I had a solo night away in Aberdeen recently. A slightly under 24 hours stay, so I may not have got a full impression of the place.... But. It was dreich. Grey. Uninspiring. I did get to see a great gig, but that was about the only highlight. It rained persistently, it was ridiculously cold for the time of year, I had a rubbish pizza for dinner and the hotel breakfast was even worse. I will go back, but - Aberdeen, you need to do better. (Any Aberdonians or lovers of the Granite City reading this will no doubt be able to put me right.)
On the morning before I caught my train homewards I wandered about, looking hopefully for photographic subjects without much turning up. And occasionally dodging into shops to get out of the damp for a few minutes. One of those was TK Maxx, just at random. And something happened. I saw this.
A splash of colour to relieve the greyness of the day was one thing. But this display set my mind off on an unexpected journey. On my back I had a change of clothes, toiletries, a laptop. I could buy a suitcase, get a pair of jeans and a few tee shirts, other bits and pieces, all for around £200 or so. There'd be a bookshop at the railway station to stock up on the essentials - books. Another flash of the credit card in the ticket office and I could be off, away, somewhere, anywhere. It suddenly felt very appealing, just vanishing for a week. Switch off the phone, hide from the planet.
That I should have this thought reflects the influence of the novel I was reading at the time, Paul Auster's The Music of Chance. The central character was living a life on the road, aimless and arbitrary in his directions, pointless in his progress. At the time, surprise surprise, I hadn't yet reached the point in the book where his life spirals out of control into a world of threats and violence and tragedy...
I didn't go of course, but wandered on a bit more, still taking photos of grey.
And finding a highlight in the rain.
And then I got on my train, reading on to the point where the 'hit the road' idea seemed a little less attractive.
Anyway, I had my gorgeous female to come home to. How could I ever have considered anything else?
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