Hungover to Hong Kong

Not for the claustrophobic

Hong Kong came to the Barras this weekend. Sort of. A special two-day event was hosted in the popular east end market with stalls selling various Hong Kong-ese (definitely not Chinese) crafts and goods. And of course, there was plenty of incredible smelling food stalls on the go too - but alas, the long queues meant we wouldn't get to use our sense of taste. Glasgow does love its grub and by the time we got there the wait was already 45 minutes before even getting a sniff of a noodle.

All the same, it was nice to get out for the day to somewhere I hadn't been for a while. Away from the far eastern delights, the Barras has plenty to browse and shop. I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of progressive independent traders.

It was also just cool to catch up with our friend Amy and her pal Irina who moved over from Ukraine last August. We eventually got a table (outside and even with a bit of sun briefly) at West Brewery for currywurst and beer. Glasgow Green in the late afternoon sun is magic.

The cherry blossoms on either side of the arch

An altogether more wholesome day than my Saturday, which consisted of being horrendously hungover on the couch for the most part. I did get some very comforting cat cuddles and eventually dragged my arse up to the cinema for John Wick 4 (4/5⭐️). Was the sore head worth Friday's night's excess? I'm really not sure anymore - at least in terms of the booze. It was great catching up with mates but I'm starting to wish we had something other than the pub as our default meeting place. Give me some pizza and multiplayer video games any time (yes, I'm 37).

Friday night. Oh dear.

Anyway, time to chill a bit before work tomorrow and getting back to the consideration of a voluntary severance package. I'm still 50-50 on whether or not to formally apply. I'd get 10 months salary, minus the two months' wages I'll have already had if I choose to leave on 5th May. But I'd have to end my trust deed early and pay off all debtors plus the fees for my trustee. Which would basically eat up a £10k-£12k chunk in my severance amount. The other option would be to stay put, pay the remaining £2k to my trustee and be debt free next year...but miss out on the opportunity to really forge a different path in life.

Oh and tomorrow we'll have a new First Minister for Scotland who is more or less on to a loser from the get-go. At this point if Scottish Labour can't capitalise and hoover up some disaffected SNP support they may as well give up the game altogether.

Over and out.

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