I was in Glasgow over the Christmas period with the rest of my family. We were all staying in different locations throughout the city.
We all went out one night into the city for a meal together. We strolled amongst the bars finding somewhere late for a drink - D suggested going for a beer or an ice cream.
Earlier that day we came across a competition of people making human towers by standing on each others' shoulders. I took part - everyone in the team was wearing a deep blue navy top and white trousers. I was standing one row down from the very top and so was quite high. The first tower we made was very succesful. The second tower was not. On this second attempt I found it easy to get up to the top level by being passed up by others and once reaching the top level counterbalancing with the woman facing me. It felt very high up, and I remember not wanting to look down in case I lost my balance. Once or twice I wobbled quite a bit, but was brought back in line. Despite us holding the tower together up at the top, something was happening on the lower levels which I knew was going to make the tower fall down. A few moments later the tower began to fall, but not freely. It was as if the rate of falling had slowed down because it was being cushioned by the people below us.
Sometime later that day I was in a prize giving competition for having choreographed some 'ice dances' earlier in the year. There were different categories. I managed to win my category and there were three or four other winners. There was also an overall prize that was awarded to the few winners, but I did not receive it.
We watched back the different dances. My dance was first and it was like nothing I had seen in real life. There were 5 or 6 skaters. One skater was the lead and wore red. The other followed the leader attached by a white chord and wore white. The white dancers made all sorts of patterns with the white ropes as they followed the leader - it was stunning. And behind the white dancers there was a peculiar lighting effect which made the whole space fill with patterns replicating the patterns of the ropes. The winning dance was more on foot and consisted of a group of 12 or so girls in very complex choreography but producing amazing patterns shaped by the human body. The final scene of their dance was them yelling "bah, ....Bah...bah" like a gurgling pipe before they all fell to the ground. It was a great dance.
The following day I remember leaving D&J's place to go to see E&D. I was there for a bit and then mentioned I had to go into the city centre for a bit. While I was there I decided to get on a train into the Highlands. I met the person I was going out with D2 there and we rode on the train out of the city. he pointed out bits of the city that were familiar to him. We were soon in the Highlands, although I felt it was far too soon to be there from my previous experiences. The landscape too was much more dramatic than I had rememberd - very sheer cliffs on mountains dropping into beautiful lakes. The train rolled on up north...
