Or does Robroyston feel a bit more 'Grown Up'? We are certainly on the map....except that wee bit of road between Auchinairn Road and the 'haf way up the hill' roundabout which is still missing on Multimap, Bing, Tomtom (other SatNav programmes are available). 

No, apart from not having names for our roundabouts and wee bits of roads missing there is definitely a feel that we in Robroyston are being noticed by planners, City Council, Police and other service providers.  There are still a few numpties who will try to get something in the back door but we catch them soon enough and send them homewards...to think again!

We can be proud of how we are growing up...taking tentative steps forward to ensure that in 100 years Robroyston will not just be remembered for having HOUSES/HOUSES/HOUSES!! but will have been a popular place to live with historical monuments and outdoors living alongside high speed internet for all and a strong and happy community....can't wait, wake me up in 100 years!

Happy New Year! Where's the year gone....?  I have been wandering round Costco and never realised the time! Oh well, back to reality....VAT, fuel, potholes, dark wintery weather, daft markings on the roundabouts.....ah! some things never change!

But Lo! I hear you cry (in a vain attempt to recapture Christmas), we have gone and got a McD's in our village and our children will narry be hungry or bored!  I know it's not everyone's taste but I for one am happy to see some movement in the waste ground that calls itself a retail park....come back Pet Store...all is forgiven!

There may well be some changes afoot here as well though.....for the Laird is hoping to attract merchants aplenty with his 'proclamation of other uses'...in short Dawn hope to successfully apply for a change in conditions allowing other types of stores to trade (similar to Strathkelvin Retail Park in B'Briggs). 

...and have you heard about the Digital TV switchover in June this year?  I am going to switch with my neighbour who has a much bigger telly.....!

Thus we Proclaim...

Analogue no more....Blackhill no more....5 channels no more....fuzzy pic-ture nnnnno mmmore!

Its still 2010....there was no big bang, no black hole, no space time warp and no explosion to end all explosions!  I am talking of course about the sub atomic particle collider at

CERN installed across the Swiss/French border.  When I was in Primary School my pals Dad worked at CERN, he was a Professor of Particle Physics but we knew him

as Mike's dad....  point is, they were working on this way back then (and I mean way back!)

Mike had a cool United Nations Watch and we all felt pretty safe, not knowing much about particle physics and being generally ignorant of most things 'pre-Google'. 

Nowadays - we have information overload and can make our own minds up about just how safe this experimental particle bashing really is...we have 24 hour media,

internet access and a whole bunch of 'experts' telling us what they think.

Meanwhile in the real world, life goes on.....and just like the real world of CERN, it goes on pretty slowly but surely. 

Robroyston Community Council has been established for some time now and has been successfully working through the issues that face our community,

more often than not doing it quietly and not seeking or receiving any plaudits......sometimes a big issue crops up and that's great...bring it on and they deal with it best they can.

The point is..... like everything else in life and like CERN....these issues rarely result in a big bang and a sudden leap forward in time and space.....patience is a virtue we can all nurture,

especially when those involved are working hard to achieve the same end.

....so why is it still frosty in the morning and snowy on the Campsies? As I type I am watching a cat atop a garden shed trying not to look suspicious on its' way to

the birds nest in the nearby tree, a wee bird in the eaves of a neighbours house (is it too early for the house martins?) and a mysterious shiny object

glinting at me from the Campsies  - too still to be a car, maybe a hoard of silver? 

Spring officially started last week and I will be expecting good things, seasons are returning it seems (at least the rainy season has!) and thoughts are turning to summer holidays. 

Staycations were all the rage last year and with any luck might continue into this year - it is too easy to think about somewhere hot and sit on a beach with 200 other Brits,

you could very well be exploring some of your own country with a bunch of Germans instead!

Don't get me wrong, financially it is often more attractive to go to another country away than pay £75pppn here - but Scotland doesn't do

package holidays ( the train fare to Largs and a Millport ferry ticket included doesn't count!).  If it did, would our country be so attractive? 

Imagine a little fishing village outside Peterheid being thronged with tourists having the local catch fresh on their plate - sardines (herring) 

and squat lobster tails (langoustine) and a view of the harbour.  Doesn't sound so far fetched now.

All we need is the weather you say! Maybes aye, but maybes naw.  These fishing villages do a great line in Arran knit jumpers

and oilskins - who needs the 'skip hat with a t-shirt rolled up inside' when you can get the brolly/cape combo right here!!

Happy planning!

Yes, my fellow bipeds...it is officially weather for dogs and cats and folk that don't mind crawling out of their front door to get to the car

abandoned half way up the hill! Grit bins everywhere are empty and ASDA has even sold out of table salt! 

On a positive note, my anti skid program on the car has been in use......ESP! ESP! ESP! flashed the dashboard on the way into the Glendale......

EEP! EEP! EEP! flashed my subconscious and ne'r the twa came anywhere near my ability to react....I just thought I was a really great driver!

Celebrity Driving on Ice, coming to a BBC1 near you....first contestant, Daniella Westbrook (a prize for the person who got that!)

Now back to the Great Grit Bin Saga....armed with the Community Council Salt Bin location info I went forth into the icy wilderness in search of the 

yellow treasure chests, only to find the first one empty, the next one empty and given the lack of grit on the path of the houses next door

to the bins....the rest of them empty!

None in my estate, try the one next to me...none! Try the Glendale....None!  Try East Dunbartonshire (shh!)...None!!  All the bins were 

empty, picked so clean one wonders whether they had any salt in them to begin with.  I thought seriously about that patch of road in my 

area that had been gritted heavily...maybe I could just scrape some of the excess off? The thought of flaming torches and pitchforks was quick

to settle that one back where it belonged!  So I went to Homebase to buy the posh clean driveway salt....None!   B&Q....sorry, none left!

This morning I went to Gartcraig depot for some.....the bins were empty and a queue was forming...luckily for me I was first in it!  No grit in the bins

but plenty on the ground that had spilled over when they were last filled!  Pride aside I scraped up the leavings and am now watching the dirty

Cooncil salt melt away the pack ice that had been threatening to keep me inside till the great thaw...now I can get shot of the migrating

herd of wildebeest in my back garden, walk upright to my car and get to my work....D'oh!

Spare a thought for me folks.....I can get out, but getting back in is not so easy...my wife has a mop welded to her hands and a bucket of soapy water

for any shoes that dare enter festooned with dirty brown Cooncil grit!  Anyone know who sells heated driveways??