18-21 August, 2019
Glasgow, you’re quirky! And I like that about you.
The quirkiest stuff is in the east end. It’s a rough area with no compromises. This is the Glasgow they tell you to avoid but, if you do, you’ll miss the very heart of this eclectic city.
And speaking of feeling Canadian, over by the university we found this! A really good belly laugh – even though we knew Glasgow had two of them.
When I was 11, I went to Scotland for the first time – Langholm in Dumfries . I loved it there. I stayed with my friend Margaret’s family in a little terraced house that contained a dairy – I still remember drinking the warm creamy milk from the big metal churns. I remember eating freshly caught trout from the river, cover in oats and fried, and honeycombs along with crusty white bread. I remember having a huge crush on my friend’s cousin, Steven. I remember gathering bilberries in the hills, but also picking armfuls of heather. We used the heather to make a broom. After parading through the streets of Langholm, we met the queen who presented us each with a new sixpenny (or was it threepenny) piece. I remember the swaying bridge over the river, and ice cream sundaes in town.
But what I also remember is learning the dialect and making Margaret’s aunt Jenny laugh when I answered a question as ‘I dinna ken.’ And I remember being introduced to the Broons and Oor Wullie, the local comic book characters, so iconic to the area.
This year in Glasgow they have the Oor Wullie Big Bucket Trail during the summer and I saw quite a few of the 200 in Glasgow. I knew him the minute I saw him and that brought a big smile to my face. Each one was titled differently but here are a few of them.
