October 3, 2026

Walked the 75 route today, terminus to terminus — or the southern half of it, Castlemilk down to Bridgeton, which was already more ambition than I'd originally planned when I looked out the window at quarter to ten and decided it wasn't actively raining.

It was actively raining by the time I reached the terminus.

The drizzle had that particular October quality of not committing either way: too fine to justify pulling a hood up, persistent enough to get your collar damp within twenty minutes. Dreich is the word, and it earns its place in the language. I set off down the hill with the map already softening at the fold lines.

I got turned around near Aikenhead Road — convinced the cut-through was before the roundabout rather than after, walked a confident ten minutes in the wrong direction, then stood consulting the map with the expression of someone who absolutely knows what they're doing. A woman walking a spaniel passed me twice. Neither of us acknowledged this.

What stopped me properly, later on, was a gable end somewhere on Cathcart Road — I think Cathcart Road, the fold on the map covers that particular junction. Ghost lettering, painted directly onto the harling, maybe eighty years old, picked out by a brief twelve-minute appearance of actual sun. Something ending in …ATE COAL AND and then nothing. Whatever came after had been painted over, or the render had taken it. I stood there longer than was dignified for a man with damp collar points.

Got a square sausage roll from a bakery near Shawfield. Ate it on the pavement. Burnt the roof of my mouth on the sausage — this is simply what happens, every time, and I never learn. The smell of warm flour from the vent was worth it regardless.

Ended at Bridgeton Cross in the early afternoon, the old Umbrella shelter presiding over the junction as it always does, dependably peculiar. Caught the bus home rather than walking back. My left boot has a seam working loose at the toe, and I've learned to stop while I'm still on speaking terms with my feet.

#walking #glasgow #southside #sundaywalk