside for a walk on Glasgow Green. I was really impressed with how attractive and well-maintained it is, although maybe it looked particularly good because it was sunny.  There is an amazing terracotta fountain with Queen Victoria on top, statues, lawns, an avenue of trees, playgrounds, and of course the river. We walked down to see all the boats from the different universities, and said our goodbyes to Jamie. Davie and I then went into Buchanan Street to sort out his phone - again! When we claimed a replacement on the insurance they had managed to send him a phone that was not only damaged and used but also the wrong colour - an unattractive red shade that didn't suit Davie at all! The people in the shop were very helpful and after a bit of footering about they replaced the phone with a brand new black one - Davie was delighted. Home and I tested out my newly cleaned and oiled bike by cycling around the streets which was good fun. After tea we watched a DVD of a charming programme that I enjoyed 32 years ago and have never seen since until I happened to come across it on Amazon recently. Its name is "The Flip Side of Dominic Hide" and it was a BBC "Play for Today". I was glad to see that it has not dated too badly and we all enjoyed it. Peter Firth was so dreamy in those days. He first came to my attention as Scooper in the Doubledeckers, then Angel Clare in Polanski's Tess and as a sailor in Letter to Brezhnev, and many more. We have seen him most recently as the rather miserable Harry in Spooks, he's a good actor.