Father, Put Your Teeth Away, They're Frightening The Children!!

Came in from work to find my old man grinning toothily at me. Considering he has virtually no teeth to speak of, this was something of a feat. It seems he's just had his plate fitted. Whilst he's having some trouble with his 's' sounds and looks like scruffy Frank McAvennie when he smiles he does at least have the consolation of being able to do a rather mean Sean Connery. It's only a matter of time before he's beating off the middle aged totty with a shitty stick. After the bizarre lengths I went to in my desire to watch Partick Thistle play over a hundred miles away in Forfar last weekend, the chance to watch them play ten minutes away will have to go a-begging. Instead i'll be Gypping with Clairwil to Pollock Park in the south side of Glasgow. To be honest I need a break from watching the hopeless buggers. I aim to enjoy myself rather than sit through another ninety purgatorial minutes of sub standard football on a pitch that looks like a ploughed field. Anyway, here are some links. Tiny Mix Tapes - A site in which one suggests a topic or title for a mix tape and someone goes off and compiles the song to fit your criteria. They've yet to use any of my suggestions but that's because they were all shite and entered whilst drunk. Needless to say, I remember none of them. Hopefully you'll have a bit more luck. Jon Gomm - Rather astounding Blues/folk guitarist who does things with a guitar I can only dream about. He also manages to sound brilliant with it, not even remotely wanky. Right, i'm off to drink some more beer. Gutten Nacht

M8 At Clydeside Expressway

Finnieston

The People You Meet................

Squirrel having a beast of a time getting a few nuts out of the dispenser

Can't believe he got so close to me.

Jake The Peg here was more of a tart to be honest. Quite happy to pose for a few potrait shots.

Check this handsome chap.

Kelvingrove Revisited

Whoever it is that pulls the levers behind the scenes dealt me a killer hand today. Danke.

Last Days Of Winter 2

Took these on a short walk at dusk a few weeks back. They were going to get binned as they're all out of focus. On second inspection though, i've decided that I quite like them. So there.

Last Days Of Winter

Top of Belmont Street, looking towards Great Western Road Just Off Woodlands Road

Red Ken Does It Again.....

Ok, i'm not proud but I just have to include this link. It's an 'article' from the online version of The Sun. I love you Ken, even if nobody else does....... As a motorist hating, public transport using, card carrying lifelong pedestrian and commiepinkoleftyscumbag, all I can say is Bravo Mr Mayor and may your petty mindedness and lack of verbal tact continue to get up peoples noses. Especially the subhuman shite that write for The Sun. Would their tone have been the same if it had been a homosexual journalist Ken had made inapropriate remarks to? If it had been some French ambassador failing to cough up his congestion charge? If only Ken knew that everyone in Britain buys the Sun, learns it's politics from Trevor Kavanagh and has the reading age of a mentally challenged nine year old..................

Ill Man Has A New Toy

Bought myself a rather flashy new MP3 player today. A Sony one of some sort. Loads and loads of memory. In fact, it's got more memory than I can possibly use at one time....... Oh well. It has a few flaws. New-ish albums sound fine, but anything made any more than fifteen years ago suffers a great deal. For instance, my Buzzcocks, Talking Heads and PIL albums sound really muffled and lacking in sonic prescence. Not ideal for those journeys where background noise is a problem. Also, I like my ears to be ringing a little when I take off the phones......Listening to Orgasm Addict like it was playing somewhere in the background is not much fun. Other news. People are apparently buying Blue Peter badges over the net to get into various attractions and museums for nothing. Good! I cannot abide that awful, smug, shithole of a programme. No wonder kids turn to violent video games, sex and substance abuse when this annodyne garbage is what passes for after school TV entertainment in the suburbs. Don't see what the problem is anyway. Whoever owned the badges obviously had no more need for them. Why should they sit redundant in peoples drawers and side boards when they can be on someone elses lapel gaining them cheap or free access to something interesting somewhere in the country?

From A Train Window

Snow capped hills somewhere north of Stirling.

Tay Estuary.

Forfar Match Photo's

Action in the Forfar goalmouth

The man bending over adjusting his sock ties almost certainly saved Thistle from defeat. Kenny Arthur is God.

A poor game with the only real drama coming in the scond half when Thistle midfielder Jimmy Gibson was sent off in two frankly farcical decisions by the arsehole referee. The game ended 0-0

Tayside Prairie

As predicted, i'm completely exhausted after today's little escapade. I'll post something more constructive tomorrow. Cheers.

Northbound

Panoramic view of Station Park I'm off to watch Partick Thistle at Forfar tomorrow, so chances are i'll be too knackered to bother posting anything. I'll bring back some shots of the ground and the match though. Maybe even let you know how the famous Forfar purvie was................They usually sell out of their wonderful pies, bridies and whatnot before half time, or so i've been told. Shot from a 1960's cup tie against Hearts I've been there once before, as a child. We were on holiday in Montrose and found out that Kilmarnock were playing Forfar that weekend. There was an added attraction in that one of my mothers work colleagues was playing on a part time basis for Killie. So we all trotted off to Forfar to watch Jimmy(Gilmour). I don't remember the score, but I do remember the very small crowd and being able to wander round the ground at will. I also remember hearing Mr Gilmour swearing at a team mate and duly reporting it to my mother. Apparently she chinned him at work a week or so later, much to the poor chaps mortification........... Thistle have been to Station park already this season. This was our last visit prior to that game. A 2-2 draw was enough to see The Jags clinch promotion to the 1st division in season 2000/2001. A week later they took the title at Stirling Albion. Some five years later, two league championships, two seasons in the SPL and two consecutive relagations later, we find ourselves back at Station Park. Bon nuit mes enfants............

So, How Was It For You?

Fungus covered wood sculpture, near Willowbank School, Woodlands. I have been mulling over the content of this blog recently. Whilst I like to take you all on the odd diversion now and then, I have come to the conclusion that I don't write nearly enough. Of course, what I write is entirely dependent on what happens to me from day to day, which isn't much, truth be told.... I have something of an outlet for topical stuff over at A Mischief Of Magpies, but I have realised that sometimes i'm simply chucking up photos as a way of avoiding having to bash out anything that might reveal more about me than I feel comfortable with. I feel the words "You Already Know Too Much" were ever so slightly prescient. Anyway, in the interests of being relevant for at least one more post, let me provide you with a few links Courtesy of Crumpled Caitlin we have MOBA , or Museum Of Bad Art to give it it's full title. Some of this stuff is awesome. A combination of joy and terror. This is a fine little site. Submit your mix tape criteria and see what they come up with. It may take a few days right enough....................

Along The Kelvin Walkway

New Ha'Penny Bridge. The old one got flushed away in a flood in the early nineties. Relating to a previous post, Kirklee Station used to straddle the embankment beyond the bridge. The remains of the demolished bridge can still be seen.

Kelvin Stephenson memorial Church. An arresting sight at the best of times, it looks utterly majestic from the Kelvin Walkway.

Kelvin Walkway beneath Queen Margaret Drive Bridge.

Sleeping Ducks

Caught these two having a crafty kip on the banks of the Kelvin on Sunday afternoon. Mill Lade, Kelvin Way. Still with me? Sorry about the West End travelogue last night. I had the photos and wanted to do something with them. So sue me.................. Thanks to everyone that contributed to my 'Guess The Peeling Advert' post. To be honest, the only thing I can make out is a Whiskey Bottle and what looks like a Red Stripe logo. I was always of the opinion that there was a giant 'Kawasaki' logo on this wall too. The 'Scotbike' logo in the bottom right hand corner all but confirms this. This was the last layer of paint laid upon this wall and as such, was the first to succumb to the elements........... Theres a new Blog Of The Week poll up at A Mischief Of Magpies. Please vote for the blog that tickles yer fancy most. In a similar vein, if any of you have some interesting blogs you'd like to pass on to us at 'The Mischief' myself and Clairwil will be very happy to give them the once over and nominate them in due course. Cheers luvs.

The Glasgow Central Railway

This tunnel ran virtually all the way to the banks of the Clyde. Oh No!!!, not another 'West End Cultural History Project'.........Run Away!!!! Built in 1896 By The Glasgow Central Railway, it ran from Glasgow Central to Stobcross, under Kelvingrove park for a good mile or so before calling at three west end stations, Kelvinbridge, Botanic Gardens and Kirklee, before heading north and northwest to outlying suburbs. It closed completely in the early sixties. Trams, Buses and the Subway all did for this odd stretch of railway which spent a large proportion of it's distance underground. In the days of steam, this was not a good idea at all. This is a little wander I took along it's course, between the exit of the Kelvingrove tunnel and Kirklee Station.

Kelvinbridge Station

A drab looking wall occupies the place where the old station building sat.

The tunnel went underneath Great Western Road to Botanic Gardens Station.

The site of the station, roughly. I think this is about where the platform began and the line entered the station.

Like it's counterparts further along the line, the station building for Kelvinbridge no longer exists. Unlike Botanic Gardens and Kirklee however, even the platforms and other station paraphenalia are gone. All that remain are a couple of blocked railway arches and a little glimpse of the cutting the line made below Caledonian Mansions, the impressive street level building constructed by The Caledonian Railway Company.

Botanic Gardens Station

These are the ventilation shafts used to allow the acrid fumes of steam trains to escape into the atmosphere. The station platform is still visible through these apertures today. The station building, like many on the Glasgow Central Line was a much admired structure, in this case built by James Miller. After the closure of the line, the building was latterly used as a nightclub. It was in this guise that it burnt down in 1970.

Kirklee Station

Overgrown and all but gone. This was once a fairly busy little station. Don't want to get into the whole 'only ghosts board trains here now' thing, but the place did have a noticeable eerieness to it. You have to work your way through the fallen trees and scrub to get to it. The line exited the tunnel under the hill in The Botanic Gardens and the station straddled a bridge over Ford Road. The line split in two soon after Kirklee. One line went to Maryhill Central, the other went north west to Dawsholm. All that remains is some platform on the Botanic gardens side of Ford Road. The bridge is gone, as are the station buildings. On the other side of the demolished bridge are new(ish) houses.

Otago Street

A mass of peeling paint reveals about three different adverts on the end of this warehouse building. Anyone able to distinguish them?

Wilton Street Gardens

They've done a decent job landscaping what had become a rather featureless patch of grass. A closer look reveals bits that need a tidy up after the ravages of winter, and more disturbingly, a pile of full refuse bags left by some shameless, lazy, fuckwitted fly-tipping bastard. Sorry to come across like some Daily Mail reading loon, but I believe some people really need to have their noses rubbed in their own shite before they realise that the world does not exclusively exist for their benefit. Bah!

Wilton Street

View From NK

Blogger, in it's infinite wisdom has decided that I shall post no more than one picture per post tonight. This one is similar to the previous one, looking out over Queen Margaret Drive from the site of the now demolished North Kelvinside Secondary School. The yellow/white slit of skyin the distance was actually a lovely blood red colour, but the street lights basically bleach this out. It still looks good.

Teatime Stroll

Took a short walk around my manor tonight. Caught the glint of a setting sun on some buildings and that was it, in for the camera and out into the early evening. I admit to being a shameless sunset chaser.

I Am Not The Man I Used To Be

Oh 'ello!!! A bit drunk tonight. Started to feeling my age something awful in the pub where I had to turn down the offer of some of my younger wreck head colleagues to partake in some upcoming weekend madness at some dance music thing. I wouldn't last the pace my friends, anyway, I need my Sanatogen and Horlicks by ten o'clock or I get most distressed....................

Bongo Chops and Hollywood Jim

A Sure sign of disquiet with your workplace is when you almost call a colleague by their nickname. To be honest, the above mentioned are good VFM. HJ in particular has been keeping us all tickled with his 'antics'. Do I have a nickname? Not sure. I did have one of the management thinking I'd lost radio contact when I was sat in one of the filing insets seemingly talking away to some cardboard boxes. I had in fact removed a box and exposed the ugly mush of Mullaney, my soon-to-be-departed workmate on the other side of the filing shelf. We had a bit of a natter about nothing much, but next thing I know, I've got big Steven popping his head in asking if i'm alright..... So they thought I was going mental. Far from it, in fact it would seem that mental hygiene is pretty low on the agenda in our place at times. Or is that just the effect office life has on some people? To try and blend in, I've taken to humming or whistling a bit of Tchaikovsky's Fifth at random intervals. Sure as hell beats the schmaltzy gank the guy behind me belts out indiscriminately. If I hear 'Watching The Girls Go By' or whatever it's called one more time............................. Wonder if he does requests................? Cheers!

Is It The Weekend Yet?

Ok, worth a try..............Throat is less sore tonight but not by much. Not a lot else to report. Watched Thistle tonight. They won. It was very poor stuff. As I said..........

The Misery Is Back

It just won't go away. Sinuses are blocked, nasal passages and back of my throat are absolutely fucking raw. For about the third time in a fortnight. Hateful bloody infection. New Blog Of The Week poll is up at A Mischief Of Magpies. Some bloody good nominations this week. Go on then, don't be shy.....................

Fannying About In The Snow Pt2

Geese In Flight

Ducks In The Basin