And another glorious morning. Even in summer in Scotland more than one day (even one day) of sunshine is a blessing!

I am now the owner of a new shiny passport with lots of pages to fill with new travels and adventures starting on Saturday. So impressed by the Passport Service, easy online application where you upload your picture (perhaps not my best decision to take the picture after two night flights and little sleep) and hey presto after paying the money your passport is waiting for you at your choice of appointments.

The top of the town seemed very quiet. One section of Sauchihall Street is still closed after the fire in March rendering the whole block unusable/unsafe. Meanwhile just a few days ago the newly refurbished Art School from a fire a few years ago is devastated again by fire.

My tourist sunburn from yesterday (triangle on my chest with necklace mark and in legs where shorts rose up when sitting) is still an alarming shade of lobster pink. Thanks to the magic of repair-all-cream there is no heat or pain. Just shows how good the factor 50 spray is…and also that I haven’t learnt anything!

Having arrived in Georgia knowing very little about the country, I thought I would do some reading about the Balkan states before heading there next week. Jason Smart’s Balkan Odyssey gave a flavour of travelling around. I gave up on E L Bono’s Who the Hell is Albania that may well be full of gens if information but reading it from the perspective of a plastic bag got old…quickly. The story of M Edith Durham’s journey in High Albania at the turn of the 20th Century will give a rich cultural background but not what I was looking for. So I have come across Adam Yamey’s Albania On My Mind detailing his life long obsession with this elusive state. However, the name Stalin keeps coming up in any book about the Balkans region and also in Georgia. So I am now reading Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young Stalin. Talk pubout being sidetracked…but all links together.