January

I can't believe it's been more than a month now since I've posted. I've been so busy! Work is coming in steadily from constituents, I've been meeting groups, and catching up on briefings. There have been meetings of the Board of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, Health and Social Care Committee, and External Governance Scrutiny. Baby Alexander is now seven months old, starting to eat a variety of food and get about more under his own steam. 

Here are a few photos to illustrate what I've been up to! 

Campaigning! With less than 100 days until the Scottish Parliament elections, I've been out working for our candidate for Glasgow Shettleston, John Mason. Alexander has been helping me, and finds our materials quite tasty.

Arguably less tasty, but more nutritious, we've started weaning. I've discovered the butternut squash is hazardous to fingertips when dismembered with a sharp knife.

Committees. It's hard getting time to read the papers these days; harder still to focus and contribute at the meetings while keeping the wee guy entertained, but I think I'm managing. At Health and Social Care Labour were caught acting against the best interests of young people in our schools, undermining their own health messages by selling cakes and crisps (albeit within health guidelines) to make a profit. 

Family. I don't see them as often as I'd like, but my mum and dad did their first bit of babysitting last week. Exciting times. Alexander also attended two more football matches this month. You can tell he's impressed!

Champions! I attended the Community Champions awards, and was particularly chuffed to see the hardworking young people's group PEEK scoop up a prize. Their theatre productions are really fantastic.

Surgeries. Still doing eight a month, which is more than the Labour Councillors (details on the side bar). The one pictured is Bridgeton Library, where I get very well looked after by the wonderful staff!

Buddies. I attended two sessions at the Gorbals Leisure Centre for young people involved in the Active Kids Buddy scheme. They lead their peers in a range of activities in the playground at break time, which should lead to healthier, happier young people! St Anne's, Sacred Heart and St Michael's were all represented. I got a go on the Gladiators inflatable, and also got to play with the big ball pictured!

Burns. Much nervousness and inspiration needed for the Reply to the Toast to the Lassies last Saturday night at the Shettleston SNP Burns Supper. I'm hoping my mix of footie and politics went down ok!

Baby. He can now move from one side of the living room to get stuck under this coffee table. Eek. 

Living Streets

I participated in a 'Living Streets' audit in the Calton area last week - it was interesting to hear all the views of a range of local residents about the problems they perceive in the streets where they live and the improvements they would like to see. From my point of view, this gives me a far better understanding of where resources and assistance should be targeted.

I walk about in my ward on a very regular basis - only yesterday walking with the pram from my home in Dennistoun to my surgery in Bridgeton library. I report potholes and other problems with the fabric of the area when I see them, and I hope that this is helpful in improving the area. The issues I see on my travels however might not be the same as those local people notice, and everyone sees the world in their own way.

Problems can be obvious, like the absence of footpaths and the blind corners in Millroad Drive, or really quite specific to particular groups. One example from the walk where I didn't realise there was a problem was a rut in the road next to St Mary's - elderly and infirm people crossing Abercromby Street to go to the Chapel had tripped on this. It had been reported to the Council but, because the Council staff didn't make that journey regularly themselves, they couldn't identify the rut and it hadn't been repaired. I've taken a photo, and will make sure LES staff know where it is!

While there isn't money to do everything residents would like right now, activities like this will help to form a wider plan which can be implemented as and when resources become available.

Public Service Announcements

The street light replacement scheme in the Calton area had reportedly ground to a halt. I investigated, and the response from LES stated that:

"while the installation phase of the project has been finished for some time, completion has not been possible due to Scottish Power not providing supplies to the new control pillars.

As of this week, these connections have now been carried out and completion of the installation can begin. I will liaise with our subcontractor and request a programme of works for these operations forthwith."


Meanwhile, in another part of the ward, the street lights on Dalmarnock Road at Dunn Street haven't been on for a few nights - I have reported this, and hope to have an answer soon!

The problem may or may not be related to the following road works in the area:

"In order to undertake carriageway repairs within Dalmarnock Road, Dalmarnock Road will be reduced to one lane at various points between No.811 and at the junction with Baltic Lane.

During the works road users should expect delays. The work is weather dependant and information will be updated as required.

These works will commence on Monday 20^th September 2010 from 09-00 until 16-00. These works are expected to be complete on Thursday 23^rd September 2010. (16.00)"

Baby on Board!

I've not disappeared, and the Total Politics blog awards hasn't been an excuse to rest on my laurels - although any kind of rest would be nice. In general, things have been too hectic to be able to compose my thoughts and get them into the blog. I've been trying instead to update my twitter feed as much as possible, so you can get a flavour of what I've been up to in the absence of a blog post.

Anyhow, I'm very chuffed to have been voted number 25 of the top 50 Scottish blogs in their annual awards, particularly as I didn't ask for any votes and I didn't even vote for myself! Thanks to all readers of Bellgrovebelle, I'm very grateful for your support.

Despite aiming to take things a bit easier since Alexander arrived at the start of July, I feel like I've still been running around as much as usual, only with much less sleep. I've still been attending my surgeries (times and places to your right...) as well as various things in the Council and in my ward.

Alexander has had a very interesting first twelve weeks, now having been with me to three football matches (two Motherwell, one Scotland), a Full Council meeting (he was better behaved than most of the Councillors!), the Calton Area Committee and Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Board. He attended an SNP branch meeting, the regional list hustings and a Maryhill race night. He's been to the opening of the refurbished Bridgeton Cross, the new shop for Starter Packs Glasgow, a meeting of Pensioners Action Group East and a public meeting about the Olympia in Bridgeton. On Thursday he came along with me to attend the Papal Mass in Bellahouston Park and yesterday we visited the City Building Glasgow House project.

All of which events were very interesting, and worthy of blog posts in themselves. I will endeavour to update you as I'm going about, but please be assured that even if I don't have time to fit in regular blog posts, I'm still out there working hard!


PS - this blog post should've had photos, but photobucket isn't cooperating. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed!

Calton Fun Day

The Calton Area Association put on a great fun day on Saturday - they got the sunshine, a lot of people came.

The photo is from the raffle drawn at the end of the afternoon - sadly, I didn't get a photo of the belly dancers, who were a star turn!

Betty Cosgrove and her team have really done themselves proud; there was a lovely feeling of community spirit and people told me they'd had a great day.

Cems and Crems

I didn't think cemeteries and crematoria would be something I would ever get exercised about, but being a Councillor is indeed a strange job.

For some time, the bereavement services which Glasgow City Council provide have been making a loss. Partly, this is due to the opening of new services in neighbouring local authorities, as well as competion from private facilites. Energy and staff costs were also an issue.

At the same time, Glasgow charged a premium for people outside the city to use our crematoria, while these same facilities were getting a bit older and less attractive. People's needs weren't being taken into account either; I had been asked by a minister in my ward whether it would be possible to extend the time allocated for services at our crematoria from half an hour to forty-five minutes to allow families greater time to grieve.

The Council's response to this loss-making but important service was to explore whether a partnership with a private company might turn things around. I had asked a few times at Committee whether we could take any action to improve the service, but on each occasion, I was told that we had to await the end of negotiations.

Today, some two years or so after the Council decided to explore the partnership option, it was decided that this may not be the best deal. Negotiations continue, but at present, it looks like the private company wants all of the profit, the Council takes all of the risk, carries all of the investment, and provides an operating subsidy.

The interim solution is to make those from Glasgow and outwith the city pay the same (incidentally the higher rate!), and offer an extended 45-minute service. I'm really disappointed that it has taken the Council two years to do something they could have easily done in the beginning - continuing to lose money and probably discouraging people from using the facilities in the meantime.

It's important to listen to what people want, especially when the service is as sensitive as bereavement. For families who have been rushed through saying farewell, this decision has come too late; I hope a better service can be provided in future.

Glasgow Labour think scrutiny is a waste of time

Yesterday's Full Council meeting was always going to be a tetchy affair - since their new leader was elected, Labour have been foutering about with spokespeople, committee places, chairs, and places on arms length organisations. It's all internal stuff, but it has an impact on how the Council operates, and how the administration is held to account.

As the main opposition party on the Council, we were unconvinced by some of the plans - and in particular the decision by the Labour administration to nominate two Lib Dems and one independent to chair the Scrutiny committees. Labour nominations are in practice unchallengeable given the mathematics of the Council.

The principle of freezing out the main opposition (we have 19 Councillors to the Lib Dems 6) is a bit iffy; to add insult to injury, Committee chairmanship comes with extra money. Labour also decided to reduce the size of the Executive Committee, reducing the SNP places to four, while the Lib Dems have two and the Greens (with 5 Councillors) only one.

The SNP group had also been disappointed to learn via the Sunday papers that Glasgow's Lord Provost appeared to have been using Council cars inappropriately.

Our response to these issues was a sensible one - to ask as many difficult questions of the Labour administration as we could. Among these, we asked about the appointees to Committees, we asked why two more Labour Councillors were being given paid positions on the board of Cordia, we asked about contradictions in Council policies (such as the Air Route Development Fund and the Carbon Reduction commitment).

All of this clearly rattled a few cages amongst the administration - and at one point the Lord Provost accused the SNP of wasting everyone's time. Scrutiny is never a waste of time. The point of the exercise is that we don't get answers when we ask them politely elsewhere. I personally feel as though I've been fobbed off in the past on several occasions - more on that in another post.

The issue of the Lord Provost's car bills is not a matter we can easily raise anywhere else - yet Labour took the very questioning of this as an attack on the office of the Lord Provost. They seem to genuinely believe that the Lord Provost's expenses should not be subject to scrutiny. One Labour Councillor was even heard to call us "sewer rats" for asking whether public money had been used appropriately. We seek higher standards - to pull Glasgow out of the gutter. It's disappointing to see that those with the most to lose don't agree.

Planning for the weeks ahead

Regular readers will that know I'm pregnant and, all being well, due on the 27th of June. I've still been doing my best to make it to events in my ward and committees, and hope to continue to do so until the baby arrives. Clearly, it's impossible to tell when that will be, but I will put the news up on here (or at the very least on the twitter feed in the wee box above my photo) as soon as I can!

Afterwards, I hope you'll not hold it against me if I'm not able to deal with your enquiries personally and instantly - I will however have support from a secretary in the City Chambers, who can help with most Council matters. I'll still be able to respond to emails and calls on my blackberry, and will have a laptop set up so that I can work from home. I hope to pursuade some of my colleagues to help with surgeries in the first few weeks til I find my feet.

I don't intend to take 'formal' maternity leave - I just can't imagine taking six months away from the hustle and bustle of the Council. There's also no-one to cover for me in my absence as there would be in a 'normal' job, and I don't want to let my constituents, my colleagues and my party down.

It might help if I explain that Councillors aren't 'employees' in the normal sense, in that we're not technically required to turn up to work every day. Obviously, a Councillor would be doing a pretty poor job if that were the case, and I can't think why in the normal course of events you would do that. The penalty for not showing up for an extended period of time is disqualification - dealt with in Section 35 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which states:

"if a member of a local authority fails throughout a period of six consecutive months to attend any meeting of the authority, he shall, unless the failure was due to some reason approved by the authority, cease to be a member of the authority."

The Council seem to be quite prepared to allow me to work flexibly, bringing the baby in with me to work, and I hope that community organisations will allow me to do the same.

I want to be available to my constituents, and I would like to reassure people that I'm not going anywhere - I live in Dennistoun and will still be out and about!

Litter and bugs

I went along to London Road Nursery School last week to join the children in a litter pick of the area.

Whilst there, I had the honour of hanging the sign on their new 'bug mansion', part of their eco-initiative to improve biodiversity. It's a big concept for nursery children, but they seemed to get the basics - bugs like plants and that's a good thing!

The children were very enthusiastic about the litter picking too, using the pickers provided to fill quite a few black backs. It's a shame when you have to count on nursery aged children to take a pride in the area, but I'm sure they'll be quick to tell their bigger brothers and sisters and their parents not to drop litter in future.

Thanks go to the nursery staff for having me along (and making sure I didn't leave with any bugs!), and to Colin from Local News Glasgow, who took the photograph.

Shining more light on the Calton

It's taken a long, long time, but I finally recieved confirmation this morning from Land and Environmental Services that the crumbling street lights in the Calton will be being replaced.

This issue started for me with the election campaign in 2007, where local people identified the dim lighting in the area as a problem. People didn't feel safe walking about at night, as they couldn't see other people, or indeed the ground beneath them, clearly. Older people had tripped and fallen, and for my own part, I kept getting my heels stuck in the cobbled bits!

I managed to get the more modern street lights in the Millroad Drive and Chalmers Street areas upgraded with brighter bulbs, but improving the older lights in Stevenson Street, Green Street Millroad Street and Tobago Street has been more problematic.

During the storms at Christmas 2007-January 2008, a street light was brought down on Millroad Street. Luckily, it fell on to the road, so no-one got hurt and no property was damaged. Nevertheless, I asked officials in LES if it would be possible to replace the lights in the area as a result. They're all of a similar age and condition, so I reckoned it was a fair bet that if no action was taken, this could happen again. I got agreement for the works to be carried out, but due to various budget issues (and despite my chasing LES on the matter), nothing happened between then and now.

Out of the blue this morning, I recieved an email saying that works will start next Monday, 7th June, in Stevenson Street, Green Street, Millroad Street, Tobago Street, Tobago Place, Drake Street, and Arcadia Street. These works will result in new white light sources being deployed as outlined in the Council’s lighting strategy and the Lighting Network Renewal (LNR) project framework.

I just called one of the community activists who had been calling for this, and she's delighted. It's been a long time coming, but the new 'white lights' will definitely be an improvement in the Calton area.

Out and about

I love going out and about and meeting people in my ward - getting an insight into people's lives is one of the great privileges and pleasures of this job.

Today was particularly busy, but kicked off with me lying in bed this morning, sniffling and whimpering, waking after a poor night's sleep with a heavy cold. It was so tempting to call off the many things I had scheduled, but I hate to stand people up.

First on the agenda was a meeting of Pensioners Action Group East. I love this group - they're so committed to helping other pensioners, and society at large. Many of the members volunteer time to help with other groups and work a lot with young people. The Chair, Andy, does so much, and even found the time to do a bit of hillwalking to raise funds for PAGE. I hadn't been to see the group for a wee while, so it was good to catch up. I was really touched that they had gotten me a present for the baby. Lovely people.

Next up was a quick visit to Tots Bots. While researching real nappies online, I noticed this company were based in the East End in Carntyne. I decided to nip in, and found them very welcoming. I'm quite keen to avoid contributing to the landfill waste that disposable nappies create, and after having seen the products Tots Bots produce, I'm seriously thinking of giving them a try. It's also nice to know that the nappies are produced right here in the East End, rather than in some remote factory. I aim to go back once the baby is born - I don't have room to store things in the flat just now!

I attended the weekly maternity exercise class at the Princess Royal at lunchtime. It's reassuring to know that the exercise I'm doing is appropriate and supervised. The class is a small one, but I've enjoyed the social aspect of meeting other pregnant women. I would recommend it!

After the class, I rushed off to meet with housing, GCSS and LES officers, and my fellow ward Councillor at a site in Barrowfield. Residents have been complaining for some time about fly-tipping, which has reached epic proportions. The site is owned by a private developer, and local people cut across the site as a short cut. It's been a tricky one to resolve, but enforcement officers hope to be able to get the site cleared, and charge the owners accordingly. Owners should take responsibility for their sites, but all too often, they are left for years without any kind of maintenance. The effect of this is a blight on communities; it's completely unfair to those who take care of their properties and try to improve their area.

Attending the class and the site visit meant that I couldn't be at today's Finance and Audit Committee. I'm loathe to miss Committee meetings; over the past three years I think I've only missed one or two and only when it's been completely unavoidable. It's difficult to get so many officers together for a site visit at any one time, so this time the Committee had to take second place.

I headed over to London Road Nursery to hand in some Tesco vouchers for clubs and schools. I try to share around the vouchers I collect, and this year some have also gone to St Anne's Primary and Elba Lane Nursery. It seems to take a lot of vouchers to get anything, so I hope my wee contribution helps a bit. If you have any stashed at the bottom of your handbag, please hand them in to your local school as soon as possible! It was nice to catch up with the head teacher at the Nursery, and see what's been going on since the last time I was in. I was already aware that nusery places are still oversubscribed in this part of Glasgow - as expected, the closure of Queen Mary Street and Mile End have only made this more difficult. I'm not sure how this can be resolved; it's a serious problem for families, especially those who work.

After visiting St Anne's last week, I popped back in again to see their parent-child cookery classes in action. In this pilot programme, parents and children participate in a series of classes, run by staff at the school, which teach them about cooking and nutrition. Basic cookery might sound simple, but many people have never made a meal from scratch, and have little idea what goes into the food they eat. Roasted vegetables, macaroni cheese and muffins were all on the menu tonight; the parents were amazed at how easy, cheap and tasty the meals were, and the children really enjoyed working together with their mums and dads as well as their teachers. I heard from the parents how much they valued the experience, and the staff spoke about the changes they had seen. The course has proved to be an important step for some, and has really broken down the barriers between school and community.

I also heard about the early progress being made by the Triple P programme. It's early days, but from what was said, it sounds as if it's already making an impact on some parents.

I finished my day with a surgery at Dalmarnock Primary. It was quiet tonight, so I got a chance to catch up with emails and prepare for tomorrow. Pretty tired, but it was a really interesting day!

St Anne's Emergency Services Day

I was invited along to the Emergency Services day held at St Anne's Primary on Thursday.

It was a great day - and it broke down barriers between young people and those in the emergency services.

The Police mounted division were on hand to explain the role played by Police horses - and they impressed by cantering round the playground and demonstrating that the horses wouldn't flinch even when a class of primary children screamed at the tops of their voices!

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue brought along a fire engine, the Traffic Policing section had their car, and the Police Dogs came along in the afternoon. Officers from cycling and GCSS in the council also lent their time and expertise. The pupils had lots of questions, which all involved ably answered.

The most exciting moment came when the Police helicopter flew low over the school - apparently photos were taken too, which I hope to get to see.

Credit should go to PC Daniela Giannoni, who pulled the whole thing together. I got a real sense that the children got a lot out of the event; anything that builds up the relationships between our emergency services and the communities they serve should be commended.

Labour Councillors award themselves another trip at your expense

I enjoyed today's Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Board meeting - lots of interesting papers, and I had plenty of questions to ask. I got the distinct impression that by the end of the meeting, the Chair was getting a bit fed up with me! I think it's only right that when officers put work into the papers before us, that they are properly scrutinised.

I was particularly concerned by the lack of detail in a proposal to move from three areas in Glasgow to two, not least as the papers had no detail on the cost or full personnel implications of the proposal. Oddly, Calton and Parkhead will move to the South of Glasgow! I'm still kicking myself for not moving that the paper be brought back with more detail to a future meeting, but given the composition of the board, the vote would have been unlikely to pass in any event.

There was also a proposal to send the Convener and one Vice Convener (both Labour, as it happens) to the INTERSCHUTZ conference in Leipzig. Sounds fairly innocuous until you look in the papers and realise that the cost of their attendance at this four-day conference was a rather extravagant £5,900. The cost of actually attending is free, so this sum was to meet the travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for two people. Quite rightly, a few of my colleagues on the board questioned the wisdom of this expense in the current financial climate, and moved rejection of the trip. Labour Councillors rallied round their Convener and Vice Convener's right to attend, and one even accused the SNP of bigotry for daring to suggest it was a waste of money. We were outvoted by fifteen votes to eight. It's frustrating to witness that even in these times of scandals and belt tightening, there's still an appetite in Labour-dominated institutions to splurge on foreign trips.

A busy and varied Friday

One of the things I love about being a Councillor is the wide variation in the things I get to do. Today was a great example of this.

This morning, I was asked by Station Commander Eddie Renfrew to come along to the first day of a new initiative in Kilbirnie House, the community resource based at Calton Fire Station. Kilbirnie House is kitted out with great facilities for young people to get them interested in fire safety, as well as having a conference room and computer suite.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue were keen to get local people in to use the resources, and got in touch with John Wheatley College about hosting a computer skills course. Today saw the first group of women from the Calton come along to get started. They're all looking forward to surfing the net, sending some emails, and improving their typing skills, and I'm glad to see their enthusiasm being met by the local Fire and Rescue service. It's a great opportunity, and a very practical way to get the most out of their resources.

I hope the ladies will forgive me for posting up this picture of them as the lesson got underway!

Following this, I rushed back to the City Chambers for the Executive Committee. Today's agenda included a huge paper on Council funding for a range of organisations, details of the polling stations at the upcoming General Election (no confirmation of date, sadly!), a submission to the private members Bill on Autism Strategy, and proposals to allow groups to bid to run the Community Centres Culture and Sport Glasgow are proposing to close.

After lunch, I met with a constituent in Barrowfield, who is concerned by the behaviour of Celtic fans arriving by buses. Some drink, leave rubbish, and urinate close to his home. No one should have to put up with that, so I'll be doing what I can to help.

I attended the World Day of Prayer service at St Michael's in Parkhead. This was a great event, where all the local churches had come together to present a service composed by women in Cameroon. John Mason MP also attended, along with Frank McAveety MSP, and the congregations were pleased to see so many politicians giving their time and support. I had a good chat with some of those involved afterwards, and sampled some of the lovely home baking. I hope my singing didn't annoy too many people - I'm more used to Hampden!

After that finished, I popped back into the office to clear a few things off my desk. It's great to be out and about, but the paperwork tends to build up the second I leave!

New bins for Millerston Street

Millerston Street in my ward, between the Gallowgate and Duke Street, is particularly prone to litter and fly tipping. A lot of people pass along the street on their way to and from Celtic Park and, sadly, they tend to leave a mess behind them.

I had a request from a constituent to have the area cleared up, which Land and Environmental Services duly carried out. To prevent the same mess happening again, I made a modest request for an extra lamp-post bin. To my surprise, LES have responsed enthusiastically with a promise of eight bins, for on each side of Millerston Street. This should make a huge difference to the area, and football fans now have no excuse for dropping their litter!

Happy news

The world, at least as far as my family, friends, facebook and the Cooncil are now all aware of this good news, so I reckoned it's time to share it with you: Joe and I are expecting a baby at the end of June, and I'm very nervous and excited.

I had a scan today, and am just into my twenty-first week.

I intend to be carrying on with my Council work as much as I can - and all the Labourites out there should know I'm certainly not going to be using pregnancy as an excuse to slack off on the election campaigning!

More importantly, with all the technology available, blackberry and such, I'll still be able to carry out my duties as a Councillor. It's a new challenge, but I aim to be up for it!

Work and play

I was out campaigning with John Mason this morning in Carntyne. We've all been working hard to get John re-elected, and weekends are no exception!

I was out speaking to people on the doorsteps, and I got a pretty warm response. Lots of people knew who John was, and several had already been helped by him. One woman, who John had helped to get new windows, was absolutely delighted by the service she had received from him and I could see John has got a fan for life!

It's really nice to get to listen to people, find out what makes them tick and what they want to see in their area. I'm not sure yet what John can do about the number of cats roaming about the area (I got followed by one around several doors!), but he's on the case!


After campaigning, I headed out to Fir Park to catch the Lanarkshire derby. The snowy conditions over the new year have played havoc with the surface of the pitch, so there was little scope for a stylish passing game. Nevertheless, Motherwell ground out a win, and I'm pleased to see we're up to a decent 5th.


Tonight, I'm off to the 30th birthday party of a good friend. I'm looking forward to it!


Tomorrow... more campaigning I think!

Christmas Spirit

Things have been pretty hectic since my last post - Christmas has arrived and, as usual, caught me completely by surprise. I can finally blog now, having gotten all my Christmas cards written and posted out. Instead of sending the standard Council one, I took some pictures of the Christmas lights around my ward, and with some help via the wonders of technology, they turned out quite well. If one pops through your door, I hope you like it!

One of the great treats about being a Councillor is getting to attend all kinds of events at Christmas time.

This year, I had the great pleasure of attending the St Michael's Primary Christmas celebrations, which included each year group putting on a musical event of their own, followed by the Nativity which was acted out and read by the younger children in the school. There's nothing quite like it to put me in the mood for Christmas.

The children were wonderful, and incredibly enthusiastic - not usually a surprise, but the evening performance I attended was their second show of the day! It's great to see everyone pulling together to create such a special event; the head teacher was quick to use the opportunity of a captive audience of proud parents to praise the achievements of their children over the year. The Parent Council raised a lot of money, which will go towards trips and events next year. The staff had also contributed to a hefty hamper of goodies.

On Saturday, I attended a Christmas Carol Concert in the Winter Gardens of the People's Palace on Glasgow Green.

This was organised by Friends of Glasgow Green, with the entertainment provided by the Parkhead Salvation Army Band. FoGG are keen to put on events to showcase all that the Green has to offer, and this certainly hit the mark.

People visiting seemed quite taken with the whole thing, and the Band said they'd be willing to come back next year.

The most magical moment came when the glasshouse turned into an inverted snow dome as a blizzard whipped up outside; it was almost as if the band had summoned the weather!

I finally got my tree up on Saturday night - Michael, this picture's for you.

On Sunday night, I went along to the Salvation Army's own Carol Concert in their hall in Parkhead. I was made very welcome, and enjoyed the service and chatting to people afterwards. I'm not in the habit of attending religious services, but I do feel that if you're going to celebrate Christmas, it's important to reflect on the reason for the season.


I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to blog again before Christmas - if not, best wishes to you all for a Merry Christmas. I hope santa's good to you!

Campaigning

Great turnout of people on Sunday afternoon to do campaigning work in my ward. The weather may be freezing, but we're still keen to chap doors and speak to the voters! Massive thanks to all who turned out.

Holiday

It's terrible I should feel guilty about this, but feel I should confess: I snuck out of the country a week last Thursday for a wee break to Paris. It was five days, and I loved it.

Other than a week at my in-laws in Derby over the summer, and a holiday in Skye in January cut short by Labour's school closure announcement, I've not had the chance to get away, relax, and spend some time with my husband since our honeymoon last August. The summer seemed to run away without me; although Council was in recess, the work kept piling in. There were gala days at the weekends and plenty of campaigining to keep me occupied. Before I knew it, committee papers were arriving on my desk again!

Reading this article this morning has made me reflect on the whole work/life balance thing and, although my job is nowhere near as high pressure, I can identify with a lot of what Gaby Hinsliff says. I visited my grandparents yesterday, and was acutely aware that I hadn't made it out to Lanarkshire for the best part of a month. I went over to visit my parents a few weeks before, and couldn't remember the last time I'd been in Carluke. I've not seen old school or uni friends for eons. It seems impossible to fit everything in, and I'm mostly keeping up with people passively through facebook and blogs. The question is, what do I do to correct this?