Perth and Dundee

East Scotland – September 2008

At Perth, by a roundabout on the edge of town, we get a coffee from a machine in a garage. Lorry-drivers and van drivers buying both a coffee to drink in the cab and scratchcards to hope to win a way out of the cab, maybe. A thin dark woman sitting alone at a table and drinking a coffee and tinkering with her mobile. What’s she doing there? One of the cashiers complaining about form-filling and the boss telling her quite forcefully that if the rule is she has to fill in the forms then that’s what she has to do – all in full view and hearing of the customers.

Then new territory, the dual carriageway to Aberdeen, and negotiate the roundabouts of Dundee, we see a bus heading out to the dreary-looking suburb of Fintry, people in the bus returning to their grey Scottish housing estates, and not looking any too pleased about the prospect: young pasty-faced girls, wondering whether they are missing out on something in life – or are they? Are they actually contented and eagerly anticipating an exciting future, and they just look pasty and displeased?