Dom (my flatmate) once described Glasgow to me as an onion, i.e. it has layers. The centre is an eye-sore (as I've shown over the last while), but the next layer out is apparently nicer. As I'm fast running out of things to see in the city centre around where I work, I've been venturing further out, and yeah - it does seem to be a bit nicer. Nicer streets, nicer people, parkland...

Even nicer bridges ;)

Be that as it may there were still a few things around to remind me where I was. Pop was taking a siesta in the middle of the pavement...

And this dude was incoherently yelling something at the STV (Scottish Television) building despite there being absolutely nobody around. I passed him on my way out of town, and an hour later on my way back in he was still going hahaha!

Just as I was heading back towards town, three fire engines of all shapes and sizes went screaming past and pulled into something resembling a prison down the road. They all headed round the back and I couldn't see anything. I thought about sweet talking my way past the guy in the highlighter jacket but he looked like a hard Glaswegian hehe, so I didn't bother.

Just another Saturday in Edinburgh (and why you'd want ice cream in this weather is beyond me), but I've got plenty of time to explore Edinburgh when I get a bike. So in the meantime, another random town.

Today it was Motherwell, although I had to change trains in Bellshill so I had a nosey around here too which was a complete waste of time. The most exciting things were a cemetery that looks like it's been hit by a hurricane, and a lot of little boys cruising around in their suped up granny-wagons. I found this website about "Hook up spots in Bellshill", in which people are supposed to have written about good spots to "hang out with their mates, dreaming of the time when they're old enough to get into the pubs and clubs". Instead, most have just written about how much of shit hole the place is hahaha - it's great! For example:

• "Theres nowhere to hang out about bellshill, its crap - well except if your a ned ["non-educated delinquent", i.e. a loser]then bellshill main streets are the perfect place for you"
• "in my mates where we'd sit n smoke dope drink n pop a pill before watching a lep zepplin or hendrix video or go to the dancin or an aimless walk(usually in the persiut of fags skins drink dope or pills)"
• "bin ladens cave down kelvin road a lot safer now for young girls now 1eyePeps has left the scean" (I think that's supposed to be 'scene' ;)
• "bellshill in two words - fuckin piss"
• "I lived in bellshill until i was 23 (now 42) and im still in therapy ,bellshill is the biggest shit hole on this planet .I came back a few years ago to see my family and couldnt bieleve the dog shit and broken glass. Thank god i got out"
• "hi about the butcher, no he didnt put his wife thru the mincer it was a workmate"

Hahaha ahhh that's great stuff (and I'm not too sure they teach spelling in Bellshill schools)! I did a search on the same site for "Cumbernauld":

• Dear GOD!!! Any underpass is inhabited by the primitive life form known as the "Ned". They lurk everywhere. They have two parts of life - mating, and violence. In other words, if they are not banging something, they're trying to kill it.

Motherwell seems nice enough (and I couldn't find any complaints about it on that website hehe). If you like skanky women then this is your place. I was walking down the arcade (shot on the left) just minding my own business when I felt a tap on my arse. I glanced back and some chick (with a bunch of other skanky-looking chicks) was glancing back at me sort of giving me the glad-eye hahaha, classic!

East of Motherwell is Strathclyde Loch, located within Strathclyde County Park. Hardly the biggest loch (or lake) around but really nice to walk around. It's surrounded mostly by stone beach, so I had great fun hurling stones in (along with little kids but hey, throwing stones is fun ;)

I spent about an hour and a half walking the circumference of the loch (which would've taken barely twenty minutes on a bike but oh well) and on the way could see what looked like a theme park or something off in the distance.

I eventually got round there and sure enough! I'm not sure whether I was supposed to pay to get in or what but I just marched on in and had a nosey.

I don't know why this goober brought his dog in with him but Fido was especially intrigued by the roller coaster hehe.

This woman has a fat ass! ;)

I wonder how many people crap their pants on the rollercoaster after having a curry for lunch. I settled for a bag of candy floss instead - num nums!

Just around from the theme park thingee are the remains of the Bothwellhaugh Roman Bath House which was in use between approximately 142 and 162 AD. Just think, nearly two millennia ago, some dirty Romans were soaking right here!

At this point the track veered away from the lake and headed slightly inland with other pathways coming off it. Over the following ten minutes I passed about five or six pairs of people each holding bottles of alcohol and completely pissed - at 3 in the afternoon hahaha. Scotland!

Anyway that was my day in Motherwell, lovely :)

A bit before 3pm today siren after siren after siren came screaming in from the distance and all stopped right outside my work. I grabbed my camera and ran down four flights of stairs like an idiot and burst outside into an absolute circus! There were five fire engines in one direction, five ambulances in the other, several cop cars here and there, and a ton of people all standing around looking confused. I asked an ambulance officer what was going on, and all he knew was there'd been heaps of phone calls about a big explosion up the road somewhere but he knew nothing more than that. Just then a chick walked past and told him there was somebody laying on the street. I hadn't heard any explosion myself but most everyone else I asked all said they'd heard something.

I headed up the road and saw paramedics working on a road-worker in the middle of the road. No one else appeared to be hurt. A minute later the fire crews held up a tarpaulin to prevent people seeing what was happening. I then noticed all the lights were out in numerous shops, so I went and had a chat to shop owners standing in their doorways having a ciggy and watching the show. The workmen have been digging up and replacing the footpath along here for ages now, and it turns the poor bastard lying in the middle of the road was going hard with the pneumatic drill pointed out on the right and put it straight an underground power cable! That caused the big explosion, cut everybody's power, and sent him flying!

A few minutes later they loaded the workman into an ambulance and screamed off with sirens wailing. About five minutes after that (by which time everything had calmed down) a few newspaper reporters started showing up. The cops weren't very forthcoming with information so I offered to tell them what I'd seen and what I'd been told. Then their photographers rocked up and took shots of, well nothing really because there was really nothing left to take shots of. After I'd told them everything I knew, one of them noticed my camera and asked if I'd got any good shots. They were especially interested in one shot in particular, and ironically I don't really want to put it on here. Just before the fire crews held up the tarpaulin to obscure everybody's view, I managed to get a pretty decent shot of the paramedics working on the guy. He was alive at the time and he was alive when they rushed him off, but I don't know what kind of state he'll be in now. One of the reporters asked if I would be willing to allow them to use some of my photos in exchange for a little £££, and I said hell yeah! They asked if I would come to their offices five minutes round the road to get the photos off my camera, and another reporter asked me to email them to him (again, in exchange for a little moolah if they use them).

Incidentally, I asked why there was such huge interest over some poor dude getting zapped. The explosion happened directly in front of the Army Careers place, and the initial fear was that it may have been a bomb.

So I got taken back to the offices of the Evening Times newspaper and met up with the senior photo editor - a big fat dude who couldn't appear to get up off his chair. They took my photos and all of my details and said if they run any of the shots they'll organise some sort of payment (at least that's what they said ;)

I saw these two on the way back to work. That one on the right looks like she's just been electrocuted too.

Well a few newspapers reported on it, but my pics ended up in this one on the right hehe. Pretty bloody good shots if I do say so myself, and they've earned me a nice little £50 for my trouble! :) As it turns out they didn't include the shot I took of the guy on the road which they were initially thinking of running. And speaking of that guy he's apparently doing ok and is expected to be discharged today, so good good. The shot above on the left is what's left of the ditch where the power cable was hit - doesn't look like anybody's gone near it.

Jen's been sleeping on my comfortable couch over the last while but is moving out this weekend after finally finding a flat at the start of the week. Just to ensure we miss her she baked a big batch of cookies earlier in the week and a batch of brownies today. It's good when she bakes - I get to lick the bowl.

Another typical busy Saturday in Edinburgh with Princes Street teeming with people, and so too today Frederick Street (off Princess below the castle). For the next three days a French market is in town selling all sorts of goodies.

Plenty of food in these super-mega-fucking-big-king-sized pans, including this seafood paella I had for lunch (yummy!)...

Heaps of plonk...

Almost every kind of sausage under the sun including venison, duck, ostrich, and wild boar...

Every kind of jam under the sun, including one apparently made out of kiwis...

A lot of big-name perfume for suspiciously cheap prices...