springtime in the east end
Another in a long line of visitors booked in for the next few months arrived in town on Saturday night in the form of Chhay’s form colleague, & my former club mate from Brisbrane: Jasper.
We started Saturday night with a gig at Rio’s – our local diner. Devon Sproule was playing – her voice was quite ethereal – sounding like a twenties record, or music playing in the next room in a movie. Unfortunately Rio’s is not really set up for gig’s and the acoustics weren’t fantastic. We moved to the Lios More for a more traditional approach and a few whiskeys to cap off the evening.
Sunday dawned clear again (and is still going 5 days later) so we dragged Jasper on a trek around the East End to capture some of Glasgow’s more character filled areas.
Starting with a wander through the Merchant City we headed to the infamous Barras Markets to stock up on cheap towels, pirated DVD’s and contraband cigarettes along with a fill of grease from any of the numerous chippies dotting the area.
Escaping to more rarefied surround we investigated the Homes of the Future development – a product of Glasgow’s year as European City of Architecture & Design in 1999. My office had produced part of the development so it was interesting to see some of their older built work up close (below). There was even a place for rent that would have liked to move into but it was taken by the time I contacted the agent on Monday morning.
Out on Glasgow Green we inspected the People’s Palace and the adjacent Templeton’s Carpet Factory to keep the architectural theme running. To finish the afternoon we picked up some provisions from Tapa and climbed up to the top of the Necropolis (below) for sunset views over Glasgow.
