Glencoe.

Mrs TD and I went to see the Great Scottish Tapestry this afternoon. We went by bus which was not a good start. I Googled the bus times to go into town from Straiton park-and-ride (the useful ones don't run from Roslin), the web page I found invited me to enter the journey start and finish points but then refused to let me do so; I found another page that said the number 37 bus ran every 15 minutes. We duly arrived at the park-and-ride to find that the last bus was at 9:00 am. An inspired Mrs TD suggested walking to the main road and seeing what went past, lo and behold, the number 37 was every 15 minutes - it just couldn't be bothered to make the 100 yard detour into the p-and-r. The bus was bumpy, noisy and smelly so that, by the time we arrived, we felt decidedly nauseous; we had the impression that the bus service was not designed to run for the benefit of the travelling public.

It was some twenty years ago that there was a public meeting, in our village hall, with a representative of the bus company about the appalling bus service, the gentleman arrived by car since, in his words, “there was not a suitable bus.” We're still awaiting the actions requested at that meeting.

Then some forty years ago, Potteries Motor Transport (the company that provides the bus service in the Midlands) famously made an official statement to the effect that, "the problem with the service provided is that the vehicles have to keep stopping to pick up passengers." The details were published in a tome called "The Book of Heroic Failures: The Official Handbook of the Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain" (available new from Amazon for £69.63 or second hand for 1 penny) by Stephen Pile, president of that august body. He was forced to resign his position when the book ran to several editions.

Back on topic, the tapestry exhibition is fantastic but the lighting is not what it might be, it's uneven and not all the panels are well illuminated, consequently the picture I wanted to use for today's blip (a detail from Mrs TD's bit) is not up to scratch. I substitute a detail from the Massacre of Glencoe panel, I find this little segment is outstanding in its understatement yet instantly recognisable.

We will return as there was too much to fit into a single afternoon, I'll have another attempt at the desired blip then.