Baked the Pigeon?

His favourite bit is the pigeons in the title sequence of coronation street.

And so the pigeon story rolls on.

I had thought contacting the Police would have done the trick and that a visit from the boys in blue would make Pigeon Man retire.

Either he is made of sterner stuff or the Police didn't follow it up because at the weekend our friend Alan informed us that early on Saturday morning he too had seen the Pigeon Man up to his old tricks and this time he had an assistant.

I'm not too sure what the Pigeon Assistants job would be - maybe he is going to dress up as a lady pigeon with big eye lashes and lip gloss and entice the amorous male pigeons.

Thankfully this time no pigeons were hurt and Alan kept a careful watch of the Pigeon Gang and once they noticed him watching they packed up and drove away scowling at Alan the whole time.

While I'm glad they didn't manage to get any more pigeons the real thing that bothers me is the unknown answer of why he is catching them in the first place? Is it really to eat, as so many people keeping suggesting? Even the Beeb has Pigeon recipes on its menu - the idea of eating a mangy urban pigeon is disgusting.

I prefer the idea that he is training them as pets like this crazy lady. What do you all think - have a vote.

I've contacted the Park to let them know about it and they are going to keep their eyes out. A lot of people have posted saying that pigeons are vermin so catching/ killing them is allowed. The only piece of legal speak I can find on the subject however seems to say that hunting is strictly forbidden unless you have a license.

"P.5.2. The bird pest species which may be killed or taken under licence are: crow, jackdaw, magpie, rook, jay, house sparrow, starling, woodpigeon, feral pigeon, collared dove, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull and greater black-backed gull. The general licence permits these birds to be killed only for the purposes of preventing serious damage to agricultural concerns or for public health and safety. For any other purposes an individual licence must be obtained. "

So what now? I think I might stick up some wanted posters in the park with the guys picture to see if we can track him down, though this might scare him into moving hunting ground, so keep your eyes peeled everyone - he might move to a park near you.

Govanhill Baths Receives Planning

This month Govanhill Baths received planning permission for the refurbishment of the baths. This is great news for Govanhill and the Southside in General. The Govanhill community trust have a great powerpoint presentation of the project available to download from their site, showing both phase 1 and 2.

The Trust are now able to start applying for funding from the likes of the lottery. The trust are also due to open their new charity shop on Victoria road at the end of this month. The existing shop is great but it is on the small side.

For the most recent baths newspaper click here

Ketchup - Shawlands

So on Saturday I went for lunch with the MacDonald Bros and Nikitta Agnes. I had been helping out at the Festival Stars Auditions which were being held at Destiny and the MacDonald Bros and Nikitta were judging the heats.

We went to Ketchup , the newish posh burger bar on Pollokshaws Road. It's owned by the G1 group and it's everything you expect from one of their establishments.

It has quite a vast menu of different burgers, beef, Chicken, Lamb, vension and a few veggie burgers. They all have a different combinations of different toppings. I had the veggie goats cheese burger which was pretty good, large chunky chips and a side of coldslaw. It's not that cheap but you can go onto ketchups website and get a secret password, which gives you a two for one deal.

The boys Brian and Craig and also Nikitta all enjoyed their burgers. Our only complaint was that it was a bit messy. Would I go back probably yes...but next time, I won't have a queue of people asking my companions for autographs.

* Ketchup are taking part in the Southside Flavours event at this years Festival. It might be a good time to try a few different burgers...

Southside Festival Comedy

The first event of this years Southside Festival is taking place this Friday night at the Pollok Football social club. The Festival Comedy night features Gary Little - the infamous comedian who nicked books and then flogged them on Ebay, after a brief holiday in prison, Gary little is back on the comedy circuit. Along with Little is Bruce Morton, Barry MacDonald and Patrick Rolink.

Tickets are only £5 and are available from http://www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/ or you can call 0141 353 8000

Doors open at 9pm [-1am]

Save our Schools

We hadn't mentioned this before mostly because we thought the schools would eventually win but as I just read on the BBC that was a bit naive.

Problems facing the City today - breaking down of community spirit, global warming, child obesity and high unemployment.

Solutions proposed by Glasgow City Council - close up schools, shut down swimming pools, sell off the libraries and leisure facilities and build a big massive road.

None of these proposals solve any of the above problems and in fact most of them either exasperate the issues or just delay their full impact for someone in the future to deal with - unless they think making four years old's walk two miles to school is the solution to obesity.

The suggested closure of the schools and nurseries seems just another in a long line of crazy decisions. Is it always the Council's policy to fix a problem in the quickest and most shortsighted way possible and ignore all the knock on effects their actions will have. (Maybe that's the problem with a system concerned with having enough votes come election night.)

I understand that many of the old school buildings are in need of an overhaul and that this will be a costly exercise but by closing them up and selling off the sites the Council is completely wasting valuable resources. The reason the Schools and nurseries are located where they are, is because they are centred within the heart of their communities. People live round them as they want to be close to where their kids go to school. That is also the reason they are so attractive to the big wig developers, these prime sites are worth a lot of cash but as more and more of our areas are stripped of schools, shops and other community resources what is left and will anyone actually want to live there?

OK so the sale of the sites might bring in a ton of cash but even if every penny of this is spent on improving the remaining schools are we not limiting ourselves for the future. As a business model selling off assets to improve other properties is flawed - what do we do once we've sold everything? and what happens if we decide we need to buy back the things we have sold?

Part of the reason that we are losing our community spirit is because more and more we have to travel out with our local area to work, shop and play. We increasingly complete this travel by car and therefore never meet and befriend anyone in the neighbourhood. As everything becomes centralised in larger facilities do we start to feel like we lose any personal connection or ownership to what is going on?

This is exactly what is going to happen to all these closed schools - you will have children who used to be able to go round the corner to school now having to either walk a couple of miles or get a bus or car in the morning. No more parents meeting, chatting discussing local issues at the school gate, no more community events being held within the school, in one swoop that will all be gone.

The citizens of Glasgow are lucky to own these schools and should be demanding that our money is pumped into these locations to help improve and increase their impact on the local communities and not ripping them out.

For more info or to get involved then visit the below sites:

Video report on Daily Record
Save our Schools Glasgow
Save our Nurseries
BBC list of closures
Hear what the kids have to say on CBBC
Placemaking for communities

Ate the pigeon?

So still no news from the Police - you don't suppose they never followed it up? Surely a crack squad of commandos should be investigating this right now? I guess we'll never find out what he was up to but I shall keep an eye out just in case he returns. Below are a list of our favourites of your suggestions for what the pigonnappers motives were. What do you think?

Image by David Shrigley

New 2 U

Regular readers will have noticed that I like old shops, especially ones that are full of stuff. I'm not sure exactly why this is the case - maybe subconsciously I think there is more chance I'll find a gem of a bargain hidden away somewhere.

You will also probably have noticed that most of my favourite places listed so far have been quite organic spaces, with wonky table legs and hand crafted signs. I think this is a reaction to the mass produced world we live in where everything ends up being super clean, super simple and super similar.

So continuing to seek out odd, old shops in the Southside I took a walk yesterday along Cathcart Road and entered the exciting world of "New 2U" a great little second hand furniture store.

A sign on the door says to pop in and have a look round but that's easier said than done. When I stuck my head in yesterday the owners were in the middle of moving some furniture around and this had resulted in reducing the shop floor space to a 2m square. I edge in and was met by the very cheerful and chatty Joe who asked me what I was looking for.

I looked around the space which is rammed with everything from tables and chairs, to giant pink marble wardrobes to fridges, freezers, books, odd ceramic dolls, VHS players and an ancient looking computer. I admitted I was really just there for a look round and Joe told me to help myself while he and Frank and Andy set about building some shelves.

The shop consists of four rooms, the main space as you enter the shop, a smaller space to the right, which I couldn't get into full of freezers, a space to the left, which I couldn't get into because of the shelve building, full of TV and chairs and a space to the rear full of old furniture, rugs and ornaments. After a good while marvelling at all the odd and ends and wondering how on earth they A) remember where everything is and B) ever actually get at any of it, I decided to have a chat to Joe.

The shop has been in existence for about 19 years, starting off at one end of Allison street before moving to the other and then finally, three years ago, moving to their present location. In that time the whole industry has changed with lots of their rival stores going out of business. At one point there were four or five secondhand furniture stores in the area but the rise of superstores and cheap furniture from the likes of Ikea has changed peoples perceptions. While in the past, its was taken for granted that furniture was handed down within the family, now everyone wants things brand new.

You only have to look at the streets of the Southside on a Wednesday morning to see that is true, with piles of old drawers, desks and wardrobes lying waiting for the bulk pick up.

Joe seemed in good sprits about it all and also suggested that there might now be a bit of a resurgance in the market, due to the quality that solid second hand furniture can provide. Despite it normally being slightly more expenseive than its Ikea equivilant, you probably won't have to go out and buy a new one every two years. "A pounds a pound at the moment for a lot of people" Joe points out and everyone is taking more care about where they spend it and making sure they get value for money. Maybe we will see a return to more crafted goods?

A lot of the shops stock comes from buying the individual items that people bring into the shop but "New 2 U" also provide a removal and house clearance service, they are called Allison removals and can be contacted on 0141 423 9827.

Despite having a good rummage I didn't really find anything that was my style but I guess that's just the luck of when you are in. As Joe pointed out the store is nearly completely changed every 6 weeks. They must be knackered moving all that furniture day in day out but I guess after 19 years they 've probably learned a good few tricks.

The only thing I spotted that I really fancied was this nicely illustrated Disney book to accompany the It's a Small World theme ride. The story inside was from the old school of children's books telling the tale of a young orphan that no one really liked too much and who was sad because he didn't even know his own name. The story had a happy ending of course when after travelling through the small world ride and seeing all the other nations, Bobby (as he became known) decided it didn't matter that he was an orphan because it really was a small (and rather stereotypical - we were playing bagpipes) world after all.

Whats in a name?

The area around Bridge Street underground has gone through a lot of changes. At one point it was the centre of all Glasgow trade with Central station sited there prior to its moving across the river (more on that another day). After WWII and the motorway plans were drawn up, the final link of the system was to head down highstreet across the river, passing through the gorbals straight over Bridge Street and ending at the Kingston Bridge. Though this was never completed the whole area was left in Limbo while the threat of the new road hung over it.

The road never came but ,partly as a result of the limbo status, while a lot of the area was knocked down the two large public buildings were left alone. The Colisseum Theatre which became a cinema and then a bingo before ending up empty and the Eglinton Street United Secession Church which became the Bedford then the New Bedford cinema, then "Glasgow's most successful bingo club" before in 2003 becoming the Carling Academy. This is how most people these days will know it, but that too has just changes and now as the result of a new deal it has become the O2 Academy.

Not sure that this is really news or not but I always find the stories that buidlings go through very interseting and I lioe to wonder what the original Church goers would make of the fact that someone with the name Ghostface Killah is performing where their alter used to sit?

I've never actually been to the Carl . . . O2 Academy but my friends who go to gigs a lot say that its not that great a venue and that the sound isn't too hot?

Anyone else had problems there? Where is the best Southside place for gigs?

O2 name change

Images of the Bedford and Coliseum

History of Bedford Cinema

Art in the Park

It seems that the plans for the Southside Festival are moving along at a fair old pace and word has reached us of a new element for this years event. Art in the Park is a two day "selected" art exhibition held, as part of the festival, at the victorian Glasshouse in Queens Park.

To be in with a chance of being included in this exciting event then all budding artists have to do is download an application form and send all the relevant information to the Southside Festival. Selected artist will then be contacted and will be responsible for delivery and removal of their from the show. I understand that it is open to most mediums but check the form for details.

I think this sounds a lot of fun, it might even be my favourite bit of the Festival so far.

Application Form

En-Listed

As we mentioned before we were asked to write the introduction for a section on local shopping in the southside for the List. Sadly they chose not to go for our fake cover and used quite a scary looking lady instead. The guide itself is pretty good, though it turns out our introduction is actually the whole thing. Wish we had, had more space or been allowed to mention cafes/ delis etc - we could have filled a few pages listing great Southside places.

The guide covers all areas of Glasgow and there is even more to be found online at the List's website, just goes to show what good independant shops we have in Glasgow if you know where to look. (See below for a read of the article)

Southside Festival: Village Hall to Queens Park

The Southside Festival have just announced that 'Fiddles and Beer' will be kicking off the Festival weekend. Fiddles and Beers slogan is 'bringing the village hall to the city' and headline act the Bramax's, are the smaller version of the well known band 'the Peatbog Faeries'. The event will be held in the Glasshouse's in Queens Park on the 22nd of May. More details can be found on fiddle and beers website

Once more a Fiddles and Beer is bringing the Highland Village Hall to the city. Following the great success of the first two Fiddles and Beer nights last year.
Headline act is: BRAMAX from the Isle of Skye who are basically the PEATBOG FAERIES watered down . support acts to be announced.
With high octane celtic, acoustic and rocking beats it will be another night to remember - a great chance to enjoy the best of Scottish music washed down with beer from the likes of the Orkney and Skye Brewery, the Kelburne Brewery and many others. A unique event, in a great setting.

Fiddles and Beer - 9pm till Late - Glasshouses -Queens Park

Everything must go

This sounds like a lot of fun - Nadia of Now Now Projects has been in touch to invite everyone to an exhibition at a flat on Victoria Road. The exhibitons theme will be cheap and cheerful art brought by you the guests. Works will be on sale from 9pm and anything not sold by 4am will be destroyed so be prepared to lose the things you brought or at the very least buy them back yourself. Have a look at their site for the full scoop on the night or email nownow@email.com for more details.

I'm going to go draw a face on an egg and take it along.

Final Reductions: Sat 25 April - 5pm onwards - 456 Victoria Road

World Famous Pies

In the second of today's posts about things on other peoples blogs - I thought I should mention a post on the very enjoyable blog Getting Worse about something I had noticed myself but forgotten about. I really enjoy the Getting Worse blog as it combines one of my own favourite past times, moaning about things, with some really valid points and catches all kinds of stupid behaviour in a humourous way. Well worth a read.

"DOES THE TRADES DESCRIPTION ACT COVER THIS LOCAL SHOP SIGN?
It says:
“HOWARD’S QUALITY BUTCHERS
WORLD FAMOUS STEAK PIES AND SAUSAGES”
Can Howard really get away with this? World famous sausages? Seriously?
If I travelled to France or Australia and asked a random person on the street if they had heard of Howard’s of Shawlands and his world famous pies, what do you think the answer would be?
Yep. Things are getting worse when bizarre claims are made on shop signs! Come on; we can do better than that, surely!"

I have had pies and sausages from Howard's and they were rather tasty but I'm pretty sure I'd have struggled to remember the name of the butcher and I wonder how many people in Glasgow let alone France or Australia know the famous meat products - though I could be wrong.

Weird love letter?

Hmmm, I'm really not sure about this one. Either it is a very, very strange tactic for trying to win someones heart or its a callous attempt to promote a pub.

If its true then why on earth does he think his girlfriend will take him back on the basis of peer group pressure from a bunch of folk she has never met?

If it is just a marketing ploy - then it should be commended for its originality but if it is fake then it works as an anti-promotion in my opinion, it kinda puts me off going. Being so shallow as to try and generate a vast mailing list based on appealing to peoples good will just seems a bit wrong.

Anyways have a read and let us know if you think its fake or just pretty weird.

Link to the Southside Social Managers Blog

If it is true, then good luck to you Paul.

Bowling Tennis and Pitch and Putt Open

For me the sign that summer has arrived, is when the bowling opens in Queens Park. While walking through the park yesterday, we took a quick wander down to see when the bowling was due to open.....to our delight the bowling was already open, in fact it was the first day of the summer season...this was possibly the reason why the greens were empty apart from a Magpie which was happily hopping about.

The greens, tennis and pitch and putt will be open from 10am till 6pm 7 days a week. For anyone that doesn't know the council greens and equipment hire is free.

So I am already planning on a trip to the park next weekend to perfect my bowling technique...looking forward to many summer afternoons of triumph...

* There's also free bowling in Bellahouston Park

Cancer Research goes Vintage

Yesterday, while wandering around Shawlands in the sun, we stopped into the Cancer Research shop on Pollokshaws Road, to buy a couple of birthday cards. It’s one of the best charity shops in the area, it always has a good selection of second hand books, dvd’s and board games…and it has recently devoted a large section of the shop to their vintage and retro collection. The last time I was in the store, they had a few rails of vintage, but now they have a fun and quirky decorated area, to the rear of the shop dedicated to vintage and retro, selling female and male clothing, shoes, bags, jewellery and some retro items such as a telephone, vintage lamps and even some old classic films.

Jewellery and bags are displayed on antique furniture, some funky retro lights create a nicer light and atmosphere. They also have a large selection of vintage shoes…including a great pair of red ones, which unfortunately were not in my size, and a large selection of hats, scarves and bags.

I particularly like their handmade signage on the walls, made from pieces of vintage fabric.
The store sources their items from other Cancer Research Stores in Glasgow. Before Jackie and her collegue came up with the idea, vintage items were just mixed in with the rest of the stock, frequently these would end up being 'ragged'. Turning the store into a specialised vintage shop has increased the revenue dramatically. It means that customers looking for vintage now have a one stop shop, instead of looking through lots of charity shops for that perfect 50's dress, they just head for Pollokshaws Road.

Jackie told us the venture has been a great success, they have had customers travelling across the city and even from Edinburgh to browse the rails. 'They’ve heard about the store through word of mouth or from the 5.30 show which featured the store last month'

It’s a great venture, allowing you to find that perfect unusual dress or jacket and also giving to an important charity at the same time. If that vintage dress is just a little too big or too long you can always nip across the road to raw vintage and get them to alter it.

The Cancer Research shop is open Monday - Saturday
You can call the store on 0141 632 4961

Pakistani Cafe

The other night I arranged to meet a couple of friends for some tea. Normally I'd have planned to meet at Tchai Ovna but now that it is no more I had to come up with somewhere else. I decided to give the Pakistani Cafe a try as it seems to embody a similar attitude to Tchai Ovna . From the outside I'd always thought the cafe appeared to have a pretty relaxed and unusual atmosphere and looked like the kind of place you could happily spend a few hours with friends chatting away. A sign on the door made me smile and I knew I would enjoy the place - it very politely advises that they are sorry but that they don't serve Nazis.

We wandered in to find the small spaced packed with people - it only has a dozen tables. The owner made clear that this was not a problem and indicated us to a table near the rear covered in CD's. The owner welcomed us in and simply swiped all the CD's to one end the table and let us sit down.

The inside of the place is extremely bright and slightly wonky but wonderfully welcoming and I really enjoyed all the colours and the fact everything has a great hand crafted quality. It may be small but the cafe has a lot of character - our table for instance had one short leg and the bathroom had a sign apologising for the smell from the neighbouring close. There are also piles of books to read, and short poems written on cards on the walls and when we first sat down I noticed a sign that said Salman Rushdie had been in to sign copies of his new book??

We had planned on just meeting for a cup of tea but a scan of the tasty menu put some doubt in our minds and we decided to give one of the fresh fruit milkshakes a go. I went for a tall glass of banana and mango and I can honestly say it is one of the tastiest things I've had in a long time, it tasted fresh, healthy and was very, very refreshing. We had just finished these drinks when the smell of the kitchen started to really grip our attention. Spurned on by the delicious drinks we decided to splash out and share some food between us but couldn't come to an agreement over what to try - so ended up getting a dish each. We tried the Chicken Korma, the Hallem with chapatis and some mango's with ice-cream. All were very good value and very tasty. It was all pretty cheap too - for instance a lamb cheese burger is just £1.60. I really fancy trying the Punjabi breakfast next time or popping in for a "Curry out".

The owner Jimshaed Sharif was as full of character as his cafe - when we asked him about Salman Rushdies book signing he just smiled and said that one day Salman might come but he hadn't made it that day which was rather mysterious. I also suspect quite a few of the poems on the walls may well be his own work. Several of these poems deal with the empowerment of Muslim women and an interesting idea that the cafe is planning on trying is a woman only Thursday to allow women who normally spend all their public life covered up, a place to go and meet their friends with more freedom. It seems to be a place designed to encourage discussion and debate over some tasty food.

To demonstrate the relaxed nature of the cafe when I asked Jimshaed about the opening hours he said 11am til 8pm but if people want to stay longer then he just stays open until they go (It was well after 9pm by this point) sometimes he ends up there til after 11pm.
It is definitely an odd place - but if you are in the mood for tasty food, in a relaxed, friendly and enjoyable atmosphere then it is very recommended.

Caught the Pigeon

Oh no - you will never believe me - but he came back.

In what is fast becoming the most popular story to ever feature on Southside Happenings (how sad is that?) the pigeon man returned.

Again I was just quietly getting on with some work when I glanced out the window and there he was, dressed far more appropriately and this time with a newly design trap. It was like watching a live action version of Wile E Coyote trying to catch the road runner.

The modified trap consisted of the tried and tested stick, an old shopping basket instead of a plastic box and . . . . a piece of string. I suddenly feel guilty - maybe he reads Southside Happenings and we tipped him off or else he was up all last night redesigning it.

Humorously the bit of string wasn't very long meaning the hunter had to kneel down right beside the basket - with the result that none of the pigeons should any interest in the mountain of bread that he had laid as bait.

Our humour was short lived - as showing far more patience than yesterday the hunter stayed still long enough to entice the pigeons to enter his lair. He waited, and waited and waited then . . . pounce he made his move - two pigeons in the basket.

Suddenly the humour of the situation vanished and the gravitas of the unknown fate of the pigeons raised its head. As the hunter scrabbled underneath basket one of the pigeons made a break for it - sadly the other wasn't so lucky and was soon in what appeared to be quite expert hands.

Within seconds he had the pigeon huddled against him, his trap packed up and he was heading for the car - not even shouts from the nearby bus stop did anything to stop him.

We were perplexed - "eh maybe we should have called the police instead of just sitting back and filming him."

After some debate we did call the police which started with me having to say "Hi yes, eh bit of a strange one, I'd like to report the kidnapping of a pigeon."

We have handed over his registration plate and we await the police report into what happens - watch this space.

If I have to go to a police interview about a pigeon-napping I will not be pleased.

Stop the Pigeon

OK this is one of the oddest posts I've had the pleasure of writing.

Yesterday I was just sitting quietly getting on with work when I looked across and what should I see in the park but a man trying to catch a pigeon in a homemade trap. Armed with a plastic box, a stick and a box of bread crumbs he spent 45 long minutes unsuccessfully trying to entice them to enter his trap.

His technique was seriously flawed though, as he had forgotten a key component of the trap - a bit of string tied to the stick. He got plenty of pigeons going into the box but none of them knocked the stick causing the box to fall. All that happened was the pigeons happily tucked into the free breadcrumbs under a little shelter while our hunter stood about at the edges looking increasingly glum while the rain poured down upon his head. (We managed to capture the whole thing on film and might upload it here someday - it is quite fascinating.)

Why he was trying to catch pigeons - we have no idea. Maybe the credit crunch is hitting people even harder than I thought? Eventually, he just gave up, despite the pigeons showing more interest than ever before and he stormed over grabbed up his box and walked off.

Not sure why this makes it seem even weirder but he walked over and put all the equipment in the boot of a car and then drove off. That meant he had specifically driven there to carry out this odd behaviour.

At one point he did leave the trap completely and go around other areas of the park picking up other peoples bread, I guess in an attempt to make his trap more alluring. He also went to the shop to buy some juice. I was very tempted to run over the road and put a plastic pigeon that I happen to own inside the box to film his reaction but we chickened out.

If anyone has any clues as to what was going on then please let us know.

If I had a hammer

About a month ago I set out to decorate my flat and while I admit I ordered my main wall paint from Tesco (boo - but it was £15.99 a tin cheaper than anywhere else) I did decide to buy all my other bits of equipment, brushes, white spirit, masking tape, dust sheets etc from the local shops.

I think that a decent local hardware store is a must have for an area. Its one of those shops that every area needs to make it feel complete - the other main ones being a butchers, a green grocers, a chemists and a news agents with a large old school sweetie selection.

Unfortunately with the increase in giant DIY stores around Glasgow a lot of the smaller independent stores have struggled as it is harder for them to match the cheap prices of the massive bulk buying superstores. With even Tesco now getting in on the DIY act, how do the smaller stores compete?
Well the main thing that the smaller stores have to their advantage is their staff. While in the big stores the staff are decently trained - they don't often have the same in depth knowledge and experience that the owners of these independent stores have. The staff in the larger stores also don't have the same time or inclination to have a good chat about what you are doing or advise about the best way to approach it.

The staff in the great wee DIY store Pearson Brothers on Minard Road support my claims. When I went into the store there were two customers ahead of me - both were older ladies who I suspect were partly in for some tools, partly in for some advice and partly in just for a bit of a chat.

Each customer was given a complete service, talked to about what they wanted to do and given help to choose the products that they needed - though one lady seemed to be only after a single nail - which sadly Pearson's is no longer able to provide, their nails now come in sealed mini packs.

Pearson's throughout most of its long life has been a decorators shop - specialising in paints, papers and pastes. Check out the photos above, they have dozens and dozens of different wallpapers. It feels a bit funny walking into the shop and seeing such a big choice in such a small area.

When I first moved back to the Southside a few years ago they were still predominately a decorators but slowly over the last few years they have started to widen their range as more customers came in looking for things and now the place is jammed to the gunnels with every DIY tool and apparatus that you can think of.

Within a minute of asking for the things I needed the extremely helpful shop assistant had buzzed all around the shop picking up different bits and bobs and I was able to get everything I needed. They really do sell tons, from yacht varnish to chalkboard paint, from drain cleaner to spirit levels.

I also had a nice chat about the history of the shop and about the old ironmongers that had been on the site before it.

Sadly due to my camera memory card going missing (pinched I think) it took me quite a few weeks to get round to writing up this post. Despite the delay, I've still only managed to finish two rooms - it always takes longer than you plan.


Support your local - shop south

Glasgow Now

Interesting wee site I found earlier which is trying to present constant snapshop of how Glasgow is being represented on the net. It grabs all images or articles posted onto Flickr and del.icio.us. The result is quite and odd and changing mix of things - some of which are even not actually about Glasgow at all. The above is the latest image posted to Flickr.

Link to The Glasgow Now

Southside Festival

Short film we put together capturing a bit of the fun from last year's Festival. Looking forward to this years festival, should be a lot of fun.

Hope they get the duck herding guy this year - he was great when he took part in the Queens Park funday a couple of years ago. So too was the falcon guy though his turkey vulture did peck a woman on the head.