All in All

Hoots Mon!

Just back from a long weekend visiting the wonderful (but stressed) Ian Mac in Glasgow, which I will discuss in a later blog, but one thing that was a real eye-opener was seeing just what Saturday night in a big city can be like.

There's been a lot in the press recently on the binge drinking culture, and to our shame we have been occasioanlly watched programmes like "Booze Britain" with an air of smug middle classness, but I really wasn't prepared to see quite what it can be like. I will stress that in no way do I think what I saw on Saturday night was just a Glasgow thing, I feel this is the same thing going on in all major cities.

Before 9pm we saw a number of young people, male and female, already looking worse or wear, in varying states of undress despite the cold. By 11.30pm, as we were walking back to the flat, we spotted a girl vomiting everywhere, being looked after by her friends, every alleyway and shop doorway had at least one lad in it having a pee (one tried to get his bits out in the middle of the road to go there and then but thankfully thought better of it at the last minute). Thankfully we didn't see any trouble but you can't help wondering that it couldn't be that far off.

It really was quite shocking how bad things actually are. Pity the poor taxi drivers and bus drivers who have to deal with that.

This weekend we are going back to Beckley, where it will be far more civilised, with a glass of wine in front of the fire with any luck.

# posted by hitch @ 12:20 PM