Bus Pass On Finniston Farm [somewhere near Finnieston, Glasgow]

BPL was doing something called ‘visiting’.  This seemed to involve BPL dining out for lunch and dinner, spending evenings in people’s homes, bringing them Christmas gifts and boxes of Hebridean Baker biscuits, then, getting a bit miffed that said biscuits weren’t opened immediately the kettle was boiled, so BPL could sample the various flavours.  Bus Pass felt pretty sure this was not good visitarianism.  Undaunted, BPL made mental notes to purchase more lemon and gingers.  In the interest of science.

When visiting, BPL found the need to be on best behaviour exhausting, and pretty soon escaped to visit the old haunts of her youth.  In Glasgow’s West End, Finnieston was fast becoming the new BOHO district.  So, BPL went “À la recherche du temps perdu” to Finnieston. (BPL reckoned the only Proustian temps perdu people ever mentioned (the madeleine incident), was because that was as far as anyone had ever managed to read, before falling asleep, blacking an eye crowning themselves by dropping the book).

Bus Pass was raring to get on a bus in Glasgow city, but BPL had decided to walk across the new pedestrian bridge, from Govan Cross to Kelvin Hall, first.  BPL went into the Art Gallery to visit some Glasgow Boys, then wandered past her student bedsit building, near the park.  Finally, down the hidden lane, with its BOHO tea-room and colourful shops, selling niche stocking-fillers, like haggis-spice chocolate.

Finally, Bus Pass was able to get onto the Glasgow city buses.  The majority of which were single deckers, jam-packed, with each appearing to have its very own extra-type, ranting all the way up the bus, in a Billy-goats-gruff accent Bus Pass could not entirely comprehend, but felt sure was how Glaswegians welcomed visitors.  Much like those welcoming double points from Mr Blackfriday in Weedgie Waterstones*.

Images for this journal have been posted on Insta @purplehaze_journal

*WEEGIE, n. also weedgie. Informal word for a Glaswegian.

Credit: ’In Search of Times Past’, Marcel Proust. 1913-27

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/glasgow-boys