Street Life - Union Square Aberdeen

There but for the grace of etc...........................I am not wearing their shoes

In the shadows of the dignified monument to the fallen of various Scottish regiments in Union Square in Aberdeen a couple, without dignity, were having having a serious and public discussion.

The man was much taller than the lady.  Her gestures and facial expressions did a credible job of making him small.  Both of them were puffing on their vapes creating ephemeral clouds of vapour that wafted around the bronze soldiers of the monument. In between drags and puffs she was looking up at him haranguing him verbally and with her forefinger as if to cut him down even further in size.

It was not nice to see on a warm spring morning.  I had a full day ahead of me to explore Aberdeen and then catch a train on to Glasgow with my wife later in the afternoon.  It looks like all this couple had was stress, strain, conflict and unimaginable to look forward to providing they could look beyond the immediate moment.

There but for the grace of etc………………………I am not wearing their shoes.

Over the noise of the street and through a harsh Scottish accent I could hear her tell him “Youse better…youse idiot……youse get it sorted”.  She then walked off to somewhere as far away as from him as she could get. 

He was not alone for long.  Two other men joined him.  They may have been waiting for her to disappear or purely by chance just happened to be passing and met him.  I think with the coincidence of her departure and their arrival they may have been waiting and watching from a doorway somewhere before joining him, once the coast was clear.  Each of the new arrivals were carrying a can of drink.  One had a tin of lager while the other was carrying one of those high energy drinks loaded with sugar and caffeine.  Surely at nine thirty in the morning for the price of their tinnies they could have at least got a basic bacon sandwich from somewhere rather than cold fizzy liquids.  I could still taste the toothpaste in my mouth yet they hadn’t even got to ten and all they would be tasting was alcohol and energy drink before I was even thinking of a mid morning coffee.

There but for the grace of etc………………………I am not wearing their shoes.

Without waiting for the pedestrian light to go green all three of them walked into the road into the path of a black Range Rover. It sounded its horn to panic them into crossing the road a bit quicker.  Instead of seeing where they had gone wrong the two late arrivals in the group danced around the now stationery vehicle slapping its side and hurling abuse at the driver.  The semi smoked windows were fully closed and I expect the air conditioning was on inside as well as the radio.  So, all the driver could see were faces and mouths contorted into a silent yet entirely misdirected venom.  Was their anger at the Range Rover stimulated by the liquids they were drinking?  Or did the Range Rover represent something that was beyond their reach?  A symbol of what they thought to be wrong in society?

There but for the grace of etc………………………I am not wearing their shoes.

The man who had been harangued by the lady earlier had the good sense to complete his walk across the road without confronting the car.  He had survived the lady so far and he was not going to take his chances against a Range Rover.

Eventually the other two gave up their tribal dance and joined their third companion.  On they walked towards the Sherriff’s Court hurling angry abuse into the air.  At the Sherriff’s Court’s doorway they stood in a short queue.  There the aggression ceased.  Last gulps were taken from their tinnies and the mock gothic building swallowed them.

Were all three on trial?  Were two on trial?  Or, was the man who had been harangued by his wife on trial by himself and the other two were supporting him?

There but for the grace of etc…………………………I am not wearing their shoes.