Traffic

On Friday, drove down to Paisley, near Glasgow, for a long weekend with family.  I was born in Paisley, and went to Paisley Grammar School.  My sister was in David Tennant’s year, and remembers that when they were asked to write an essay about what they wanted to be when they grew up, he wrote that he wanted to be Dr Who.  Which is completely irrelevant to my tale, other than blatant name-dropping. 

A major difference between old Grammarian schooldays and nowadays is the volume of traffic.  I suppose I notice it because I live in a small town by the coast, but four lanes of chocabloc traffic in both directions on the M8 is a sight to see.  A very depressing, slightly frightening, sight.  The overwhelming feeling, is of not belonging.  It’s like another planet.  Imagine an M8 commute, Monday to Friday.  Why do people have to live like that?  No wonder they all want to keep working from home.  Modern life absolutely does not have it all figured out.  Not in big cities anyway.

I hate driving through Dundee.  It has more roundabouts per capita than a place with too many roundabouts.  Usually exit the A90 at the A94, and drive across beautiful Pictish countryside, the Glamis Road.  Location of the castle where our dear late Queen’s mother was born.  They were overly tidy in Strathmore, and plucked up their Pictish stones to display them in an old school in Meigle. 

It’s not only modern life that doesn’t get it right. 

Strathmore Valley vista is the absolute opposite of driving through Dundee, and feeds the soul. It is glorious arable land in a glacial valley.  But, on Friday, needed petrol, so pirouetted through Dundee.  Roadworks from Kingsway to Auchterarder.  I don’t have road rage, I have standing-still-not-able-to-move-as-other-drivers-indicate-and-butt-into-the-queued-traffic-in-front-of-me rage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_Strathmore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigle_Sculptured_Stone_Museum