On the road again - at last

Thursday night and I have lacking in my duties on the blog for a few days, however I have been busy - so more will follow later.

Today it was back to do some of my own work (possibly against others better judgement) so it was up early as usual and out onto the motorway. Not disappointed as the first vehicle to pass me was a white van man !! I was showing a bit of sympathy for the white van men as my fiend had his ford Transit stolen at the weekend from outside his house and full of his wares. It turned out that there were another two similar vans stolen in the area about the same time - and in the wider vicinity there have been even more. This reminded me of a spate of similar thefts a few years ago throughout the Glasgow / Edinburgh and Central Belt which were being taken to a yard in Shotts, Lanarkshire, where they were professionally cut up and stripped within a matter of a couple of hours .
Heading south from Glasgow I was surprised to see the progress being made in the construction of another wind farm in South Lanarkshire in the valley north of Moffat - the towers are massive and will soon be fitted with the new turbine blades.
Passing by Carlisle our "Thrifty" white van man shot down a slip road and out in front of me - now - it would appear that the driver was under the impression that the 70 MPH signs were a minimum speed for him !!! I decided to sit on his tail working on the principle that if he got caught for speeding I might not - I followed him all the way to Penrith and he did not do any less than 80 mph.
Anyway - weather was lovely, roads relatively quiet and I had a good run south to Risley, had a chat to the folks in the office, a cuppa, and then back home via Glasgow.
However, I did make a slight detour and stopped off to see "Uncle Jim" at Lesmahagow. It was a bit of a surprise for him as I usually pass by his house on the M74 at breakneck speed. He is however looking for a new home but his current dwelling, beautiful as it is, is just a bit too big for me.

I have added the photo of the Hillend Ski Slope

as I was there on Tuesday with two German visitors (to be blogged) but there was an item on the BBC (Scottish) news tonight saying that there had been new funding made avaliable today to continue with the development of the ski centre - well done. I obviously have an affinity with the centre it being on my "Beat" when I first joined the Police at Loanhead.

Not sure what we are going to do for the next couple of weeks, peace and quiet, as Sparky Mark has headed off on yet another adventure hike, this time out via London to Kathmandu and then up to do the hike to the Everest base camp. I am sure the locals will recognise him, wearing a bright red "T" shirt emblazoned with the Laird O' Cockpen and Lodge Dalhousie names - he might well meet a Sherpa who recognises "the knocks".