Reinventing

Had a visit to my home city today - happily over a calm sea and without encountering any of the snow showers that we could see around us - to go for our regular lunch date with my cousin and his wife. (The Ivy in Buchanan Street, if you're interested - I recommend the fish cake with the poached egg on top - never thought of doing that - and absolutely loved my dessert of frozen berries with sorbet and warm white chocolate sauce poured over it).

As we drove to the car park at Buchanan Galleries, I couldn't help noticing how much the city centre has changed since I left Glasgow 44 years ago. Are there any orange and green corporation buses any more? Actually I've just looked that up - deregulation of the bus service began in 1986, apparently, and since that time "bus operators have been able to start new services, change services, or cancel existing services by giving 42 days notice to the relevant authorities; in Scotland this has since changed to 56 days notice with an additional 14-day consultation period over and above this. Operation of non commercial services that SPT deem to be socially necessary may be awarded by competitive tender." All I notice is the confusing proliferation of liveries and destinations, and feel sure that I'd never be able to take a bus anywhere with any confidence that it was going where I wanted to be. 

Buildings are changing all the time too - the latest is the huge sloping glass job at Queen Street station, slightly reminiscent of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas only not pyramidical and without the blue light on top. I took the photo for today's blip from the 6th floor of the car park; I don't know what I'm looking at or what it used to be, but it's clearly going to be something else ...

We were discussing over lunch the relative merits of where we live now and whether we'd ever think of moving back to Glasgow. Quite apart from the basic fact that living here for all that time means we've completely priced ourselves out of city living, I realise that life in the city isn't necessarily easier for old people. Even the thought of catching a bus as the sun went down and the crowds headed out of town made me feel tired.

That could, of course, have been that pleasantly bibulous lunch ...