Bean Busy

I have been busy over the last couple of weeks and have neglected my need to outpour the thoughts that cascade into a pool of creativity. (I've bean at the coffee again hence the pour pun, There goes another one.)

Busy reflecting on things while having a weekend off in East Nuek. What a smashing part of our country that is, I had not bean there since I was a boy scout. (no more beans, ed.)

Very relaxing, easy going, part of the world, but you just can't shake away the thoughts as you pass through the villages and even the larger towns, that there is something missing. Everyone is nice and everything, but just below there is a kind of feeling that we are looking in on a slice of their life that they don't really want to share with us.

The wee fishing ports and farming communities are probably not as industrious as they used to be and I suppose they are very guarded about their privacy, as they have every right to be.

We have a beautiful town to rival anything anywhere and I would welcome anyone that would come to visit my town. Maybe I'm just jealous of these wee towns with the tourists and wish that I could divert some to Paisley.

Its hard being me!

awa ya foo!

Fathers Day

My wee dad, as I have metioned earlier has Dementia. He knows he has it and I suppose while he knows he has it, he still has it, if you know what I mean.

He is a regular funny guy that can find humour in any situation. He has recently been taken to using a walking stick. He says that he does not really need it but the general view, he says, of an 83 year old is that they should have a stick and shuffle a bit.

He is not all that stable on his pins these days and all without the benefit of a bevvy, he says wistfully.

When we are together we play memory games, like see that woman over there she used to be the owner of the....... and whats her name again? So we sit in the doctors surgery going through the alphabet trying to remember her name and what she did. We start off with her daughter whose name also escapes us, but was a skinny wee thing wie long hair, that used to do a bit of cooking. What happened to her, we haven't seen her in a while? But by a process of elimination and deduction we finally get the answer, Well, he does, well before me anyway.

So it's not losing your memory, it's a poor thought retreval system. It's not geting old it's a gentle, general decline in health.

Happy Fathers day DAD!

Paw tae you!

Beautiful Paisley

See me, I'm a Paisley man, born in Paisley, brought up in Paisley and earn my living (such as it is) and live in this great town. It is one of the most beautiful towns with a wide array of buildings of merit in Scotland

I get about a bit and in my travels I get to see other towns and cities around, not only Scotland but abroad also (England too). Most towns and cities have their problems to a greater or lesser degree, but it is how they cope with them that indicates how a community is really doing.

A community can only react and act on how they are treated by those in power. If the peoples wishes are ignored or are not taken into consideration during a planning process for example, how can you expect the community to treat what has been created in their name with respect and pride and a sense of ownership.

For instance does anyone know what 'Public Realm Strategy' is? If you are not a town planner or a member of Gillespies media team I'm sure you don't.

Please indulge me and read this:

"With a great street pattern and a number of notable historic buildings, Paisley has inherited an excellent base on which to develop public realm improvements designed to achieve a better living environment and enhanced economic prosperity.

Just six miles from Glasgow, Paisley faced strong competition from its neighbouring city and other places and so had to develop a strong offering. The first step to achieving this, and Gillespies initial involvement, was the preparation of a public realm strategy and traffic management plan in conjunction with Renfrew District Council and Strathclyde Regional Council.

The strategy lays out a vision for improving the spaces around key buildings and the main shopping street, the High Street. Proposals for new road construction were developed to enable the removal of traffic from the High Street and its reduction in other important streets and places. As a consequence, a programme of new streetscape projects was established and this has been systematically implemented over seven years at a total cost of seven million pounds".

What a load o Kiech: "better living environment and enhanced economic prosperity"
This is an extract from the publicity bumf that was put out after the refurbishment of our town centre, not one dickie bird about asking the folk what they thought about it, before, during or after the goddamn thing was done.

Look! I love the Caithness stone that was laid, I think it looks great. It's not the stone I have a problem with but where they laid it, in all the wrong areas. It could have been extremely beneficial to our town, some top quality, highly polished bollards and public art works.

But they didn't ask us, what ,where, how, when we wanted it.

They, because they have a degree in planning know best, some of them don't even live in the town for god's sake.

Graffiti! Why do you think that there so much of it? It's not that they don't care, it just that the buildings/street art/Caithness Stone have no relevance to them. You didn't ask the people, so the less vocally able express themselves in the manner that they have become accustomed to.

Don't ignore our future, that's what these disenfranchised people are, our future.

Demand a greater voice in local politics, tell the councillors and the officials of the council that what they have done and are continuing to do is so wrong. Tell them that if they continue to do it we will rebel and take control and return the town to it's people.

"better living environment and enhanced economic prosperity"


We are still waiting.

Boo tae you!

06.06.06

Yeah! What am I doing writing about the old 666?

I've waited this long to see if "he who must not be named" (Lord Voldemort) was going to appear, riding a dragons body with a snakes head spreading fire and brimstone all aboot the place like the devil he can be, aided and abetted by the four horsemen.

Damien has failed to appear, the Omen and the dire predictions were wrong. Nae nasty wee goblins and terrible stramashes have happened. Earth shattering, world shaking, out of all proportion, seismic events have diminished into wee baby steps.

Well I suppose old Lucifer had a good look roon the auld Earth and thought, Sod it they are doing well enough to destroy the place without my help.

Feck it am aff the park tae sit in the sun and hiv a wee picnic and talk dirty wie Bethsheba the Babylon Babe.

coo ca choo!

What's Happening?

No Enthusiasm for Paisley Retail Development

"A massive 160,000 square feet regeneration scheme in the centre of Paisley is under threat due to a lack of interest from retailers. A new shopping area on the site of the former Arnotts department store has produced virtually no interest. Arnotts closed because of a drop in business following the opening of the Braehead Shopping Centre a few miles from Paisley. When it opened, it was the largest under-cover shopping mall in Scotland and it has had a major impact on retailers in the surrounding area.

The development company says that it is likely to build houses instead.

Paisley retailers fear that the major new shopping centre nearing completion at Pollok will also be detrimental to their business. Meantime, however, across the river Clyde (via the now toll-free Erskine Bridge), a £75million development has been announced in Dumbarton, that will create up to 1600 jobs at the site of the former J&B whisky bottling plant, which closed in 2000".

GOMMER read this in the Sunday Herald 4th June and again in an email from the Scottish Rampant Worldwide newsletter. I assume that Renfrewshire council would have known about this or been asked for their opinion on it by the Sunday Herald. If so why have we not heard anything at all from the council regarding this dreadful, though not unexpected news.

I have been told that Renfrewshire Council or the Paisley "Vision Board" cannot interfere with private business interests, but by not taking an interest they are certainly not serving the needs of the community and people that put them there in the first place.

The Co-op (cornerstone of the Paisley Centre) is due to close in March 2007, if a buyer cannot be found.

The silence from our local public bodies, surrounding these issues is deafening.

Are they sitting in some daked room wringing their hands in desperation? You know they are not. I have never encountered such an ineffectual bunch of no hopers in my life.

We, the people and community of this once great town need to seize the initiative for Paisley to be saved. The power is with us, all we have to do is grab it.

Ask your councillor, what does Renfrewshire council hold, on its citizens behalf, as "Common Good" land and why is this asset not being used for the people and the towns GOOD?

Another question is, why is the Council not acting with other interested bodies that have the regeneration of the town as a priority?

The council are our employees, they are answerable to us, the people of Paisley. They are not doing their job and should be removed. Next year PR comes in to the electoral system in local government.

Ask prospective candidates, what will you do to ensure that Paisley is restored to its rightful place in a modern forward thinking Scotland?

What is the council doing with all the increased revenues in council tax from the large number of houses built or are being built in the town?

There are great assets in Paisley that should be used to regenerate the town, force the powers that be to use them. If we don't Paisley will remain a dormitory town, with people living and sleeping here but working or spending money elsewhere.

Paisley has gone through a difficult time but remains a beautiful town with fascinating architecture and really friendly people.

Our forefatherss were a radical and politically active lot who did not suffer fools gladly. So why do we today? Arise Paisley and take the initiative over our future.

Dae it noo!

Dundee

I was in the City of Discovery on Sunday and Monday at a conference.

What a great way of recharging your mental batteries and enthusiasim for doing things. Networking is a big part of these things and basically all that is, is blethering with folk that you have not met before. Blethering with people who you have met before is useful too. Catching up with what has been happening in their areas and how it relates to yours is particularly good.

Found out about some places in Scotland that I had never heard of before, Have you heard of EDAY or LUING? Well I hadn't smart arse. These wee communities are on islands in the western isles have as few as 130 people staying there. The problem they have is sustainability of the actual community as there is a great danger if they fall below a certain about of inhabitants it ceases to be viable. Anyway, they will go to extraorindary lenghts to get folk with familes to move there.

Great sessions of workshops and presentations awaited in between the cups of tea and conference dinner (a very nice meal and excellent wine provided the fuel for further blethering). There is a lot of very interesting and resourceful people out there.

The event really has given me a new breath of life. smashin eh?

Twit to woo!

Straight talking

Aye, straight talking that's the thing, saying what's on yer mind, tell it like it is, lay it on the line, pull no punches.

Well, in the past I've always been a 'I can see your point' kinda guy, the middle of the road fence sitter that sees both sides of the coin. You try and please everyone and end up pleasing no one, especially yourself.

You think that if you try and be even handed with people they will do the same back, not so my friends. In my time I have found a few people like that but very few indeed.

You don't have to be rude to put your point across just say it calmly and clearly what you think and then stick to it.

I suppose I am writing this for myself, cause in all my years I have been done over by not sticking up for myself or my beliefs and I have molded my life on what I thought others wanted not what I did.

Wee lesson learnt, about time too.

What a View!

Progress

What a time Mr & Mrs GOMMER have had in the past 3/4 years. Family strife, tears at bedtime and other painful memories.

We are in the middle of another 'difficult' time, its not just families that can bring a terrible burden to bear on my admittedly strong shoulders. Business life is not easy either.

I suppose that most people today are struggling to find their feet in an ever increasingly futile attempt to kept our heads above water.

We are optimistic about the future, for why else would anyone in their right mind do the things we have to to get on.

Another chapter in the great book of time closes for Mr and Mrs GOMMER, but another new chapter, with all its ups and downs awaits.

This one will be better!

don't stay foo!