Seventeen hours

It feels as if today went on for ever (and not just the 17 hours of reality). Leaving Dunoon at a time more suitable for those still at work (I'm not good in the mornings any more) we had to get the (still pretty new) car up to the dealers' main base in Linwood in answer to a recall whose purpose is still a bit of a mystery to me but was to do with whatever it is makes the headlights suitable for use in a country where we drive on the left. While there, we told them about the warning triangle that had come off just as we were leaving Edinburgh on Friday to drive home - it vanished when I did a soft reset of the infotainment system, but was found to be linked to a fault which - bear with me on this - might affect the incident reporting system. And this could take longer than a single day, and should involve the booking of a courtesy car for two days, and ...

The long and the short of it is that our life is suddenly too busy to scoot up and down the M8, even if there is a decent espresso machine at the showroom, and it was the very devil to organise. See electronics? 

Pursuing my goal of trying to maximise trips across the water, I had arranged a hair appointment for the afternoon, so we headed back to Greenock and Tonino's café next door to my hairdresser. They have now extended their breakfast menu until 2pm ... think bruschetta toast, 'nduja, Stornoway black pudding, poached egg, sriracha sauce ... 

My photo comes from the brief post-brunch walk I fitted in before the hair appointment. A rather elegant smallish cruise ship - we've seen her heading down the Firth on several occasions - is lurking behind the mountains of containers in Greenock container terminal. I know ports are often unglamorous places, but I do feel that Greenock must come as quite a shock to passengers who find their time ashore beginning here. We also passed some pickets from Unison waving flags at the corner of the next block - several passing cars hooted in support of whatever strike they represented. 

Our long day ended with Compline online followed by Shetland on the telly. What has happened to Tosh...?