Ghosts of the Past

Such is the depressing nature of the weather today, that I have only taken two blips, and this unfortunately happens to be the better one.
You can see the difficulty ; I have to detract your critical eyes from the photo's inadequacy and wow you with my blog. So, what to say about this subject?

First of all I dedicate this view of the Balmoral Hotel to Wildwood who fetched up there about 40 years ago at the start of a year's stay in Scotland with a husband and small children and was forced to remain there for many work related weeks.
In the stuffy atmosphere of what was then the North British Hotel, she was left to cope with three spirited Californian children under the age of 6 while her husband was at work in Glasgow.The trauma of it all haunts her still.

Secondly, my view point for the blip was on the 1st floor of the long abandoned Woolworth's shop where my school friend and I would often come after school to have an ice cream. Since it was forbidden to eat outside in our school uniform, we would take off our berets with the badge on the front and fasten our navy raincoats so that our ties were hidden. What impossibly well behaved Merchant Maidens we were back then.

Today the old Woolworth's is now the polished Apple shop where His Lordship had an appointment to sort out a problem with a temperamental iPhoto programme. All has been resolved by simply closing the laptop and restarting. Welcome to this brave new world.