dallis « [last year's girl]

Still, I believe, four Israel related posts to come – but it’s been a good weekend, and I’m going back to work tomorrow for eight days out of the next nine, and I wanted to take a little break to celebrate it. Sorry Mummy

It started at Auntie M’s Cake Lounge, on the upper floor of the old deCourcey’s Arcade; fast becoming my favourite little shopping spot in Glasgow. Neil-bear and I had been foiled by illness in our quest to sample Auntie’s wares before I left for Jerusalem, but I’m happy to announce it was worth the wait. A perfect little space to finish up my travel journals, like sitting in somebody’s front room only back in the 1950s, and in the raspberry and white chocolate the most incredible cupcake I have experienced in Glasgow to date. And I have eaten a lot of cupcakes.

Those first days of Glasgow sunshine, when it’s still pretty chilly but half the city runs outside in t-shirts and ice cream sales skyrocket anyway, are my favourite. It’s like we appreciate them all the more after a long winter and rainy spring. I met Miss America for a wander, and we sat in the Botanics for a while messing around with the camera and peoplewatching. There were the usual overaffectionate young couples and crowds of students, two pensioners in shorts with their shirts off and a scruffy-haired boy with a pile of books by the pond. “You’ve been here fer a while if you’ve read aw them!” somebody shouted. Ah, Glasgow.

Credit to Miss America for the bottom photograph.

And then yesterday, of course, was Record Store Day so I got up early and planned to be at Monorail before opening hoping I could get my hands on one of the limited edition Hold Steady vinyl albums. However the queue was already halfway to the Note, and the guy two places in front of me was a lot luckier (as, unfortunately, was this chap). “Someone got in front of me at Avalanche, I know exactly how you feel right now,” he told me once I settled for the Bruce Springsteen single. All’s well that ends well though, because at least I got to go home and preorder my copy – even if it’s not the limited edition clear one.

At least I got a cupcake. Although, Mono being Mono, it was a vegan one and made I think from flowers instead of flour.

You know what though? It was amazing to see my favourite record store so busy. I was evesdropping on the conversation the two guys behind me in the queue were having – basically one playing devil’s advocate, asking exactly what it was that labels get from bricks-and-mortar stores in an age when everything is accessible for cheaper online, and what sense of community do stores provide when we can trade recommendations on blogs and via Twitter. And I’ll tell you what it is: because had I managed to go home with that record tucked under my arm and if I had been able to play it that very afternoon, I would have been the happiest little girl in Glasgow. As it is, I’ll hope the planes start flying again so I can look forward to its arrival.

Which isn’t to say that there’s nothing to be gained from instantly accessible .mp3s downloads. “Ten Times”, the second single from the Kays Lavelle’s forthcoming Be Still This Gentle Morning, is out tomorrow from Wiseblood Industries – complete with a Japanese War Effort remix of the track. You can download it for free here.

Yesterday was the loveliest afternoon. It started out with lunch, tea, girlie gossip and cakes that looked as delicious as they tasted at Brewhaha on the ground floor of Buchanan Galleries. We then decamped to Boudiche to investigate potential bridal lingerie; and the girls there flattered us, fitted us and kept us topped up with champagne and chocolate as we explored an endless array of pretties while wandering around the boutique in dressing gowns. It’s an experience I’d thoroughly recommend if you’re getting married yourself, or are just looking for a special treat.

For the first time, I really felt like I was going to be a bride.

Despite my many moans about money worries and headaches, don’t think I don’t know that I am very blessed at being able to call some of the most incredible women I have ever met my friends. They’re smart, gorgeous, talented and adept at finding sneaky ways to buy you lunch or drinks before you realise that’s what they are doing. We’ve spent our formative years together, sharing laughter and tears and pitchers of dubious cocktail. Yesterday, Bobby and the Blonde and I joked about how, five years ago, we’d never have seen this coming: taking afternoon tea and chatting about weddings. But I think, in a way, we did – our lives have changed in ways we could never have imagined, but I have never been more certain that it will be the same faces I’ll be cackling away with in the nursing home shocking the young’uns with our tattoos and our tales of that one night in that one club.

And you know, a whole bunch of the time we would never have met if it hadn’t been for LiveJournal or whatever. The other week, at Miss America’s wedding, somebody asked how we had met and I did the usual looking at the floor and wondering what the other person was going to think before I muttered “the internet”. “That’s cool!” was the exclamation. “It must have been one heck of a blog comment!” And I thought, you know what? It really is. Here I am at the wedding of somebody I really love, who a year ago was just a screenname, and that’s a really fricking big deal.

Be they in Harthill or Heswall, Maidenhead or Melbourne, I wouldn’t be the person I am today without a kickass posse behind me. I just hope they all know how much I appreciate that.