I haven’t written much the past 5/6 months… Let’s just say I was trying to adapt to my new life and still am at the moment whilst I write these lines. I haven’t been as productive or motivated as I previously might have and even though attending quite a few gigs worth a few lines, I haven’t got myself around to work on them and just enjoyed watching instead, which felt rather good.
During these past few months I still attended a lot of gigs, I went to the Wickerman festival, where they have an effigy that goes up in flames at the end of the festivities. I had holidays in the grey town of Aberdeen, enjoyed a few trips to the sea, the mountains, Paris and even attended my first weddings along with settling down in a new flat.
I feel like writing a few words about the city I moved to which is Glasgow.
Scotland, a country and a population that cannot be mistaken for English or Irish without a little fight! I find the culture up here way more attached to traditions, people are very nice and open and it is easy to talk to someone you have never met before, much more than down south. Scottish people seem more attached to morals as well, everyone here being in relationships or married or even just growing up and keeping all childhood friends and visiting families a lot. Maybe this is normal for most but it wasn’t for most of my friends in both Paris and London, or maybe I just had a weird environment so far, so I find it refreshing and interesting in some ways.
There is a lot of culture to be witnessed up here, from the architecture of the famous Macintosh to the numerous museums that you can access for free and the universities that you could visit, especially the Glasgow School of Arts. I haven’t been myself yet weirdly but this was one of my worldwide stops I was planning on visiting when I grew up… rather weird to be living here now and still not been inside.
Aside of the beauty, the west end, the parks, the tea rooms and the shopping area, let’s not forget the industrial side of Glasgow, the outskirts, the state of most of the buildings (tenements as they are called here), the pavements even that are all aging quite fast.
I find here a culture of booze, drugs and gambling mainly, whether you are a teenager or an elderly person. A lot of junkies can be found, not only in the bad areas but right across the street from you in the city centre and they are not just faking it, they are proper ones like you would see in Hollywood movies. It’s kind of sad. Same goes with the drinking, it seems to be one of the main occupations here from growing up at your parents to hanging out with your mates after work.
Even though I like being surrounded by happy party people I can find it a bit much. Going out every night with the same people in the same places and work the same boring job every day is very boring to me. I need excitement every day, new people, challenges at work and new opportunities… the town feeling that I get here makes me feel down sometimes, bumping into people on the streets when you don’t want to talk to anyone or busy or even when you don’t remember their names is not something I am used to.
On the other hand I came up to chill and try to have a better taste of a normal life and enjoy all the little things in life, which I had troubles dealing with in London and its slowly kind of working. From a personal, lifestyle, working point of view, these are a lot of changes for me to deal with altogether.
To resume, I find things a lot more accentuated and condensed up here compared to England, maybe because all the surrounding areas come out in Glasgow, maybe because the culture is different here. Of course these are found in England in large quantities as well but my personal experience of it is a lot more accentuated up here and it kind of makes me love the way I was brought up and the things I apparently “missed out on” whilst growing up in Paris or even France, it’s very different down there and I now realize it and it scares me a little and makes me want to move out of the whole of the UK pretty fast but that’s not an option right now, like I’ve seen it and want to go back to a different quality of life, especially the flats and food … and maybe the warmer weather!
I miss travelling around a lot and having unknown surroundings. I miss meeting different people and discovering new things and places every day. I also like having a place to call home and good people around me even though the day to day routine can be boring…
My mission this year is to pass a certificate in accounting in order to get an office job with more £££ and maybe train some more afterwards. Let’s see if this happens…
I will also concentrate on a new website and maybe an exhibition of some of my photos once I’ve managed to organize them all on a new hard drive…
PS: I forgot about the accents, very pronounced up here that I absolutely love apart from the ones from the uneducated people. Most of you will understand… Also forgot about the amount of ‘sluts’ that comes out at night, imagine London x 5 cos its all condensed into one street pretty much and it comes from everywhere around Glasgow…there was something else but if I remember I’ll post it later…
