View from the Boundary

It took some finding but I found it in the end in the relevant diary. I was in the Clutha Vaults, Glasgow on March 28, 2000. It looked forbidding from the outside and I wasn't sure if I was going to like it and so I said to my mate that I'd look round the door first to see what it was like and if I didn't fancy it, we were going somewhere else, notwithstanding his high recommendation.
It was fine and as the evening progressed it got finer. Ian had a wide knowledge of pubs in Glasgow and Edinburgh and so I should never have doubted him. Which only makes the tragedy that missed me by 13 and a half years all the worse. It was an excellent place and I've remembered it ever since, partly by having picked up this small momento there. The news thus came with added shock value to me which only goes to show what these news events are like for those who are genuinely close to them.
But it also shows what memory is like. Deeply unreliable. I met an acquaintance at Fratton Park yesterday at the Portsmouth Ladies-Tottenham match (great game, it was never offside, ref). His 40th birthday party was 8 and a half years ago, he said. And whereas it seemed that could have been no more than 5 or 6, I had estimated my visit to the Clutha Vaults at circa 1997, and had even ventured back to my diary of 1994 before being surprised to eventually find it in 2000.
Notes made in a diary at the time are so much more trustworthy than memories. That visit to Glasgow included a visit to Hampden Park to see World Champions France casually play Scotland off their own park 2-0 (Sylvain Wiltord and Thierry Henri) as well as art galleries like the Burrell Collection.
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I need to post something here on Monday nights to obscure the latest debacle of the Saturday Nap. It is not going well and is now 32.32 points down to a level 10 point stake. We have only had three winners and those were not at very worthwhile odds.
But, nil desperandum. We have 4 or 5 selections left to retrieve the situation and so could still end up in profit. It could be a nervy Boxing Day, though.
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But, with Christmas almost upon us, David Green (Books) will be launching an audacious assault on the Amazon Free Download charts with a new kindle release. And you can download a free kindle edition with a clear conscience because nobody has to walk around the Amazon warehouse to pick it off a shelf and neither will they make any profit out of it.
The technical department are preparing Walter the Worm, an old masterpiece of inanity from 1990 that only appeared in a very limited edition at the time. And here is Walter in one of the original drawings.
And so, in the hope of a Christmas hit, or even a number one, I'd be grateful of all your help and any other help you can muster to download a copy during the 5 days from around about December 22nd via the Amazon author page as above. Thanks.