A surprising development is taking place in a nearby park. You may remember the site of this development from previous pictures… because it was once a vacant lot full of soggy couches and stained mattresses, all things which were burned in a huge bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night … but now is the site of a playground. A positive step, right?
The playground has a gravel undersurface, covered by a waterproof barrier, a felt liner, and then …sand.
Hm.
Now, not being engineers or park designers, we may not have the right of it, but it seems a mistake to cover an entire playground in sand. It just rains here SO MUCH. We’re afraid the park builders have condemned the neighborhood park to damp, sandy sadness, rather than leaving it as it was: a happy, frolicksome place for the burning of mattresses, rubbish, and whatever else came to hand.
Not to mention the …cats.
We hope they rethink this, and that the park is not going to be the grand kitty-litter palace it looks like it’s turning out to be. (Point of interest: T. played in a sand-filled park like this when she was a child. Her favorite pasttime was sifting through the sand and picking out the cigarette butts. Great game, eh, and it would really work well in Glasgow! C’mon! Everybody play!)
Meanwhile, a little closer to home, there’s Lights! Camera! and indeed, Action! Yes, our wee street and crescent are in the middle of a film or TV show — we have no idea which. By nine a.m., the end of the road was filled with trailers and guys on cherry pickers with big HD cameras. T. did not recognize the camera as an HD, she was just peeved that a man seemed to be filming the house. So, she took a picture of HIM. Then she worried he’d taken a picture of her taking a picture of him…
The big lights went up with their diffusers, and apparently all kinds of drama went on. T… didn’t notice, as she was on her computer, and not hanging about windows all day. It took D. coming from work and saying, “Hey, look out the window!” for her to realize the film crew was still there.
We have gained a greater appreciation of the rigors of being filmed. For one thing, it rained all day, and was windy, which would have made things uncomfortable the guys on the camera lifts. D., who actually walked home from work past the site, reports that he saw scaffolding inside holding more cameras, and someone painting a wall — the fumes from the light and heat must have been intense. And those lights are painfully bright – we had to close the kitchen blinds because every time we turned that direction, our eyes were automatically drawn — and then we were blinded. They were apparently filming daylight in the flat, and we had to laugh — when it is EVER that bright in Glasgow? Maybe the show is set in Australia. Hrm.
They packed up around eight and stood around in the street for awhile afterward, but we still have no better idea of who they were or what the show might be. Suppose we could have asked. Maybe tomorrow, if they show up again.
Meanwhile, all’s quiet in the ‘hood. Except for the car alarms, the feral children shouting in the park, and the man in the slouch hat walking his ferret… Can you believe nobody’s filming?
-D & T
