A birthday party in Mayakovskaya

A good friend of mine, John Harrison, used to be the editor of Passport magazine, for which I wrote for many years until its owner (who never read it) decided to cease publication. Though he is from London originally, John has lived for twenty years in Russia and three in China (he speaks both Chinese and Russian). But he bought a small flat in Wishaw a few years back and has become a converted Scot. He so loves Glasgow that he is surprised that his daughter (half-Russian and a gifted artist, like her father) preferred to go to art school in Edinburgh.

Last night I celebrated John's birthday in his small but cosily chaotic flat on the Garden Ring with him and his Russian wife, Marina. She prepared the best green pea soup I have tasted since my mother, who was from Aberdeen, used to cook it when I was young. The five-leaved structure in the foreground is John's birthday cake, made out of chocolate.

Viewers might be wondering about the whisky bottle upside down on the table at the right. This is because, from time to time, I try to help John acquire some of the appropriate habits for life in Scotland. It was a practice taught me by Ronnie Gilbert from Tarbert, the incredible shipwright with who I used to work at Crinan Boats a hundred years ago when I was a Hebridean yacht bum. At the end of the night, you stand the bottle upside down and, in the morning, you always get "a wee noggin" in the cap so you can start the day with a swing.