Fragment #31 A walk in the park

Wednesday 15th July 2009
In Glasgow

The world is in stark contrast to the seedy sodium darkness of last night. Despite the sunlight and the crowds, the open shops and the traffic, this place still has a reek to it; dirty bins full of rotting matter of unknown origin and sweat. You glance into the eyes of passers by, each filled with fear and desperation, Oh they all try to look good, they try to smile, but you can see it, you can see the hope that nobody will stop and say hello. Every single person walking down Byres road is a drop of water in an ocean of alienated isolation. I continue on, deciding to bite the bullet and go into fucking Starbucks. The stifling atmosphere of the place is oppressive, as are all the people crammed in here, closer in distance maybe but no nearer to each other than they were outside.

I finally make my way out of that horrible little place and decide to go for a walk through the park. Again you see people, they may be wearing less, and have the appearance of openness, but the hostility is still there. Hidden behind fixed smiles and pretence. I see a group of people sitting in silence, each looking to the other. None wanting to be the one who starts the conversation. Nobody wants to look silly. Nobody can think of what to say.

A child falls over behind me, and the wailing starts. I look back and see he's scraped his knee. His mother comes after him, she does not comfort him or ask if he's okay. She scalds him and lets him know what will happen if he ruins his new T-shirt.

I make my way out of the park before it makes me sick. Working through park circus and the rest of that maze the city planners laughably call streets, I get to woodlands road. Buying some fags at the Sainsbury's garage is always fun, it's because it is a mini supermarket and I always like to add more research to my theory that the smaller the shop is then the higher the prices get. I purchase my dinner which says that it's curry for some extortionate price, but I'm not all that convinced.

I walk further, getting to West Princes Street and put some thought into popping into see David, but then I remember that he has work to do and some begging for forgiveness with Caroline to get on with tonight. So I go home dumping the empty take-away coffee cup in the bin on my way.