Anyone else gone wandering in Glasgow and found themselves in the backstreets of Gotham city, USA instead? No? Well it happened to myself and Glyn today, I kid you not.
The alarm went off at 7.30am, and it being a Sunday means only one thing, Im on Wade holiday where I often get up earlier than I would for work so that we can cram in as much as possible until we both pass out exhausted at the end of the day. Glyn was perturbed at me setting an alarm thats not on the hour. I find this hilarious and asked that we set if for 7.12am, I got frowned at for that.
A walk that should have taken 40 minutes, didnt because we went off piste a few times, took us through areas with awesome architecture. It has since has run down with tatty shops at ground level of once grand buildings and the streets were strewn with litter and random doors propped up underneath a bridge. It was very quiet and we could cross the roads without having to pay much attention.
Continuing towards the cathedral, we both clocked lots of Christmas trees casually leaning against a shop and then snow. But it hasnt snowed, so how? Upon close inspection the snow was polystyrene and road salt, it looked very convincing and I couldnt help walking carefully as though it really was slippy. Looking around we spotted more incongruous objects such as American style bins, posters and hydrants. I had to get to the bottom of this.
A bored looking security guy was nearby and I squeezed him for intel. It was a movie set and we were to walk around and take pics, but no crossing any barriers. I asked the name of the film and was told Cherry Hill. I inquired are the starring actors local famous, British famous or worldwide famous. I was told American famous. I wasnt overly impressed, we had Glenn Close and Gemma to Stoke to film a zombie apocalypse film because Stoke didnt need much set dressing to look In fact they had to tidy it up and remove the scary
I wasnt satisfied with the Cherry Hill response so I asked two nearby cyclists. One guy had to repeat himself three time because I couldnt understand his accent (colour me embarrassed) but he suggested Batgirl. Tbh it was obvious when Glyn spotted a store called ‘Gotham Roll Records and then a street sign with Gotham and Cherry Hill (I see what happened there!). Glyn checked out IMDB and sure enough, Batgirl is listed as currently in production starting Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser.
Heading towards the cathedral we passed a cat cafe with some lovely fur babies washing in the windows. Despite putting on my most pleading and pathetic face, Glyn wouldnt let me go in. He claims he thought it was shut. Hmmm.
The cathedral was big with two men in mourning suits at the door, so I thought there must be a funeral about to start, but turns out it was a standard service. Seriously, why put yourself through wearing that clobber for a standard day?
small family but have more security than most homes. The Necropolis is a Victorian graveyard on a small hill. The richer the corpse, the higher up the hill they are buried with statues, pillars, gazebos and other extravagant memorials to people long since forgotten. Simply put, a rich dead mens dick under a thin veneer of religion and respectability. The highlight for Glyn was finding the grave of the author of Wee Willie Winkie. Bless, he was pretty low on the hill.
We had to check out at midday so started that walk back, via the film set again so I could take a casual stroll with my 360 camera. I dont feel self conscious with the camera on a long stick just so long as I can avoid all eye contact. Glyn spotted that I was on the receiving end of a hard stare from a security woman but I was oblivious.
After collecting our luggage we filled our Fiat 500 to the brim. The bonus of not flying is that I can bring loads of camera gear: multiple lenses, tripod, monopod, drone, triggers, flashes and the various things I collect that always mean to
use.
