Graffiti

Slightly unexpected bit of graffiti in a Glasgow side street.

In the series "interesting people I have met on trains": I was visiting my sister at uni in Newcastle and on the way got taking to a girl on the train who said she'd been on a work experience journalism placement at the Chronicle when Alan Shearer was signed to Newcastle.

This was huge news and the journalist she was working with got sent to interview his parents. He was telling her what a massive story it was and how she was so lucky to be involved. She told me that she had lived in Newcastle when she was little but they'd moved away, so it hadn't really come up in the placement that in fact, she'd used to live next door to the Shearers... When they turned up to the house, Alan's mum recognised her immediately and spent the whole time asking her how her mum and dad were getting on and what she and all her siblings were up to. The journalist was furious and was working really hard to get back to his interview but there wasn't much he could do.

We spent quite a while sitting on the train floor laughing our heads off...

If nothing else, it tells me Alan Shearer's parents were completely normal and lovely Newcastle people. I guarantee ham rolls were laid on.