We’ve had a Peacock Butterfly in our garden for the past few days. This picture captures it sitting on our path earlier today.
Butterfly
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Category Archives: General
World Pipe Band Championships
The World Pipe Band Championships were held on Glasgow Green today. I cycled down this afternoon for a look around.
Quite an amazing spectacle of colour and sound. There are over 230 bands with 8500 pipers and drummers, from around the world (US, Canada, Aus, Pakistan (read this nice story), Ireland and Scotland).
Strathclyde Police band were surrounded by a crowd of 5 deep as they practiced, and I think are going to be difficult to beat, although they lost out last year to Field Marshall Montgomery from Lisburn.
It was interesting to wander around Glasgow Green watching the bands practice. Other bands I noticed: Ballycoan (picture below), St Laurence O’Toole, Co. Dublin, Hamilton Police, Ontario and New Ross, Co. Wexford.
I could only stay an hour or so – unfortunately I missed the massed march-past, so I’ll have to go back next year. Jacqueline thinks this band thing is a hang-over from my Ulster roots. Maybe she’s right.
Update 14/08/2005: The overall winners were House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band, from Shotts, North Lanarkshire. Field Marshal Montgomery was 2nd and the Simon Fraser University band from British Colombia were 3rd.
Cycling home from work
I cycled home from work today, the warmest day of the year (29 deg C). My route took me through the countryside between East Kilbride and Clarkston, past Thorntonhall and Waterfoot, with superb and really clear views across Glasgow to the Campsie Fells and Argyll hills beyond. The route is only around 7.5 miles (approx 11 km) and is downhill all the way. The trip took about 35 minutes.
The back roads were very quiet (I only encountered three cars) and the main roads through Clarkston and Muirend on the way home were also quite. You can tell it’s the school holidays.
I had taken my bike into work using Scotrail (bikes go free, in special racks), so that I didn’t have to cycle uphill to work, and arrive all hot, sweaty and bothered.
Good weather is due to continue tomorrow. If I’m not suffering from saddle-soreness I think I’ll try this again!
Barcelona
I was in Barcelona earlier this week, attending an excellent conference on application integration and web services. The conference focussed mainly on service oriented architecture (SOA) as a strategy for enterprise integration.
However, we managed to get out a bit.
The Sagrada Familia was designed by Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona’s famous architect, and building commenced in 1883. They’re about 2/3 of the way finished, after 120 years. The builing is fabulously organic.
The two completed fronts – the Nativity on the east side and the Passion on the west side contain wonderful imagery and symbolism. This is the Passion front.
It is quite a climb up the towers, I managed to make it to the bridge between the two towers on the east side. This picture is looking even further up.
Armagh, Ireland
I’ve just had a pleasant couple of days with Mum in Ireland. Warm and sunny weather, as we did mother-son things like go out for lunch, potter around the garden, visit banks, do a bit of shopping. I took these pictures on the Mall in Armagh this morning:
The White Walk
The Courthouse with the Boer War Memorial in the foreground
And a picture of Mum in the garden:
