Red-Letter Days


The last solar eclipse visible in Scotland was 16 years ago and I know exactly where I was then because I kept a detailed diary of events which led to me turning my back on a twenty-year union career and my job as Unison's Head of Local Government in Scotland.

Now if you ask me life plays tricks on you at times because that day was indeed 'a red-letter day', as today is as well given the recent news on equal pay from North Lanarkshire. 

HERE COMES THE SUN

Wednesday 11 August 1999


Eclipse fever had taken over the gym in Glasgow this morning. As I pounded the treadmill a strange face filled the televisions screens around the walls, normally showing music videos. It was Patrick Moore, the astronomer and one of a dying breed of English eccentrics. I could not hear what he was saying. It only dawned on me as I listened to the third song in a row featuring lyrics about the sun and the moon: REM’s Man on the Moon, Fergal Sharkey’s Whole of the Moon and Neil Young’s Harvest Moon. All came and went before the penny dropped. The big eclipse was only minutes away. As I left the gym and drove to my meeting I stopped at the traffic lights on the corner of Minard Road and Pollokshaws Road. I looked up idly to my right and found myself staring straight at a pub on the opposite corner, which was called The Corona. Spooky or what! I knew from that moment on it was going to be a red-letter day.

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