Props to the ceiling

Went along to help with the 'Home Street Clearout' with some of the other members of the Grads today. The group owns a rather strange props and costume store on the ground floor of a tenement. The only access is through an unobtrusive door on the street between a couple of shops, and down this corridor. At the end of the corridor it opens out into a workshop space, with a couple of side rooms and an upper mezzanine level where all the costumes are. This weekend the group is making a real attempt to chuck out some old stuff that hasn't been used in years and create a bit more space (a) to make more scenery and props in the future and (b) see what we have in there so there is more chance that things will get used more often. As we went through the old bits of furniture, people remembered the productions they had been used in over the years. While I was there today we filled a couple of van-loads to take to the dump. Some things didn't even make it into the van as passers-by asked if they could take some of the furniture we had piled up in the street waiting for the van to came back.

For lunch we went up the road to what used to be The Auld Toll pub but is now some trendy cocktail bar with bare stone walls, plush couches and food and prices to match. Sad to see how different it now is, but change is the nature of things, and I expect old-style pubs have been struggling in recent years. It was L's local when we first met, as she lived in a flat just a few doors along, and was also the place we went to after Labour Party meetings at the Tollcross Community Centre so we had quite a few political discussions in there.