Glasgow Disappoints

Well, I guess it had to happen, but we finally had a less than stellar day in Glasgow.  I was just thinking that whoever reads this blog must think Scotland is perfect since everything I describe is "so fun" and "we love Glasgow" ad nauseam.  Of course, I don't post about my boring days spent cleaning the flat or paying bills, yet we truly have had spectacular days here.  But yesterday not so much.  Now, nothing terrible happened, and given the sorrows and troubles people face this may seem a little trivial, but we had a day of disappointments.

First off, in my quest to check out all the parks in Glasgow, we decided to go to Ruchill Park which is within walking distance of our flat.  However, the walk is along busy roads, so not too scenic or interesting. Then, the park was pretty lame.  There were some terrific views over the city from the top of the hill, but other than that blah -- no cool features or fun playgrounds.  Definitely not worth a visit unless you want some panaromic views of the city.

those yellow fields in the distance are rapeseed (made into oil, aka canola oil in the US)

Then, Cormac has been desperate to see Dark Shadows since it was released last weekend.  This movie is a re-make of a 70s TV show about a vampire who returns after being trapped underground for 200 years.  But again disappointing -- kind of boring, kind of long -- gory with no redeeming message.  A few mildly humorous parts (Johnny Depp's character thinking Alice Cooper is an unattractive woman), but those moments did not make up for the nonsensical plot.  Now, I'm fairly uncritical of movies; I will watch almost anything, but this movie was definitely a skip.

Finally, dinner.  I prefer to eat in, the boys prefer to return to restaurants they know they like, and Liam prefers to try new restaurants.  Therein lies most of our dinner conflicts. So yesterday, the boys wanted to go back to Amber, a Chinese restaurant on Byres Road (where we've eaten once and had take-out from twice), while Liam wanted to try an Indian restaurant that got a good review in The List (a magazine about things to do).  We compromised and tried Soba, another Chinese restaurant on Byres Road that opened up when we first moved here so we've seen ads for it for five months.  Mistake!  The food was terrible -- a confusing mishmash of flavors resulting in the worst meal we've had in a restaurant in Glasgow.  For example, wonton sweet and sour soup -- huh?  If you're ever in Glasgow don't bother with this restaurant, especially since Byres Road has many much better options.

So, now we know Glasgow isn't perfect, but if it took us five months to have a day of mediocrity then we're still lucky to have landed in such a wonderful city (99% of the time)!  And after a week of cold and rainy, the weather has turned sunny!!