Freedom From The Mundane - A Writer's Blog

Saturday, March 26, 2005

A City That Fits

My sister Fiona turned 30 yesterday and today we had the family get together to celebrate. Gail and I dropped Laura off with her Gran for the night and drove through to Glasgow. My parent's stay just outside Glasgow in the Paisley area and it always sparks memories from my childhood when I visit.

No matter how much I settle in Edinburgh, being back in Glasgow always makes me feel like I am back in my true home, where I belong. Though I didn't grow up on Glasgow's streets, I can't get away from the fact that so much of me is engrained into the city and that there is something about the Dear Green Place that changes my inner self when I see it's skyline approaching from the motorway.

I lived in the city for several years and just as I believe there is one woman for every man, there is only one city for every person. A city that fits perfectly that person's personality, loves, hates, habits, vices, heart and soul. My perfect fit is Glasgow and I am as much a Glaswegian as the boy fae Anderston or Maryhill.

People ask; why do you love Glasgow? It's just a city. Glasgow isn't just a city - it is life. It is a twenty-four hour living, breathing entity. So much happens at any one time it is possible to feel tiny and insignificant, yet if you embrace it, will take you into its arms and you will become it. Hence the reason for the saying; "you can take the boy out of Glasgow, but never Glasgow out of the boy."




click tae enlarge


We all met up at my youngest sister, Lindsay's flat in Mount Florida and had a couple of drinks. Fiona received all her presents before we got taxis into Corinthian's restaurant in the city centre. It's one of Glasgow's more upmarket places, and so it wasn't long before a book was started to guess the time it would for us to 'make the Galbraith presence' felt.

Glasgow at night. Never a city looks more beautiful with a river running through it between its shimmering lights, than Glesga toon.

The wine flowed and the conversation ebbed; the food was fantastic. Fiona chose the restaurant well and I was surprisingly well fed by the end of the deceiving portions of goat's cheese salad to start and fillet of salmon for main. It was good to be back together with the family that, if truth be told, I don't see as much as I should.

We all grew up together, but now nature has taken its course and we all live very different lives in different parts of the country. So when the occasion merits the arrangements we get together and find that nothing much has really changed - except the age of the participants.
Colin 11:02 am

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