And so dear listener, I’m sure that you, like me, failed to notice that Radio 4 was offering £5,000 in a competition to allow the lucky winner the opportunity to make a one-off travel documentary for radio, and my thanks to Jonathan, a former BBC colleague for the info. It was for someone who ‘enjoyed travelling’. The previous winner had been to Tajekistan. 🙂
I was thinking about this as my train passed Possilpark and Parkhouse on the way to Queen Street before I’d the walk down to Central to catch the train to Paisley (if it’s to the uny, it’s by car – if it’s just the town centre, it’s the train)
No. I’m not a big traveller and never really have been. My sis travelled/travels a lot but I have been to some jolly interesting places in my time.
Y’see not only is it the fiftieth anniversary of Radio 1 (which I’ll come back to) but it’s also the fiftieth anniversary of the world’s shortest flight – from Papa Westray to Westray and back (1.7 miles and about five minutes) – and we (study buddie Fi and me) spent most of a Sunday once on the island (either the one or the other) and mega thanks to the other person on the plane who told us that the youth hostel was not locked but to leave a donation for the coffee we drank. I have the certificate to prove it but the two miniatures of Highland Park we were given were swiftly passed on.
And some of the refugees I worked with might have been interested at one time but to be honest, you don’t see much of your journey from Syria to Britain if it is carried out in the back of a lorry with your head down (but they have been given leave to stay in this country for five years).
And my most recent trip was to Oban (on my own) and having walked on Ganavan Beach in the sun and the Esplanade in the rain I came back having decided, more or less, to resign with no job to go to.
(I think that’s living relatively dangerously and I acted with no-one’s advice)
But the two places in the world that have had the greatest influence on me since leaving Peterhead have been Paisley and Easterhouse and I may return to Peterhead and Easterhouse on another occasion. Metaphorically but not in reality. Probably.
No, I was out in Paisley twice this week and it’s a place I know from many years ago as well as currently. A couple of girlfriends (No. Not at the same time) and one of them became my wife (and later my ex-wife) but it was things like the tunnel bus; my now ex-mum-in-law getting me tickets for a Scotland v England game and me getting them from her at a Paisley bingo hall; various bowling clubs; the brilliance that is a fully working Barshaw Park; the Observatory that I visited with half a dozen former heroin users; the University and all that that means for me; and taking part in a Recovery Day at Paisley Town Hall which was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life.
And there’s a lot more. It may not be the stuff of Radio 4 travel documentaries but the place is important to me. 🙂
And so are many of the people I know from there or its environs. 😀 😀 😀
But, finally, I have a major criticism of the University but it’s not just UWS (Paisley) but as more and more are modernising, the open space for me to put up flyers disappears behind opaque plastic. I’ll survive but please tell people about
tioraidh, still wearing that badge and happily keeping it simple
Iaint850, and just cos I’m alive to make mistakes doesn’t excuse the mistakes that I make.
And I’m afraid I’ve run out of word count again so it’ll be next week before I can tell you what being an SVQ assessor involves cos I want to use the last bit of space to tell you a story.
Someone very kindly talked about me turning my life around but I need to be honest; sometimes it feels like I’m in a continual spin. But I owe so much to so many people and I can never underestimate that. Not everyone is so lucky.
So, leaving Queen Street Station the other day to go to Paisley, I saw someone begging, whom I knew – a former service user. Obviously I spent some time talking to him – down on one knee. The guy’s in his mid-thirties and has used various drugs over a period of time but he is really bright and capable of more, so much more than what he’s doing but the resources just aren’t there to help him.
One of the things that I had going for me was, when my addiction worker came to see me after Cold Turkey – and with a colleague – just in case,she saw a good middle class house with books and it was clean and so on. My recovery capital was good but I also know that with Moira there was a belief that everyone had recovery capital of some sort. They do. 🙂
Obviously I told the former service user that I couldn’t give him any money but he reassured me it would be used for food and food alone. Obviously I believed him and obviously I gave him money. I know that the next time I see him he’ll be clean. Obviously.
Anyway a big well done to top music presenter and former BBC colleague, John Collins, who has recently joined Chris Country Radio as the drivetime jock and it’s well deserved. It was John and j, the blog’s top pop picker (and Happy Birthday j) who opened my eyes to what country music has to offer which is why I have a new MP3 player.
John, I don’t know the music policy for drivetime country but you can’t have too much Brandi Carlile
This is her and Dreams and I still have them and always will. Thank you Paisley and everyone else out there.