Hit the wall in search for plain white

Good week, bad week By Roxanne Sorooshian

It’s a good week for... historical sites

AS a child, I was thrilled to live but an ancient stone’s throw from the Antonine Wall.

The mighty fortification runs for 37 miles from Bo’ness on the Firth of Forth to Old Kilpatrick on the River Clyde and was the most complex frontier ever constructed by the Roman army. I confess to being more than mildly disappointed when I discovered it was more of a ditch than an imposing edifice. Sadly, this disappointment was only deepened by a school trip to the mighty Hadrian’s Wall. But new technology is about to change all that. A plan to develop a 3D app that will revolutionise the Antonine Wall has won £150,000 from Creative Europe.

New technology, including augmented reality and 3D virtual reconstructions, will give visitors to the site a more interactive experience. The Antonine is now a proud part of the Europe-wide Frontiers Of The Roman Empire World Heritage Site, and the project will mean Scottish, German and Austrian partners working together to create the mobile app platform and new visitor content.

This is, of course, not the first honour visited upon the ancient site. When unveiling its gleaming new shopping centre, the nearby town of Cumbernauld – once renowned for its success in the Carbuncle awards for ugly buildings – bestowed upon it the moniker of the Antonine Centre. They obviously missed a trick. Surely should have been the Antonine Mall?

It’s been a bad week for... home improvements

it SO... it’s time to give the living room a lick of paint.

“What colour?” asks the resident DIY expert. “I think just white again is fine,” I reply. Best to keep things simple. Then came the phone call from Homebase. “Which shade of white?”

“Are you being funny? White white, please.”

“There’s no white white. There’s Milk White, Sail White or Beige White.”

When did life become so complicated that white emulsion faded from existence? Beige White was out. That’s the colour white underwear goes after too many washes. Sail White seemed too aspirational. Being Scottish, we opted for Milk White, in the hope it wouldn’t be too peely-wally. Or maybe there’s an even paler shade of white?