The site of the Walter Scott statue in Glasgow wasn’t his originally. The guy who had been there carelessly lost the America’s for Britain, so disgruntled citizens had his statue removed, reminiscent of Damnatio memorial, practiced around 300AD, which involved a new ruler having statues inscriptions removed, the stone turning upside down, and a new inscription celebrating the new order being carved in.
Glasgow is vibrant with youth; probably something to do with 3 universities and 150,000 students, including two Nigerian girls who had just flown in for a short course. The range of nationalities, languages and fashion inspired. Certainly anything goes. A 20-something looked flamboyant with soft wrinkly ginger hair in a bun, flared black trousers, gold-rimmed glasses, red jacket, and soft black shoes; pity he spoiled it by scratching his bum in front of a busload of tourists!
The green park is governed by a law stating any Scotsman can graze his sheep there. So disappointing not to see a single woolly beast (if you don’t count the bearded man in the hat). Maybe the world pipe championships drove them away, or the prospect of guy fawkes night, which attracts 90, 000 spectators.
Scotland has 3 possible verdicts in a criminal case; guilty, not guilty and not proven. This last one means we know you did it, but we can’t prove it, so off you go but don’t do it again. Getting off scot free indeed.
Signs in Glasgow:
- Glasgows oldest pies
- Flood and fire restoration
- The ceo (me) had to speak to the head of IT (me) about the idiot who did the dodgy download (me).
And there’s a shop which cleans your Nike shoes (or other brands) for you. They also buy and sell 2nd-hand versions. Which reminds me; at the hostel I met a Kenyan woman whose business is buying 2nd hand clothes in the UK and USA to then sell in Kenya. She was softly spoken, elegant and genteel. Why do folk like that have the effect of making me feel a baffoon?
Some signs are good:
Glasgow employed an Ozzie to do their aerosol murals prior to the commonwealth games. Did they not have the aerosol artists who are now so productive in the city? Mind you, they have a St John’s station right beside the very old and popular Clyde distillery.
A building in central city is having some face work doing, so it’s surrounded in scaffolding. To keep the facade visible, they’ve printed it’s image onto plastic shrouding which hangs outside the scaffolding.
The hop on, hop off city tour buses are amazing value, though not everyone thinks so. A 50-something woman from Liverpool, a bit cuddly-shaped, graying hair tied back, and a sour down-turned mouth, bemoaned at length about how she and her husband walked for hours, HOURS, to find a bus. Now she was hoping this next bus would be better. It took her 15 minutes to give me all the details, as we waited. Our bus came, we all got on, then she got off at the next stop; 300 metres at most.
But here’s the most interesting person I didn’t meet that day:
Stories for you - Enjoy! 