Cheerio tae Glasgow

Parting is such sweet sorrow, they say, and it is. My wife and I have loved Glasgow - loved the people of this huge city, loved the squares and crowded streets, the vacant looking banks of the Clyde, the tall ship and Kelvin and Burrell and everything they bequeathed to the city, the history of heavy engineering, shipbuilding, forging and founding,

We loved the musicians on Glasgow Green last week, blowing, and squeezing their way through rousing tunes with strange sounding titles - bands from Pakistan, the Sultanate of Oman, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA, from Ireland and England - we enjoyed all of them.

I personally loved seeing, for the very first time, the place where my grandmother, Ruby Leslie, was born and brought up before heading south to a life looking after her six children.

And I felt something too - perhaps an affinity with Glasgow because of my family connections - the Clan Leslie, its motto; 'Grip fast!'

We even enjoyed the changing Scottish skies - after the never changing skies of the Emirates, the grey skies looked nothing like as ominous as I used to remember them.

Last but not least, we enjoyed the company of Anna and Craig in Ingleby Drive in the district of Dennistoun - our home for five weeks or so this summer.