Mac the Man

While visiting the Scotland Street School Museum yesterday I learnt some interesting things about the building. I already knew that it was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh but what I did not know was that he was awarded the contract personally when the usual thing done was for the contract to be awarded to the firm of architects. It was the second school designed by Mackintosh, the first was the Martyrs' School in the Townhead area of Glasgow. As with Scotland Street the Martyrs' School is no longer used as a school but unlike Scotland Street it is not a museum.

The above picture is of the Scotland Street School.

Shields Road

Today I visited Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow. This school was built at the beginning of the twentieth century and is notable because it was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The school is in the Kingston area of Glasgow which during the 1960s and 1970s changed from being residential to being more industrial, hence the numbers of pupils at the school declined and at the end of the 1970s the Scotland Street School was closed. I was fascinated to discover that the Shields Road subway station was originally built in the ground floor of a tenement. The tenement is now no longer standing as you can see from the photo.

Although thinking about it I don't know why it seems so weird to have a subway station in the ground floor of tenements as that is where the Kelvinhall Subway Station is.

Fitba'

If you spend some time in Glasgow you will quickly become aware that football is pronounced "fitba". It is a common misconception that there are only two football teams in Glasgow, Rangers and Celtic. However this is not the case, there is also the mighty Jags, AKA Partick Thistle. You can get by on this knowledge of football in Glasgow but move further afield and well, the team names don't always reveal where that team is from. I discovered this fact when one of my friends from Paisley asked who I thought her local team was. Turns out it is St Mirren. They are named after St Mirin, the patron saint of Paisley. St Mirin was originally Irish, and used to live in County Down, like myself.

Small world, ain't it?

Four weeks of snow for decades of ice

Last night I happened to be speaking to my father on the phone. He had called me to see how I was doing as with my exams over I am a little bored. While chatting my father was talking about the four weeks he spent working in Canada. He went there in 1979 to work as a doctor in Manitoba. He did want to emigrate but my mother refused to go, she could not face all the snow. Anyway he said that he used the money he had earned while in Canada to pay for my mother's engagement ring.

My mother may not like snow, but she sure does love ice (and by ice I mean diamonds).

Calm down dear

My father is well aware of my love of words, in particular strange or unusual words. Last night he sent me an email asking me if I knew what paregoric meant. I did not so I consulted the oracle of wikipedia. According to wikipedia paregoric is a medication, derived from opium, that was used to treat diarrhea, coughs, and as a painkiller. It was a household remedy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was usually used to calm children. The use of paregoric is now regulated by governments as over-use can lead to opiate dependency.

Can you tell that my father works in the medical profession?

Stuttgart is More

Having only recently discovered that my friend and I are in fact travelling to Stuttgart I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to find out a little bit more about Stuttgart. The first fact I uncovered was that Stuttgart's motto for tourists is "Stuttgart is More". More what is not specified. Last night I went round to visit my friend and the issue of our Germany trip came up, so we reached for the Rough Guide conveniently owned by her flatmate. This book informed us that Stuttgart has two car museums: a Porsche museum, and a Mercedes-Benz museum. We both agreed that we have to visit these.

Although judging by the city's motto we will find "more" to do than just the museums...

It's raining milk

One of the problems of going away on holiday is that sometimes you leave perishable food behind, some fruit, some vegetables, and a wee drop or two of milk. A day or two ago my sister departed for a week in the sun and she texted me to say that she'd left some milk in the fridge for me. Today I went down to get it. She'd left me three pints. Three pints is more milk than I get through in a week. Admittedly she does have two flatmates but even so, how much milk are they consuming?

And more importantly how am I to use it up before it goes off?