Twenty years ago, about this time of year, I was sitting on the second floor of a fire escape on the gable end of a large red-bricked terrace in South Belfast. As usual, S. was with me; we shared the flat, and were making plans for a joint birthday party later in the autumn. It … Continue reading Black Mountain
The desk at which W.S. Graham wrote his poems has found a home in Edinburgh’s Poetry Library. His chair too, though the seat has been put away somewhere, “for the time being,”the man told me. More suitably described, I think, as a table, it looks like something from a farmyard kitchen as opposed to a study. It’s … Continue reading Wheesht
‘A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.’ So decreed Robert Baden Powell when he drafted rule number eight of his manual, Scouting For Boys. It contains nine Scouting rules - ‘A Scout is thrifty’being the ninth - and, amongst those seven rules ranking higher than what I’m calling the ‘cheerful rule’, are: loyalty, obedience, … Continue reading Reasons to be Cheerful
“I just saw Donald Glover on the Royal Mile; he’s doing on open-air improv show.” I told them this when I met them in George Square. They responded by speaking at the same time. S. with, “Who’s Donald Glover?”and E. with, “Let’s go see him now.” It wasn’t Donald Glover, but it could have been. Nothing would … Continue reading Festival Frenzy
‘You took a mystery and made me want it / You got a pedestal and put me on it/ You made me love you out feeling nothing/ Something that you do.’ Remember it? ‘ChainReaction’- written by the Bee Gees and made famous by the sweet tones of Diana Ross. It’s a great floor-filler. Those opening lyrics, … Continue reading On A Pedestal
I’m beginning to see Edinburgh as my town. Beginning to. The crowds have descended for the festival, and, as I weave my way through them, I think: “I live here. I know where I’m going (geographically speaking), while most of these people don't. I’ll still be here on Tuesday 28thAugust, when they’ve all disappeared like … Continue reading Our Town
Last Wednesday was a wet one in Edinburgh. The five o’clock downpour came just in time to drench people coming home from work. I’d been inside all day and was itching to get out - time for a mental health walk. By eight o’clock, the rain was diffident, apologetic, like that rare embarrassed drunk who knows … Continue reading All Creatures Great and Small
I used to work with J. She sat adjacent to door of the CEO’s office and, in eight years of working there, he persistently got her name wrong. He would almost get it right, but not quite – Ann instead of Anna, that sort of thing. It wasn’t deliberate, and J. knew it; she’d long … Continue reading Be Nice
Was it only me, or did you feel as though July delivered about three months worth of life packed tightly into just thirty one days? Was it the early dawns and late sunsets? Was it the heat? Was it the pin-balling news: wildfires, world cup, Thai boys’ rescue, summits, protests, elections in Pakistan and Zimbabwe, … Continue reading Lughnasa
I arrived into London’s Kings Cross three hours late, running through the connecting underground passageways of the Tube network towards the Victoria line in a pool of sweat. ‘Horses sweat, men perspire, ladies merely glow,’ my father once taught me. Would that it were true. It was 34 degrees and I was sweating. “Sorry! So … Continue reading And Breathe
