FAREWELL then to the great Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but we will long remember the Clydesiders - the cheery volunteers - who helped make it a special occasion.
As Mike Ritchie says: "As we made our way to the SECC Precinct, with my eight-year-old giving high-fives to every Clydesider possible, one of them, spotting a glum-faced gent, shouted out cheekily, 'You're no in Edinburgh noo - go on smile'. And the bloke did."
The wrong track
Hooked on Scotland presenter Paul Young was amazed when his journalist wife Sheila Duffy was chosen as a Games volunteer. He suggested her sporting knowledge was perhaps lacking and reminded her: "When I mentioned that it was a pity Mo Farah wouldn't be coming to Glasgow, you replied, 'Who's she again?'"
Hard to swallow
SARAH Sillars in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, tells us her mum was going through security at the Games when the security chap asked her if she had any smart phones or tablets in her possession. "No, I'm not on any medication," she replied.
Men in black
IN fact we only had one report of a Clydesider not being appreciated. A reader tell us: "One Clydesider at the entrance to the Games Village in Dalmarnock was pleased to enthusiastically welcome four well-dressed newcomers. On completing his green foam finger waving and well-rehearsed pleasantries, one of the four, a sinister-looking man in a black suit, put our humble volunteer in his place. 'That is no way to address the Vice-President of Uganda!' he barked."
Sharp thinking
SOME flash gear the athletes have these days at the Games. It reminds Sheriff James Murphy of different times when his brother was head gym teacher at a school in Stirling. Recalls James: "There was no tradition of athletics at the school, and my brother, himself an athlete, tried to introduce it. To encourage his more enthusiastic lads, he took a small party to the Scottish Schools Championships in Edinburgh. Of course they won nothing, but were not downhearted. As they explained on the bus home, 'Sir, we had nae chance. They hud nails in their saunies'."
Whole new spin
SO what's been happening in the world of politics while we've been blissfully watching the Games? Well Scottish Secretary, the LibDem Alistair Carmichael, attended a dinner at Glasgow Central Mosque to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, where he was accidentally introduced to the audience as "Alistair Campbell" who was, of course, Tony Blair's abrasive spin doctor.
Our Alistair cheerfully replied: "I have been called worse - though cannot remember exactly when."
Fringe benefits
AND of course, the Edinburgh Fringe has begun. Actor Simon Callow, who is at the Assembly Hall with his show Juvenalia, jumped into a black cab on his arrival in the capital. He had no doubt he was back in Edinburgh when he received the typical Fringe welcome from the driver, who turned round, looked at him, sighed and said: "Oh, is it that time of year? Are you here again?"
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