I Believe In Progress

Nov 9, 2021 | Music, Sugar, Ah Honey Honey

I had my first visit to the specialist diabetes nurse at our local GP practice this morning. The uptick in exercise and change in diet have had immediate effects – I’ve lost 3Kg (6.5lbs) in two weeks. I’ll take that as a good start.

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Another first last Sunday – my first full gig in two years: Public Service Broadcasting at Barrowland in Glasgow. It was weird being in a large room with 1500 other people, but it was good to be back.  The band were great, my ear protectors did what they were meant to, and I got home safely around 00.45.

Because of Cop26, Glasgow was swarming with police. Noticeably, they were from all over the UK – we spotted vans from Wales, London and Manchester. We didn’t see any trouble anywhere, except one lassie shouting abuse at officers who had stopped her. That could be any city anytime. It isn’t that long ago that I would have thought twice about wandering back from Barrowland along Argyle Street at that time of night, but it felt fine.

Before the gig, we found a great little Indian place that offered Indian ‘street food’ as an option – think tapas Indian-style. We also had a couple of pints of ale in the Scotia Bar, an east-end favourite. A band was setting up when we went in, and got cracking on their first set while we were there. They opened with Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath covers and offered a fine, punk-inflected reading of Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz. What really caught my attention was when they played Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way and everyone in the bar sang along. I was buying our second pint and the barman was singing harmonies. It was one of those impromptu, transformative communal moments that borders on the joyous.