Friday 16th September 2022
I bundled downstairs this morning excited about meeting up my cousin from my dad's side of the family. The thing about emigrating so young is that we didn't get to spend much time with our cousins so I was looking forward to my meeting. In my excitement though, I may have sprained my toe on the stairs because it's gone all bruised and sore. Obviously my body is telling me to rest up a bit and fortunately I'm staying in one place until the end of September.
My toe pain was quiet until after my adventure today so I explored my old territory where I spent my original gap year in 1987/8. My late sister had bought a small flat in Ibrox close to the underground train. So I got on a bus until the neighbourhood where I got onto the train. It's great to see the good changes and heartwarming to see where things are still the same. I even saw a resident squirrel cross the street in front of me!
(Zoom in on the middle picture)
I met my cousin in the West End of Glasgow which I've always loved because it's vibey and interesting. It's one of the more affluent parts of the city and we spent a good few hours trying to fill in the gaps of 50 years in a
coffee shop.
Afterwards I decided to check out a church I'd spotted off one of the streets and was delighted to see it was 'open door hour'. The organ was playing and the windows were magnificent. I got chatting to two of the volunteers who told me about the costs of keeping up the maintenance. Window cleaning of the stained glass is around £45000 and the roof needed £1 million in repairs. He lamented that the church needed to sell off the small buildings to pay the bill and like so many churches worldwide, the attendance numbers are dropping. I think back to my quirky History Professor from the Camino who was a devout Catholic but was calling for a modernisation of the church to work through the current attendance crisis. He had some good business models and ideas and I think that these old buildings are getting close to crisis point now. It's still stunning on my building passion level, haha.
I'm now nursing my toe and in bed early hoping that my injury dissappears overnight. Hey- strange things can happen!
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