A funny place …

Duke of Wellington

I may have mentionned in the past that I had a lukewarm first reaction to Glasgow. Some might even say I didn’t like it here. I mean with all the people running around drunk by dinner time, the junkies, the prostitutes and other neds©(*), can you really blame the guy who’s lived in Berlin for two years? But under its seemingly ragged exterior Glesga may have hidden qualities. The West-End ain’t half bad, and Ashton lane is just cute. But the neighborhood that’s really started turning things around for me is Partick. Kaska and I went Christmas shopping there a couple of days ago, and there is a live-able atmosphere to the place. It almost had a Berlin on a Saturday morning feel to it. I hear even better things about my future neighborhood of Shawlands. If those rumors pan out, then Glesga and I may turn a corner.

Another redeeming quality of the city is its people. Glaswegians are amongst the funniest people I ever met, and I am from Morocco. Take this picture for example. This statue of the Duke of Wellington is set in Merchant Square, in front of the Gallery of Modern Art. It is a Glasgow institution that, periodically, someone would climb up and place a road cone over the rider’s head. I read somewhere that sometimes you would see it with a cone on the horse’s head as well, but that true Glaswegians consider this a faux-pas. There is something wickedly funny about considering two cones on a statue bad taste, while one cone is juuust right …

(*)ned(s)©: Non-Educated Delinquant. Neds may be easily recognized by their uniform: trainers, track suit, baseball cap. Glasgow claims to be ground-zero of the ned epidemic. I believe it.

“Did I tell you Steffi is moving to Glasgow?”

Wow! A whole year since my last post. I’ve been in Glasgow since March and it’s starting to really grow on me. At first it was off-putting. Here’s a piece of advice: never, ever live near the main train station of a major metropole. It’s really very depressing. Well, except in Berlin – mmmm! living near Hauptbahnoff! But I digress … Around this time last year, Steffi and I were discussing her coming to live with me after a year of working for her Spanish company. Then, of course, she visited Glesga (In March), and had the funniest reaction (you know, the now famous “these people are so weird!”-reaction …), and decided that the UK was definitely NOT for her. And while it was entertaining but it also made me really sad. I didn’t see how another year of separation would pan out. Then she visited again, and again with her mom. Then I visited in Berlin in June, then there was the Paris trip, and again Berlin last November. At some point in that 8 months period, I’m not quite sure how though I hope I kow why, she changed her mind. Perhaps it was that the Spanish firm made her move from warm and comfy Vigo, to a small and cold village an hour outside of Berlin. Perhapsit was my incessant whinning. But the bottom line is:my girl is coming! I am now looking for flats, while making plans for the christmas break, while simultaneously  driving everyone around me bonkers by asking them repeatedly “Did I tell you Steffi is moving to Glasgow?”.