By My Side

Having previously read Alice Peterson's Another Alice, in which she covers her own life experience of living with Rheumatoid Arthritis, I wasn't sure what to expect when I purchased By My Side but I was not too be disappointed.  This time Alice's main character, Cass, has a spinal cord injury and uses a wheelchair.  As previous, Alice covers the subject with sensitivity and humour.  There's the usual 'good v bad' and 'boy meets girl' in the story but what makes Alice different is her ability to address difficult issues but still leave the reader feeling uplifted. 

Alice Peterson

By My Side is an extremely well researched and written book and a thoroughly enjoyable read too. I would strongly recommend it.

I'm Back Running in Glasgow's East End - Tollcross parkrun #001 report

Following my illness, I've been quietly and slowly working away to increase my fitness and strength. Starting with walking and then progressing to jogging I've been increasing the my distance by around 10% every week. I'm now running more than 5k but less than 10k, although I'm far from race fit and was working towards doing the Eglinton parkrun in a few weeks time, having previously worked at Eglinton farm. However I couldn't pass the opportunity to participate in the inaugural Tollcross parkrun on Saturday May 4^th.

Nice to see you're back.....

Whilst this was Tollcross's first parkrun, it was my 118^th and there were a few friends and running buddies wishing me well as I took part in my first race since New Year's Day. I lined up with some 92 other runners in the east end of Glasgow morning sunshine and, at 9:30am, we were set off on our way around the undulating course. Although I've been working on my distance, it will take some time to build up my muscles, strength and stamina. I haven't done any hill work and I knew that the two and a half lap course would be challenging.

We're off!

We ran, slightly uphill, towards Shettleston Road and then veered left and the gradient increased, 200 metres parallel with Shettleston Road and a left turn took us over a brae and down, back towards the middle of the park. With Garmin informing me that I had ran my first kilometre and Chris McKiddie shouting support from his marshal position, We turned right and ran towards Muiryfauld Drive. A left hand turn, took us southwards, another left and we were running with Tollcross Road on our right hand side, over a steep hill and then back to the beginning. Any thoughts of dropping out, were banished by the sound of the Johnston Brass Band blasting out The Olympic Fanfare. Ally Robb provided additional support as I reached the 2k point, as did Chris at 3k. Another lap would take me to the cut off lane and the final 100m over grass before reaching the Finish in a time of 25:18. Whilst hardly record breaking, I was happy enough with my performance, as I had set myself a target of 26mins. I placed 35^th out of 93 finishers. 

Focussed

Up front, Ronhill Cambuslang had stamped their mark on the event, winning the men's and women's races and claiming 5 of the first 9 places. The Lanarkshire club's David Thom, who completed Strathclyde last week in a time of 17:22, won the first Tollcross parkrun in a time of 18:00. Central AC's father and son team of Alex and Ross Milne, earned second and third consecutively. Dad finishing in 18:07, twenty seconds in front of Ross. In the Women's event Ayrshire lass, Kirsty Grant, won Gold for Cambuslang with a time of 24:30, placing 30^th overall. Sixty-six year old Liz Corbett earned runner-up spot with a time of 25:32, 36^th overall, with Airdrie's Emma Mann placing third, 39^th overall, with a time of 25:48.

Providing favourable weather, live music and home made cake, the organisers can take a well earned bow for staging such a successful race. I'm sure it will go from strength to strength, I know that I'll be back.

Full results

Photos on Flickr

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Strathbungo

I've created a new Blog about the area which I've been living in for the last few years. Please feel free to have a look at it http://strathbungo.blogspot.co.uk/

Siblings Shine in the Strathclyde Sun

 Making a Splash at Strathclyde

With the Scottish Rowing Regatta attracting its largest entry in recent years, Strathclyde Park was a busy place on Saturday morning and it wasn't just the rowing that was busy as the morning sunshine helped to entice an impressive 177 runners to the 157^th Strathclyde parkrun. It wasn't just quantity though but quality too with two of the countries most promising young athletes participating in the weekly, free 5k event. Calum Hawkins, whose brother Derek was the first UK

Callum Hawkins

athlete in the London Marathon, placed first in a time of 15:32. This was the 20 year old, Kilbarchan runners fourth outing at the Motherwell event and his first race of the year, after knee surgery. Callum is hoping to stay clear of injury and to reduce his 10k PB from 31.00 mins to under the 29.00min required to qualify for the Glasgow
Commonwealth Games.

Sarah Inglis

In the women's race, Sarah Inglis sprinted home in a time of 17:45 to take Gold. The Lothian triplet, who holds the women's course records at both the Falkirk and Edinburgh parkruns, time was the fourth fastest run on the course by a female. The Falkirk 21year old, who last year qualified as a PE teacher, will be heading to Canada in July to join the Trinity Western University Spartans for the 2013-14 campaign. Sarah said “I am excited about the opportunity to live, study and train in British Columbia and at TWU. I am looking forward to developing as an athlete through the coaching and athletic environment which TWU offers.”

William Reid 160 not out

Sarah was one of 25 first timers, whilst at the other end of the scale, Kirkintilloch Olympian William Reid clocked up his 160^th parkrun! 

In the men's race Callum was followed home by Inverclydes Kenny O'Neil (16:34) and David Bellfield of Pitreavie (17:18), with Central AC's Cartiona Buchanan earning Silver in the women's race with a time of 18:58 and unattached Annie Marie McGregor's time of 21:34 being good enough to earn her third place and a new PB.

The prize for the best age graded performance goes to David Thom, the Ron Hill Cambuslang Harrier celebrated his recent 53^rd birthday by placing 4^th overall in a time of 17:22 a WAVA of some 87.04%.

 For my own part, I was just glad to be back with the Scottish Running Community, although I wasn't running, it was still good to meet up with some old friends and to make some new ones too

Here are a few photos that I took on the day. All of them are here and the Full Results are here.

Ian Devoy

David Fairweather

Amina Abdel-Khaliq contemplates her first parkrun 

Ally Robb

Micky Flanagan- the demise of fingering

Run of the Mill......Mulberry Street, Pollokshaws Road, Strathbungo

I may have been expecting too much but I was disappointed with the menu at Mulberry Street but it is pretty unimaginative and is more representative of Mulberry Street as a pub than a restaurant. That said, there's nothing wrong with decent pub food and the place was buzzing on Saturday night. The majority of the tables and booths lend themselves more to parties of diners than couples and most other diners were in large groups, most of which seemed to be enjoying themselves but the noise from the other tables combined with the loud music, which presumably is meant mostly for the half of the establishment which is a pub, rather than the half which is meant to be a restaurant. The poor waitress found it difficult to take our orders over the din.

We were further disappointed, when the waitress failed to mention that there were specials as well as the set menu. My partner opted for the crispy tempura with a sweet chilli soy (£5.70), whilst I selected the monkfish and mussels bouillabaisse served with crusty bread (£5.50). Whilst both were tasty, the temupra was actually served with sweet chilli and soy and the bouillabaisse, to be frank was really a fish stew. In Provence, they say that the more different fish that are included, the better the bouillabaisse. In Mulberry Street, I struggled to find any monkfish to accompany my mussels and the two small slices of soft white bread, where neither crusty nor sufficient for the amount of broth which the mussels were served in. The inclusion of an unopened mussel in the dish, didn't indicate that the chef was showing much care and attention to what was leaving the kitchen.

For our mains, I chose the beer battered fish & chips, served with mushy peas & tartar sauce and my partner decided on the special of chorizo sausages in a caramalised onion sauce over a sweet potato mash (both £8.95). Whilst initial impressions were not great, with the 'special' portion being a bit smaller than we had anticipated and the beer battered fish having been unceremoniously dumped on top of the hand made chips. However both were well cooked and pretty decent. There then followed an unacceptable delay in table service, before the manager, Stuart, arrived with the menus, the two waitresses having disappeared behind the bar. When we did manage to get our dessert and coffees, they were not worth the wait. First of all the coffees were cold, having been served in unwarmed cups hadn't helped, whilst the homemade apple and rhubarb crumble served with ice cream was little short of a travesty.

Cold Comfort -Double Expresso

The crumble had been replaced with shortbread and the rhubarb was completely absent, the ice cream portion could have been best described as a garnish. Despite my partner pointing out its shortcomings, the 'crumble' was returned to the kitchen along with the cold coffee and replaced with hot coffee, served in a warmed cup, however thubarb?here were no apologies or mention of the 'crumble' forthcoming from the staff, one of whom was tiring rapidly, after starting her shift at noon!

Rhubarb.....?

We were not the only discerning customers as another table returned their main courses, complaining that they were under cooked.

Verdict: On the main, this could be a good place to go for decent pub food but it is let down by an apparent lack of care and attention in both the kitchen and the front of shop.

On the Street where I lived......

It was a while ago now and, to be honest, I have little recollection of my five years in Ayr. I was born in the house in Sloan Street, Whitletts, Ayr and until recently I've had no idea who the street was named after.  

Sloan Street, Ayr

However it would appear that the street commemorates Alexander Sloan MP, a coal miner and trade unionist, who represented the constituency of South Ayrshire from 1939 until his death in 1945.  Sloan was from Rankinston, a miners' village 12 miles south east of Ayr. A conscientious objector in World War One, Sloan was to become one of the most radical of Labour MPs, often supporting the communist MP, William Gallagher, and taking a particular interest in India.  Sloan was a strong socialist and anti-fascist and referred to the distribution of income in Britain as being worse than in France at the time of the French Revolution.

Sloan wasn't the first Ayrshire Miner to represent the constituency, as he had been elected following the death of James Brown MP, who had worked in the pits from the age of 12 until he was 43.   Brown had been the South Ayrshire MP in 1918–1931 and from 1935 until his death in 1939.  

Both Sloan and Brown had served as the Secretary of the National Union of Scottish Mineworkers at the same time as representing their constituency.  James Brown Avenue, in Ayr, takes its name from Brown, who had been born in Whitletts in 1862.

Sloan himself was succeeded by Emrys Hughes (10 July 1894 – 18 October 1969) a Welsh Labour politician, best known for being the biographer and son-in-law of Keir Hardie, the  first Independent Labour Member of Parliament.

Keir Hardie

 A teacher by profession. in the First World War Hughes was imprisoned as a conscientious objector.  In 1924, he married Nan Hardie, the daughter of Keir Hardie.  On 7 February 1946 Hughes was elected as the constituency's MP and re-elected in the general elections of 1950, 1951, 1955, 1959, 1964, and 1966. A left-winger, he was frequently at odds with the leadership of the Labour Party and twice had the whip withdrawn, between November 1954 and April 1955 (over German rearmament), and between March 1961 and May 1963 (over nuclear weapons).  Following his death in 1969 he was succeeded by Jim Sillars in 1970 and finally by George Foulkes in 1979, the seat having been abolshed during reorganisation in 1983.

Katy Sloan Clark

Alexander Sloans'  great great grand daughter Kathryn Sloan Clark not only continues to preserve the family name but also the Sloan interest in trade unionism and politics.   Born in Kilwinning and brought up in Ayrshire, Katy has been the MP for North Ayrshire and Arran since 2005 and has campaigned on a wide range of issues since entering Parliament, particularly on issues relating to employment rights, closing the pay gap between men and women and against the privatisation of the public sector. Her political interests include disarmament, women’s rights, environmental and poverty issues.  



I think her great great grand father would have been proud of her, I'm proud to have his name on my Birth Certificate and I'm sure Katy is too.