werdnafiles's Open Salon Blog

I belong to Glasgow (again!)

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:04:49 -0400

I haven’t had much time to blog recently as ive again hit a massively busy period in my life, moving to not only a new house, but a new city as well! Albeit one im already very familiar with. In February, I moved from the capital city of Edinburgh where id been staying for the last four years, back to my home city of Glasgow.

Many of Open Salon readers will be US based and have no idea probably even where Glasgow is – therefore I thought it would be fun to write a small guide to the city and what you could get up to if you ever decided to visit!

About Glasgow

Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland – with over 500,000 inhabitants. It was at one time known as the ‘second city of the empire’ – with an extensive Shipbuilding industry based on the River Clyde, and a population of over 1 million. Unfortunately, this expansion came at a price, with the city suffering from slum problems throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. As shipbuilding faded (although there are still a few yards), the city has had to re-invent itself – and it has. Glasgow is now a cultural hub and a superb short break destination – here’s some of my favourite things to do in the city……

Cool things to do in Glasgow

Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Award winning art gallery with over 8000 items on display, including art from world famous painters and sculptors – as well as armour and natural history exhibits. There are also cafés and shops to enhance your experience – a must see!

Go shopping!

Glasgow is regarded as the second best retail destination in the UK outside London. The so called style mile of Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street and Argyle Street hosts shops from world famous brand names to niche designer boutiques, there will be something to suit all tastes and budgets.

Football is kind of a big deal

Glasgow is home to two of the biggest football (soccer) teams in Britain in Rangers and Celtic (fierce rivals). Celtic Park and Ibrox stadiums can both host over 50,000 fans. The national football stadium and Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park is also worth a visit.

Park life

Glasgow is known as the ‘dear green place’ due to the number of parks that are dotted across the city, including the renowned Victoria and Kelvingrove parks.

Events and concerts

Glasgow has a number of big event venues which host the biggest names in entertainment on a regular basis. Well worth checking the local listings before your trip to see if you can catch anyone.

Transport Museum

The new transport museum moved from its previous base at the Kelvin Hall in 2011 to a brand new building on the riverside, designed by world famous architect Zaha Hadid. Well worth a visit.

Where you could stay

Like any big cities, there are hundreds of hotels to choose from. For those of a stylish bent the boutique Malmaison Hotel in Glasgow City Centre would be a cool option, whilst those looking for a more standard base could opt for the Travelodge or Premier Inn. All are in great locations to enjoy the best of the city.

Well, that’s all from me. To be honest ive barely scratched the surface of what Glasgow has to offer. I hope there has been something of value to tempt you to visit my (again!) home city. Leave a comment if you have any questions!

Back in the saddle

Wed, 5 Sep 2012 06:09:04 -0400

Hi Open Salon :)

Ive been on a bit of a fitness drive recently. Years of sitting in front of a computer in an office have really started to take their toll – and ive decided enough is enough. So, early last month i invested in a road bike. Its a Felt Z85, which is a pretty swish looking machine as you can see.....

Although it is the 2011 model, it has many strong components and i thought that it was a great deal, although it was a little outside my budget, i figured if im serious i should get something that was going to last the course. I only had to get a small personal loan from my local bank in Edinburgh and i was ready to go.

Anyway, has it been worth it? – well, after taking a bit of time to build it out the box - a resounding yes! Ive never actually owned a road bike with drop handlebars (always rode mountain bikes or hybrids) – so the first thing that struck me was the sense of speed that the bike allows, with relatively little effort. The carbon forks help keep the weight down and dampen out any nasty bumps in the road.

It’s great fun riding the bike, and i have found an excellent app for my phone to act as an additional source of motivation. Called Strava, it allows you to track your performance against riders local to your area for a number of pre defined segments – as you can see, im actually King of the Mountain on a short segment near my home! I recommend this app to any fellow cyclists out there.

Although it’s still early days, i am really enjoying the bike and hope to get out on it as much as possible before the Scottish winter really kicks in! If you become friends with me on Strava we can track each others progress!

10 Green Ways to Improve Your City

Thu, 9 Aug 2012 06:08:06 -0400

Source Best Sociology Programs

Renewable energy investment reaches record high

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:06:41 -0400

It appears that the recession affecting most of the world just now has not done anything to adversely affect investment in renewable energy technology. Last year investments reached an all time high despite the poor economic conditions. However the experts are growing concerned as the growth has not continued into this year and there are signs that things are slowing down.

In 2011 renewable energy investment reached a high of £165bn which is a rise of around 17% on the 2010 figure but a massive 600% increase on 2004’s figures. However even though these figures are impressive the rate of growth is dropping significantly and it seems that those involved in the green energy industries are concerned about the investments reaching their peak and starting to tail off.

The top renewable investors last year were China and the US, the US investment was particularly positive given the recent boom of shale gas and their political issues regarding renewable investments. However fears are that the investment boom is directly tied to the incentive schemes related to green energy investment and that once the schemes come to an end investment will dwindle accordingly.

Solar power appears to be the top renewable investment vehicle at the moment overtaking the normally popular wind power. This most likely due to the falling prices associated with the technology needed for solar power generation. In fact solar power received nearly twice the money of wind power which is normally viewed as the investment leader.

The total investment in solar power has increased a massive 52% to £95bn. At large part of this increase can be attributed to rooftop PV (photo voltaic) installations in Germany and Italy as well as the rapid uptake of domestic scale PV to other countries throughout the world i.e. China.

Sources are now reporting that renewable energy is supplying around 16.7% of global energy consumption, however a lot of that is in the more traditional biomass form which is used for heating and cooking in developing nations however the biomass share of this percentage has decreased as the uptake of other technologies has increased.

Source: Guardian Energy

Energy smarts just got smarter!

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:05:20 -0400

By now, most of you who read this blog will be familiar with ‘smart monitors’.

These devices, which were introduced a couple of years back, are the beginning of a domestic energy revolution which puts the consumer in a position of having much more info (and therefore control) over home energy use. Click the link for more information of an example from a UK provider.

By showing how much power is presently being used in the home, and how much has been used so far during the day, smart monitors give you an instant insight into the actual amount of watts being used rather than just the vague ‘spinning disc’ that the traditional meter uses. And with other functionality such as showing how energy use changes with the seasons, smart monitors give a much more three dimensional picture of domestic energy consumption.

So, how much would you guess that an energy smart home would be likely to save? From our own experience, even before the days of smart monitors, we’d seen pretty impressive energy saving just by following a few simple energy rules. So my guess would have been maybe about 25% in the best instances. But in a recent Guardian article, the claim from one study is that savings were as high as 69% during one trial.

Knowledge is power, so the saying goes. But these days, if you have a smart meter, knowledge is also saving power too!