Three grans visit Dundee

One of us set off from South Lanarkshire and got to Dundee by bus from Glasgow. Two of us set off together from East Argyll and got there by car. After we car travellers had attempted to persuade the very modern looking parking meter, all shiny contactless pads and card insertion slots, to behave like a modern parking meter, we gave up and scrabbled in our purses for pound coins. It wasn't just us; a man tried too. We think Dundee City Council has forgotten to switch all the modern looking stuff on. Or maybe they had ambitions bigger than their tech team's current abilities. Teething problems, I suppose.

The plan was for us to visit the new Dundee V&A design museum. We all have birthdays, if we squash in one slight outlier, in the last quarter of the year and, rather than buy presents for each other, we decided this year to make an outing our joint birthday Do. How to start a tradition in one easy lesson!

The outside of the building has a certain shippiness about it, in keeping with Dundee's shipping history. Appropriately it is 'berthed' right next to Discovery. Inside all is shiny and new, as you'd expect.

shop and cafe as you come in

As is usual on these three gran meetups, we headed coffee and scone-rhymes with gone-wards first. My scone was good (large and filling) and, since I can't remember anything about the coffee, it was obviously just fine too. LanarkshireGran and I shared a small pot of jam but there was still a bit left in the wee jar. My elder daughters will remember the glove compartment in my old car, Diggory, which always housed a few little part used jam jars from motorway service stations–plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. This one got put in my pocket though.

We browsed the Scottish Design Relay exhibition. There were some lovely folded and cut paper designs which I don't seem to have photographed and various primitive weavings of beachcombed litter in the relay part. Also some impressive, more sophisticated, 'bruck' designs. Bruck is beachcombed plastic.

The Scottish Design Galleries, an enclosed area which you had to queue to get in so that it didn't get overcrowded, contained historic, more museum-like articles. The bright young things on the doors did have walkie-talkies but I discovered from chatting to one of them that they rarely use the gadgets, they just learn to sense when another bunch of people can be let in. It helps the letter-inner that the exit is visible from where she stands ;). Below are a few of my favourites.

modelled half hull of an ocean liner

The Indian shawls were simply astonishing. They were as big as small blankets for a start. The red one was made of a misture of wool, cotton and silk if I've remembered correctly. The white one is pure wool which, as you might be able to see at the bottom near the fringe, is spun into yarn almost as fine as spider silk. The model of the Edinburgh Scott Monument was what was submitted for the design competition by George Meikle Kemp who won the commission.

I did not stay as long in that exhibition as I would have liked because I was feeling a bit weird–just fighting off a cold virus or something. Hot tea and refreshingly cold water, supplied by LanarkshireGran, soon sorted me out, though later my throat started to make a fuss. A cheeseburger and a strawberry milkshake dealt with that.

That 'later' was when we wandered the city centre streets for a while after leaving the V&A. It is looking a lot smarter than it did in the late 1970s when I lived there as a student. This was nice to see. I took a couple of lamp shots for some Lake District Twitter nutters I follow for entertainment.


And we all enjoyed a meander around the Howff, loving the late roses in particular.


After our burgers LSBgran and I walked back to the dockside against a fierce breeze, saying goodbye to LanarkshireGran on the High Street as she veered off to catch her bus. Driving back westwards the lashing rain increased but we'd had a good day out.