IndyGal

I feel very fortunate to have been invited to a party at Stirling Castle tonight. Firstly because inside and out, it's a stunning building and secondly because the party was to celebrate Glasgow winning the Commonwealth Games bid for 2014. It was thrown by the First Minister Alex Salmond and he was joined on stage by Louise Martin and Stephen Purcell, the Leader of Glasgow City Council.

Everyone who worked on the bid was there and it was great to be able to congratulate them on their tremendous success. The finale outside in the courtyard was provided by the Royal Burgh of Stirling Pipe Band. Now I'm not normally into pipe bands but they were amazing - I'm sure the kilts and the setting had something to do with it mind you! They also had a really clever way of getting rid of us. They told us the place was haunted but the ghouls only came out once the pipe band stopped playing so if we'd any sense we'd follow them out. We did!

Last week I told you about my friend who was robbed of everything by some con artists. She is living in South Wales just now and was understandably upset. It made her feel that she wanted to come home on the basis that "Glaswegians are much more straightforward". According to my friend "a Weegie would just be upfront about it and say 'give me your money'"! I disagreed because there are many shades within one city but decided maybe she was right when she told me what she did the next morning. She knew the same group of people would be at the bus stop so, as if to prove her point about Glaswegians being upfront, she decided to pay them a visit. Remember, she's teeny but she marched up to them absolutely furious and yelled "which one of you *******s took my bank card?"!! Bet they got a shock. She's not the kind of person you'd expect to do that especially when it's 4 against 1. She proceeded to read them the riot act and question what kind of people would do that to a student nurse miles away from home. Then she marched home. Maybe it's true, maybe we are a bit more upfront in Glasgow.

Yes, I've been checking out the freebie section of Glasgow Gumtree again - not needing anything in particular, I just like to see what folk give away. I loved this posting.

Free PC, free Atlas and free set of Encyclopedias

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Location: Glasgow

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I would like to give away my PC which comes ready for internet use, my full Encyclopedia Britannica set and an Atlas set which contains all information about the known universe as I no longer need any of them - it turns out my girlfriend knows everything already and I'll just consult her from now on.

http://glasgow.gumtree.com/glasgow/69/12226769.html

For those of you inconvenienced by that clever idea to close Glasgow Central Station over Easter, I want you to know that I opened it today. That was after I bought a hotel on George Square, a couple of houses in the Botanic Gardens and refurbished Hampden Park. I was of course playing Glasgow Monopoly. I'd promised my ten year old nephew Daniel and I was very glad I did because it was great fun. It's a bit different to the London one though. I was surprised to find myself not making hard nosed business decisions but instead, buying places because I liked them. I bought George Square to make sure the SNP had a big group after the council elections in May. I bought Duke Street because I'm the SNP candidate there. I had no need for Kelvingrove Art Gallery but bought it because I love it there! And of course, I bought Central Station in order to reverse the decision to close it over Easter.

So you'd think that I'd have not much chance of winning wouldn't you? But what do you know? I thrashed Daniel :-) And you'd think now that I'm all grown up, I'd handle that in a mature manner wouldn't you? But hey Daniel - I beat you, I beat you, I beat you :-)