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Tuesday, October 04, 2011

-25

i remember the best pizza in the world.
after much debate and putting it off it was decided that we would sometimes put a person out on the road to go see some of our retailers. for some it was seen as a plum job (out of the office; bit of a jolly) to others it was a chore (hate retailers; smelly oiks). i enjoyed it – got to see some of the country, stay in hotels and hanging out with (in the main) nice people.
i like glasgow. it is a beautiful city. one of my favourite retailers (and i would like to think friend) has a shop there. so i was looking forward to being there. normally i would do such shop tours alone – this time i was accompanied by dan.
we did our jobs. we went around a number of shops. we commented on their stock. their layouts. we talked to them. we listened to them. we questioned them. we answered them. there were some lies; there were a few excuses and a couple of lies (well no need to hurt the feelings of the retailers).
first night we were there we stayed in the hotel bar chatting to a retailer and his wife. dan was happy to keep getting the drinks in: the joy of being on expenses. stories were told. laughs were had.
second night and we went out with a bunch of the staff from one of the shops. we went to a local pub. the bar was packed. the music was loud. the accents were thick. as the evening wore on the noise grew and the accents got thicker and i understood less and less of what was said to me. until in the end i was just nodding and shaking my head. no one seemed to notice (or care).
from there they took us to a local club that played hard rock music. we danced ourselves stupid. i shook my head. i sweated. i threw metal shapes and air guitar. it was a great night and a shame it came to an end.
we said our goodbyes and walked back to the hotel.
we detoured – hey it was late and we were pumped.
we found ourselves at the st. enoch centre.
we found a busy take-away with a large queue outside it. we joined the line. it moved slowly. people were either ordering a lot of stuff or changing their mind as to what they wanted.
my turn came – i got the largest pizza they did. dan did the same.
we sat outside at 2am on a chilly sunday morning, still coated in sweat, scoffing pizza.
the pizza was great. the company we had kept were great. the night had been great.
in fact we decided that sometimes the best things in life were the simple things. in the moment of eating pizza in a glasgow shopping centre very early in the morning we knew were having one of those times.

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