River City in Yorkhill Hospital: Trials of an Extra part 4

Welcome to my wee photoblog on Glasgow, where we feature the  joys and unjoys of walking and cycling through a fascinating, beautiful and often badly run city. For the blog's origin and a  list of all posts see the  'Introduction' post  -

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.com/2010/02/introduction.html

 Feel free to drop me an email with suggestions, offers of £20 notes etc. The address is damnyouebay@gmail.com. I have had to start watermarking the pics as I have come across one big website using a pic without permission - I suppose there must be others.

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Today is Friday,  and we are heading for Yorkhill Hospital  for Sick Children to be an extra  in the popular BBC soap River City. I am to be a porter. For previous trials as an extra see

Taggart: Trials of an Extra part 1
http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/taggart.html
 Single Parent: Trials of an Extra part 2
http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/single-parent.html
'We're not being paid enough for this', Trials of an Extra Part 3, Garrow's Law
http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/were-not-being-paid-enough-for-this.html

8.15 start, just about to cross Argyle St over to the Kelvin Hall - looking east

Looking west

We're heading down Burnhouse Rd on right. Good morning joggers

The base camp is up here on the right, in the car park opposite the old Transport Museum. The filming takes place in the derelict part of Yorkhill Children's Hospital. For the Hospital, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Hospital_for_Sick_Children,_Glasgow

Getting changed into my porter costume, we share a room with the Irn-Bru snowman; great ad that was. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfiqrkV_ZqI

Wee bit cracked,  old lad - just like me

Yes show it to the dentist - you're not the only Glaswegian to lose his teeth to Irn-Bru

The windows this side look out onto Yorkhill Park, possibly the most neglected park in the west of Scotland. For a nervy walk through Yorkhill Park see

http://glasgowalbum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/yorkhill-park-to-secc-to-finnieston.html

An empty hospital is a strange place. . .

. . .full of echoes from  the past. . .

. . .and doors though which have passed much sorrow

North Wing reception. 

Buttons to a lost world

Staff Gym

Scales. Many metaphor options here

This is a  modern building of course, but it is also a haunted place  of old prayers - some answered, some not

Ghosts on the bed and floor.

'The maidens came
   When I was in my mother's bower;
I had all that I would.
   The bailey beareth the bell away;
   The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.
The silver is white, red is the gold;
The robes they lay in fold.
   The bailey beareth the bell away;
   The lily, the rose, the rose I lay. . .'

'. . .And through the glass window shines the sun.
How could I love and I so young?
   The bailey beareth the bell away;
   The lily, the rose, the rose I lay.'

A message on the board

A hierarchy of needs - in a realm of cantrips and spells

We are called up. I push a young woman about  in a wheelchair and miraculously manage not to tip her on the floor or bump into anyone or anything

A rota for staff who - like the patients - have moved on

Sister

Wave to our snowman friend

A bench outside - maybe someone will sit on it again

Well it is after 2 and we are heading down to Burnhouse Rd car park for lunch. The coffee break was rubbish - urns of tea and coffee and a packet of custard creams ('really spoiling us')

Approaching the older hospital buildings

Lunch is not bad, though just one veggie option. Catering on set is usually OK. Note actor in dressing gown

Unloved looking bike - abandoned maybe

Oh well,  we head back

Fragile roof behind there

New Yorkhill building on left

Back wandering the corridors. They like extras to stay in one place but that rarely happens on long days. Anyway, custard creams?

'Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use the good passport, sooner or later each of use is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.' - Susan Sontag

We are called to set again. I have a  'senior moment' in which I forget my orientation  for a scene. Then to make matters worse, I mess up a scene rehearsal. I apologise to the rather fearsome assistant director, who waves the apology away, 'that's what rehearsals are for', she says. ADs (assistant directors) are often brusque to SAs (supporting artistes) but this lady is tough and fair to all, a rare beast on any set. For the actual take, I have to walk through the actors and over cables and round lights and past another extra heading in my direction, Again, somehow, I achieve this without  bringing everything down about me. No Roland Villiers moment  this time. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ShJQvO1cg&feature=related

We lie briefly - very briefly - on the mattress

'Four patients per bed' - brilliant

'I pray you, remember the porter' - Macbeth

After seven now, we are set free,

Uni on left, Kelvingrove Museum ahead

Pharaoh exhibition at Kelvingrove

Looking back at Kelvin Hall

Still light-ish in the wes

Atkinson Grimshaw is for me the greatest painter of Glasgow - beautiful and strange
http://www.johnatkinsongrimshaw.org/search

Round the back of the museum now

A face in the tower

Looking back at Kevin Hall from the bridge at Kelvin Way (I saw a kingfisher here last year)

Thank you for browsing, dear visitor. My other wee blogs are

http://parkeddogs.blogspot.com/

http://buddhasblackdog.blogspot.com/

Reviews of Scotland: 1000 Things You Need to Know


RADIO AND TELEVISON

'I love it - I'm giving this copy to a friend and buying another for myself' - Darren Adam, Presenter, Radio Forth, 17 November 2008

‘It’s a great wee book’ – Stephen Jardine, introducing Edwin Moore on Scottish Television’s Five-Thirty Show

'A fantastic book' - Scott Wilson , talk 107 Breakfast Show host

'A great read' - Dougie Jackson, Drivetime host, Smooth Radio 105.2

THE PRESS

'Despite its apparently humorous format, this is a serious and extensive dictionary on all things Scottish; from Jean Redpath to Lorne sausage, from Flodden to the Corries. Is particularly good on history and minutiae. There's a useful chapter on famous Scottish legal cases and another on literature. Excellent' - Royal Scottish Legion, Feb 2009

'This is the ultimate Scottish reference book' - Waterstones Christmas catalogue, 2008

'This is a fascinating look at the history of Scotland: its languages, politics and great achievements, from its origins in the ancient landmass of Laurentia 400 million years ago, to devolution and Billy Connolly. Edwin Moore has collected a thousand important facts about this beautiful country, covering Scottish history and culture, correcting misconceptions, and examining the mysteries of haggis and bagpipes with insight, warmth and impressive attention to detail' - The Good Book Guide, November 2008


'This is a recipe for revealing how horribly ill informed you are about your country. Although, if you are skillful, you can nod sagely as you read some new fact and mutter 'Ah, yes!' as if recalling the information from your excellent schooling. Where else will you find a real recipe for making haggis from scratch side by side with a potted biography of David Hume; a section of the Declaration of Arbroath and the curiously touching fact that Lulu was only 15 when she had a hit with 'Shout'? The whole thing is of course, silly - but oh so addictive.' - Matthew Perren, i-on Glasgow, December 2008


'. . . well crafted and witty' - Bill Howatson, Aberdeen Press and Journal, 18 October 2008


‘While most of Edwin’s entries are entertaining and scholarly – he writes like a Scottish Bill Bryson – it is when he takes an interest in the backwaters of history, the details lost down the back of the sofa, that he is at his best’ – Jack McKeown, The Courier, 27 October 2008


'History, it is said, is written by the victors. Trivia, meanwhile, is written by the guys with the smeared spectacles and the breathable rainwear. The first discipline is linear and causal; to quote from Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys, history is “just one f****** thing after another”. Things look different, though, when viewed through the prism of trivia. The past is reduced to one big coleslaw of fascinating facts that in their randomness tell a more mixed-up tale entirely.
The first approach leads to big, frowning books by the likes of Tom Devine and Michael Fry. The latter results in small, cheerful books such as Scotland: 1,000 Things You Need to Know, Edwin Moore’s valiant attempt to navigate the more trivial contours of enlightenment and clearances, crown and parliament, dirt and deity.
Moore proceeds from a sincere and controversial first principle: Scotland is really a rather pleasant and interesting place. . .As a work of popular scholarship, though, it’s in a different league to the Scottish novelty titles that get stocked next to the bookstore tills as potential impulse purchases, those little handbooks of parliamo Caledonia and regional braggadocio, such as Weegies vs Edinbuggers.' - Allan Brown The Sunday Times, 21 September 2008

'In his book, Scotland: 1000 Things You Need to Know, Edwin celebrates all that sets us Scots as a race apart - our language, law, flora, food, and of course, our people. From our poets, architects and inventors, to our artists, entertainers and fighters. But he doesn't shy away from the more unpleasant aspects of our history. . .' - Robert Wight, Sunday Post, 14 September 2008

‘We think we know all about William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and the Union of the Crowms. However, according to Edwin Moore, author of , Scotland: 1000 Things You Need to Know, we’re still in the dark about many aspects of our history and culture. . . The Big Issue looks at 20 of the most astonishing examples of secret Scotland.’ – The Big Issue, 18-24 September 2008

'What's the connection between Homer Simpson and Larbert, and why are generations of lawyers grateful to a Paisley snail? Need to know more? Author Edwin Moore has gathered 1000 facts like these about Scotland in a quirky new book. Brian Swanson selects a few favourites. . .' - Scottish Daily Express, 13 September 2008

'The palm for Christmas-stocking books seems to have passed recently to popular science, with best selling titles every year such as Why Don’t Penguins’ Feet Freeze? This year there has been a gallant attempt at a historical fight back. Scotland: 1,000 Things You Need to Know(Atlantic Books, £12.99) asks (and answers) such post-turkey questions as ‘How many kings of Scotland died in their beds?’, ‘Who on earth decided that the Declaration of Arbroath was the cornerstone of modern democracy?’ or ‘Why is iron brew spelled Irn-Bru?’ Mark Mazower,History Today; The Best of History in 2008, December 2008

'A real treat for the serendipitous Scotophile' - Reginald Hill

FROM THE INTERWEB


www.Booksfromscotland.com (on the new paperback edition)
Book of the Month, May 2010
'Whether it's Scottish lochs or Enlightenment philosophers, the facts of the devolution referendums or the mysteries of Irn-Bru, myths will be debunked and truths revealed in this light-hearted but rigorous overview of Scottish history and culture.'


Also available for download on Amazon's e-book store is my 100 Brief Encounters (only £3.06!)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Brief-Encounters-ebook/dp/B006CQ8G84/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322393003&sr=1-1

Here are some reviews of the print edition (published by  Chambers in 2007) -


Edwin Moore's quirky collection of a hundred encounters between (mostly) important historical figures is a gem of a book. Where else could you get concise enlightening accounts of Henry VIII wrestling with Francis I, Geronimo surrendering to General Miles, Ernest Hemingway presenting Fidle Castro with a fishing trophy or (as seen on the books cover) a baby faced Bill Clinton shaking hands with John F Kennedy. A marvelous 'little window on human history. ' - Dominic Kennerk, Waterstone's Product Planning and Promotions Co-ordinator (From the Waterstone's 'We Recommend' list for 2008)


Witty, light and packed with information -- The Sunday Herald


In 1936, in the wake of winning a clutch of gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, the great athlete Jesse Owens was snubbed by an imperious leader, on racial grounds. Popular belief would have it that the leader was Hitler, who is said to have stormed off, furious to see a black man beating European athletes. In fact the man in question was President Roosevelt, who worried that paying attention to Owens' triumphs might be a vote loser. Although Owens and the German Chancellor never talked, Owens claimed that Hitler greeted him with an enthusiastic wave. Such near-misses, shakings of hands and ships-in-the-night meetings are the subject of Brief Encounters – Meetings between mostly remarkable people, a likeable new book by Edwin Moore (Chambers £7.99). Flicking through the index, you will find some expected encounters (Dante stares at Beatrice, Corday stabs Marat, The Beatles strum along to a Charlie Rich record round at Elvis's house), and the book's intriguing and memorable cover shows a baby-faced Bill Clinton manfully gripping the hand of JFK. But Moore has navigated past some of the more obvious collisions, collusions and confrontations of history (there is no Dr Livingstone, I presume) and much of the book's pleasure derives from lesser known incidents.

Inevitably, some of the accounts of earlier meetings are somewhat sketchy but Moore offers some piquant speculation, laced with humour (the book is tagged Reference / Humour, rather than History and this feels right, but the book, though wry and opinionated, never stoops to wackiness). I was intrigued to discover that, though Attila the Hun did die on his wedding night, it was not in drunken and lecherous debauchery, as his enemies maintained, but supposedly because he was generally a simple and clean-living man who had a few too many which brought on a particularly bad nosebleed.

Moore's book is full of such tales – it would be wrong of me to steal the tastiest morsels of his research and pepper this article with them, but look out for a subsidiary reason for the Gunpowder Plot (too many dour and powerful Scots in Parliament); a great meeting of great beards, as Castro wins the Hemingway prize for sea-fishing; Dali bringing a skeptical Freud round to the art of the surrealists; Buffalo Bill's wife claiming an aged Queen Victoria had propositioned him; Oscar Wilde getting a kiss from Walt Whitman, while Walter Scott was more taken with Burns's charismatic eyes. This is an enjoyable and vigorous rattle through some fascinating and believable yarns. My only quibble is that it's a little on the short side – let's have Volume 2 please Chambers! - Roddy Lumsden, www.Books from Scotland.com