20.11.08
Down a class
Monday evening was Edinburgh juggling club night. Me and Rosie headed off a little late but it wasn’t to be a long walk. Well it shouldn’t have been a long walk. What actually happened was that we found the place but found no way in. Then we walked all the way around to find a dead-end, this meant a walk all the way back again. But no, we were lucky and found a 3rd way. So back to find a small gate leading us into a dark car park. No idea where to go so we headed for a door with a light on past it. No-one there to ask, no signs.
Once we heard the sounds of droppage we bore left; first up was some community orchestra room, not for us. And then we found it. Juggling hall with people.
And that was it pretty much. No-one talked to us so me and Rosie passed for a bit before approaching someone I recognised from conventions. Say hello to Canadian Duncan – diaboloer extraordinaire.
He was a chatty soul so we passed some time nattering before heading to a pub with someone called Alex who was the image of what you’d expect Donald Grant’s younger brother to look like.
And then home.
Tuesday morning was pretty quiet. I stayed in bed ’til late and then packed up and was away from Edinburgh to Glasgow, thanking Rosie and Tom for their time and spare bed.
Mild hassles with the train but made it in the end despite Scotrail’s attempts to thwart me.
Glasgow was cold and wet when I got here and has remained so since.
And what a change from Edinburgh. Firstly there are people here with actual scottish accents – loads of them. Who’d of thunk it?
Second is it is nowhere near as posh as Edinburgh. Full-on working class at least the bits I’ve seen.
Az picked me up from some local train station and we sat and chatted for a while before getting my second curry of the trip. Not a patch on the first one but still ok.
And to Wednesday. A guy called Tom had graciously agreed to guide me today so we trained it into the city to sightsee. Top chap; more so in fact as I found out later he’d had no sleep and was suffering. He hid it well.
The first stop was The Necropolis. Basically it’s a graveyard. But it’s the swanky graveyard for rich nobs and city stars. Nice hillside location near the cathedral. Hopefully a few good pics taken there, I tried to capture some good weather shots. At least one of them won’t be a good advert for Glasgow though unless people do actually want to come here for the wet and grimy weather.
From there to GoMA. A shame that half of it was closed.
And then further to Kelvingrove Museum and Gallery. Now this was more like it. A short tube ride away but near a quiet park and much more genteel than the other places we’d seen so far. The museum wasn’t too bad excepting its rather bitty nature. One gallery would show some stuff in a small amount of detail but then not expand it and the next area was unrelated to it. So you have wildlife of Scotland, which was good and had some stuff about endangered species, but the next gallery was Ancient Egypt. Just too bitty for me.
Canadian Duncan had decided to come along to Glasgow juggling club and phoned to meet us in some pizza place (where I had the biggest Calzone I’ve seen for ages). And onwards to juggle.
Glasgow club was a bit more friendly than Edinburgh’s. Me and Az passed a bit first and then she sat out to chat some. I passed with Duncan and then sat out myself whilst occasionally giving out snippets of advice to beginners.
One thing that surprised me at both clubs was the skill level on display. Mainly that it just wasn’t very high. Sure there was the odd one who was very good (eg Duncan) but club jugglers on display were learning the cascade. Ball jugglers were doing not a lot. And nobody seemed to be able to pass even a 6 club 4 count with any consistency. It just surprised me.
But as I say the Glasgow lot were a friendly enough bunch.
Now I’m back at Az’s to sleep before zooming off to my 3rd place of the trip tomorrow.
Dumfries here we come.
Have fun.