JOHN McNab of Troon was on a packed train heading to Glasgow last week when an African visitor, talking to an elderly Glasgow gentleman, expressed disappointment that the weather had deteriorated when it was so sunny at the start of the Commonwealth Games.

"Ah, but we're into August now - this is the rainy season," the Glasgow chap explained. When the tourist asked how long the rainy season lasted in Glasgow, the chap replied: "Till the end of July."

Weather cycles

AND a final tale from a Games volunteer with Donald Macdonald telling us: "I was lucky enough to cycle with Tucker Murphy, one of the Bermudan tri-athletes - on condition it was a recreational cycle. When we first met up to plan a route it was one of the really hot days and I complained it was too hot and he replied, 'This isn't hot'.

"On the day of the cycle there was some drizzle and he complained about the rain, to which I could only reply, 'This isn't rain'."

Remember moi?

PRINCE ALBERT of Monaco visited 29, the private members club in Glasgow, on the last day of the Games where he was served by a waiter, Stuart Dalzell, from Airdrie. Shame on you if you thought that was not going to end well.

Turns out the waiter is fluent in French as his dad is a French teacher, and he chatted with the prince about his visits to Monaco. The prince, on leaving, said Stuart was welcome to come and visit anytime. We like the thought of him chapping on the palace's front door with his mates.

Negative charge

BUT enough about Glasgow. As Frank Eardley explains: "The Festival has definitely descended on Edinburgh. Just passed a mother trying to get her children to stand together at a bus stop. Seeing she was fighting a losing battle, she despondently cried, 'I give up. You are behaving like electrons'."

Mother's pride

MAKING her first appearance at the Fringe this year is writer and actress Davina Leonard with her play Making It! at the Assembly's George Square Theatre. The show's main character, Jess, has a call with her mother, in which mum is not supportive of her daughter's acting career and keeps sending her advertisements for secretarial jobs. At a preview show, after Davina had left the stage and the audience started to clap, Davina's mother stood up, turned around to the full house and declared: "I'm not really like that, by the way".

Nine lives

SLOWLY the football season is getting under way. Reader David McVey was at a pre-season friendly when, with 20 minutes to go, nine substitutions were made all at once. "That's not substitutions," remarked the fan in front of David. "That's a pitch invasion."

Placing your face

WE wrap up our tales about Glasgow's Bellahouston and Maryhill with Foster Evans recalling: "At Strathclyde University in the late 1980s, Principal Sir Graham Hills's wife Mary often toured departments and met staff. When she visited the Student Union shop, she introduced herself as 'Mary Hills' to which shop assistant Jean Cree replied, 'Possil Park' to a rather mystified principal's wife."

Rogue mail

AH, the continual march of technology. A reader swears to us that his policeman neighbour stopped a young larrikin in the city centre and asked him his address.

"Charlie@hotmail.com," the youngster automatically replied.