Panorama

by Alex Hetherington, 12 Feb 2008

We were given spectacular views from Isobel’s apartment today – 11 floors up with views over the park, over the town, over to the hills, with what looked like smog, a seam across the terrain and then to Grangemouth. Today was bright and clear. The apartment made me have vertigo. I was convinced the building was swaying but it wasn’t. And then it’s so quiet and hot up there. Isobel has one of those enormous flat screen plasma TVs that turn front rooms into cinemas and she is really fascinating with an audacious and poised outlook on life. These views, her personality would fill that TV. She has been very generous with us and has donated boxes and boxes of slides and an old projector to look through what looks like 1000s of images. There was some shame in her voice as she said some of the slides were of Orange Walks. I can’t comment on this yet.

This residency is beginning to reveal some difficult situations. I am thinking about it a great deal and am glad that I am away for a couple of weeks soon. Falkirk is a difficult place I think. There is something about the voices here that I can’t quite explain yet. When I get back I think I should have more to offer here.