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Paisley also has a mural trail around the town so this is just a gallery of them and other things that caught my eye on the same visit. Paisley coat of arms on bridge. Some I've photographed before years ago but many more are new I haven't captured until now.
Blindfolded mural. Paisley back street.
Ceramic Lion. One of several in the town.
Ellen Farmer mural. Local historian and campaigner. Browns Lane in Paisley has loads of murals all along it so most of the next set are from there.
Jimi Hendrix mural. A nearby nightclub had many artists perform there, presumably early on in their touring career history.
John Lennon.
Local singer songwriter Gerry Rafferty who grew up and lived in the town most of his life. Toured with Billy Connolly/ Tam Harvey in the Humblebums in the early folk days then with his own band and numerous hit records followed.
Beautiful peacock design. Local firm.
Same place. Very stylish.
Local football team. St Mirren F.C.
Still Brown's Lane.
Same Japanese restaurant the Sakura girl and cherry blossom mural came from a couple of posts back.
Local gym building.
Different kind of gym. Muscle building I think. Not been in it. Being old I seem to have a natural capacity to built fat without any effort at all on my part. Lucky me.
Soft play centre for kids. Right beside Brown's Lane so I think this used to be the music venue for touring acts which has moved to another part of town now.
An unusual one in a quiet back street. 007 James Bond (Edinburgh man) meets Gerry Rafferty (Paisley local.) Shortly after this I sat on a bench in central Paisley with a couple of sandwiches. I'm always very attuned to everything around me and can immediately sense when things are not quite right in an environment. Sitting in the local town square my sixth sense was tingling that invisible eyes were watching me but not a clue as to why this was. Just a general feeling of unease I suppose.
For once it had stopped raining and I was able to enjoy my lunch in peace. Daphne Du Maurier popped into my mind for no reason I could think of...
I enjoyed my lunch but the feeling of a looming presence nearby would not dissipate fully.
Not one crumb escaped my hungry orifice though. Disquieted by this 'uncanny valley' effect around me but not quite able to shake off completely the feeling that I was not alone here I started moving again soon after... heading for hopefully more salubrious locations...
School mural.
Same place...
Baby Jesus and his Mommy. Happy with what looks like an early mobile phone. Modern age living after all.
Tree mural. At this point I wanted a view so I headed uphill to the Oakshaw District on its high ridge line. One of the oldest and highest parts of Paisley.
Coats Observatory is up here and many other interesting period buildings.
You would think that climbing upwards to heaven you would find angels and God up here.... but no....
I found the Devil instead...lucky me again... and she's female... hanging out with her gang. ( with facial recognition software able to list every person on earth now down to what toothpaste you use going incognito for her is maybe a wise move.)
"Hey! Where the hell have you been ?" she said to me...
" We ordered that takeaway meal ages ago. It will be ******** stone cold by now! All men are shit!"
And so my time in Paisley ended with a telling off. Doh!
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The John Lennon and Tree murals are my faves.
ReplyDeleteI think that, as you were busy scoffing, it was the pigeons giving the evil eye and watching you! But I got the same feeling when I walked into Paisley from a very long wait at Glasgow Airport once - I soon turned round and went straight back out again!
I know a lot of these but not all, eg the blindfolded one. Those birds are something else!
ReplyDeleteHi Carol. The pigeons. Damn, I never thought of that. Yes, even now certain parts of Paisley look fairly rough. Like Glasgow's slums from 20 years ago though most of them have been renovated to look alright whereas parts of Ferguslie Park are just going through that demolition and new house building process currently. Plenty of upmarket areas in Paisley though as well. Still one of Scotland's largest towns. I ended up crawling around Glasgow airport a few months ago on hands and knees but that's a future post. One of the most unusual yet.
ReplyDeleteHi Anabel. I think that was on George Street but I did a lot of walking that day in different areas. Funnily enough I've just watched CSI Season Nine and not only was Tippi Hedren in it some episodes ago (Star of the film The Birds), as an older woman but Taylor Swift, as a younger woman, was in one episode as well. Episode Turn turn turn. She's a better actor than David Bowie ever was :o) I know you're not remotely interested in that info but swift fans might be :o)
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