A rather busy and hectic day but everything turned out, thankfully, very well. Breakfast was given by the friendly lady I stayed with as I sat at a small table looking out of her front window (her house is on the main road so I was looking out across the road and into the wonderful surrounding countryside: “Do you ever get tired of the view?” “Not really though I probably see different things than you do.”).

The drive was relatively uneventful as I returned to Glasgow. There was a lot of tourist traffic and a few delays due to construction. All of the roads are only two lanes and only become dual carriageways (a divided road) close to Glasgow. I was in a bit of a hurry as my friend Paul was arriving at the airport at about 2 pm. Since I had the car I offered to pick him up. Considering the drive was at least 3 1/2 hours from Kyle to Glasgow it was always going to be tight. Did I mention that the car needed to be returned at 4 pm (in the core area of Glasgow, about 15 minutes drive from the airport which is on the outskirts, during rush hour traffic, of course). On the plus side, the weather was very nice and I did enjoy the drive (stopping again a few times).

Closer to Glasgow I saved a bit of time by crossing the Erskine Bridge which is a toll. It was very close to 2 pm so I did not have a lot of time left. Arriving at the rather busy airport I found out that flight had been delayed in arriving so it was not a problem I was a bit late.

Returning along the motorway into the middle of the city I dropped Paul at the hotel. I had booked a room at the Glasgow Hilton – arranged through the convention (it is the “party” hotel for the convention, meaning, all the parties are in the hotel in the hospitality suites on the 2nd and 3rd floors). I quickly returned the car and walked back to the hotel to find Paul waiting in the foyer. The room is very nice on the 17th floor with an interesting view towards the east over much of the core area of the city.

We headed over to the pre-registration for the convention over at the Scottish Exhibition Conference Centre (SECC) which is only about half a mile away. It will be interesting to see what the best way will be to get there since there are a few rather large roads (including one motorway). At the convention centre we found the room for registrations and picked up our programs (etc). Wandering back we eventually found something to eat at a local chippy (after a bit of confusion over the order but I had fish & chips while Paul had some Indian food). It was an early evening - but probably the only one for a few days - with us just going over the program to see what might be good to see over the next few days (all program items are free – after the cost of membership, of course)…The parties will be keeping us up quite late…

⇒ Continue to Thursday, August 4th, 2005 - Glasgow