atop Gardner Street

This is Gardner Street in Glasgow. At the very top of this iconic street used to live a friend that I worked alongside. I went for tea there once and we watched Ken Loach, crew and actor film a scene from The Angel's Share while drinking wine and scoffing antipasti. I felt very cultured, by the way!
This woman is a force of nature. A Notre Dame alumni that seemed straight out of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Everything she did was full on. She had lived and worked in Italy for years (there's the Jean Brodie thing again) and moved among the filmstars and makers, like Franco Zeffirelli, in her time over there. She wanted to be a ballet dancer, but was frustrated in her passion. She did do a mean school show right enough all by herself. From getting the script and music, rehearsing and casting, making the costumes and sets. She had such gusto.
My fondest memory of her was when she gave me lifts in the morning to work. She'd arrive in a fug of heavy tar smoke, the back seat strewn with fag packets, jotters and newspapers. Classic fm would be pumped up to window shaking levels (she was a bit hard of hearing).
And so, designer back perched on her lap as she searched for a lighter, we headed into the morning traffic. My one contribution to the journey was a "good morning" then it was over to her shouting over some sweeping bit of classical romance puffing away. Her driving skills were honed in the streets of Rome. She gesticulated, swore and swerved at the passing traffic, without missing a beat of what scandal she was yelling at me about. Somehow we always made it to work and I arrived stunned into readiness for the day. I did this 5 mornings a week.
She now has rented her flat and is living back in Italy.

That's what Gardner Street means to me.