Changes

I have thought too much about this post, it goes against my general approach but I have had a lot of time to think over the past few weeks. There is little news on treatment for the cancer and I have obvious concerns over this. I have ongoing complications and have lost far too much weight again since coming back from Portugal. There is no doubt that I may have taken on a bit too much but I just cannot lie down to this although lately I feel  have been guilty of doing just that.

I am writing this listening to a playlist I made recently on Spotify called my scotland. I started the list some time ago and have been building it up since, it was therefore interesting to see that STV have launched an initiative to decide on Scotland’s greatest album!  It wasn’t surprising however to see the lack of tunes I had chosen from the 70’s! Music has formed such an important part of my life from my first single which was Kids in America by Kim Wilde to still being an avid T in the Park attendee. I recall my first visit of many to the famous Glasgow Barrowland ballroom was along with my sister to see the communards, not exactly the coolest admission, but over the years I find it hard to recall turning down the opportunity to see anyone live whether I have been a fan or not. Probably the most significant being going to see Prince at Parkhead in Glasgow around 1992. He was poles apart from what I was into at the time which would have been more pixies/nirvana but looking back it is a ticket most people pick out in my collection and if was honest about the show, it certainly was different than what I was used to. My love of live music continues to this day and I was really disapointed to miss Echo and the Bunnymen recently at Glasgow Concert Hall due to being in the hospital again. Albums have become soundtracks to events throughout my life, radio shows became backgrounds to many late night and all night drawing sessions as I worked my way through art school for 7 years .

Looking back I have no comprehension of how I worked a full time job and studied for my architecture qualifications while actually keeping up a reasonable degree of social life. Recently discussing art-school with friends it was commented that it was sometimes forgotten I was a part-timer as I integrated so much with the full time students. I found that sharing long afternoons in the pub could be more fruitful during long hard projects than locking myself up drawing , sometimes aimlessly, at home. Discussing projects, listening to others ideas, putting over and validiting my own proposals helped build confidence and stopped me sometimes going off at a complete tangent which I could be prone to at times.

During years at Strathclyde and College of Building and Printing and the School of Art I met many lifelong friends. We seem to share the same ideas and aspirations, some became landscape architects, some became graphic designers or computer designers but mostly everybody stuck to architecture. The power of the internet and social networking has helped me reconnect with these friends who I might never encountered and it’s been amazing that i’ve been able to do this and that these people have influenced my life whether they know it or not.

One of my great friends Colin who I met at Art School has raised almost £8000 for The Friends of the Beatson it shows the great influence we can all have on each other. A lot of people feel helpless about what they can do but every little counts.

The Lanarkshire Business Group also held a fund raiser for friends of the Beatson, by all accounts this went very well. I will speak more about that in my next blog.

Since returning from Portugal my health has steadily got worse this has been due to blockages in my bowel am currently seeking the right treatment for this but it is proving quite difficult, I’ve been off and on many drugs to try and combat the effects which are generally a lot of sickness this is also causing extreme fatigue which has a knock on effect, I have also lost weight again. I am being well looked after between hospital and home but the road ahead is hard I will try to write whenever I can, which might be short, might be long depending on how I am feeling on that day.

It was really refreshing to hear from someone who I had a conversation with several years ago who remembered us talking about music and it was nice to hear that he had remembered that and had taken the time to wish me the best. Sometimes the small passing conversations can mean as much to someone whether a friendship is formed or not, by the way you interact and relate. It really is wonderful to know that you have made a difference to someone’s life no matter how small and insignificant you might have felt it was at the time. Even being told that you have influenced someone with music that they might have never have heard before is enough. Please have a listen to my spotify playlist, here is the link my scotland