Twitterings and Uninformed Opinions

Money found on the ground 2025

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 11:23:18 GMT

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.

This year's total is £42.00 which is an increase on last year. Activity has been comparable with last year.

There were two remarkable finding event this year. I found a £10 on Shields Road and a fiver on Argyle St. There were 371 coins found in total which is a decrease on last year.

Seven pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate of less than one every month. Three 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 6c Euro and 1c US which is a decrease on last year. Still indicative of very depressed tourist activity. The most distressing was 3x 200 Hungarian solnits which looked like £2 coins.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? Still the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments. People are generally using cash less.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, but decreasing on last year.

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Money Found on the Ground 2024

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 17:48:45 GMT

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.

This year's total is £32.98 which is a decrease on last year. Activity has been comparable with last year.

MFOG 2024 Annual Comparison

There was one remarkable finding event this year. I found a £5 near near the shop on Shields Road. There were 405 coins found in total which is a slight decrease on last year.

Ten pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate of less than one every month. Three 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 26c Euro and 10c US which is a decrease on last year. Still indicative of very depressed tourist activity

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? Still the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments. People are generally using cash less.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, increasing on last year.

MFOG 2024 20p Analysis

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Money Found on the Ground 2023

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 15:41:24 GMT

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.

This year's total is £62.29 which is an increase on last year. Activity has been comparable with last year.

MFOG 2023 Annual Comparison

There were three remarkable finding events this year. I found a £20 near Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh, £10 at the Barras and £10 on Buchanan Street. There were 409 coins found in total which is a slight decrease on last year.

Five pound coins have been found which is a decrease on last year and a rate of less than one every two months. Three 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 40c Euro and 6c US which is a decrease on last year. Still indicative of very depressed tourist activity

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? This year has been very unusual in that there have been three large finds. This has not happened to this extent before. There is probably no sense in drawing any comparisons. But I will say that the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments. People are generally using cash less.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, increasing on last year.

MFOG 2023 20p Analysis

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Money Found on the Ground 2022

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 17:03:06 GMT

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.

This year's total is £23.37 which is an increase on last year. Activity has been comparable with last year.

MFOG 2022 Annual Comparison

There were no remarkable coin finding events this year. There were 415 coins found in total which is an increase on last year, surprisingly.

Seven pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate just over one every 2 months. Three 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 68c Euro and 2c US which is an increase on last year, but with US tourists markedly absent.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? This year has been very unusual although quite similar to last year. There is probably no sense in drawing any comparisons. But I will say that the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, but a decrease on last year.

MFOG 2021 20p Analysis

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The Viral Video - The Balloon Guy makes a Raptor

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:18:47 GMT

I thought I'd write down some of my thoughts on the recent viral video we had to share the experience from my point of view as creator and admin. At time of writing the vid has 20.1m views, 3.4k comments, 188k reactions, 34.5m reach, 10.3k shares.

On Monday 27th December 2021 I was hanging out on Buchanan street at TGIs. Ally Rennet was playing in the background. I had just recorded him and posted him on the page. I had also just recorded Daniel Ladds so I had two excellent vids and didn't need anything else. I was hanging out chatting to Rickshaw Tom and Chris Craighead (The Balloon Guy).

Lorna and Charlie came up to get a balloon from Chris. I stepped back so Chris could deal with his customers. While Charlie was asking for a blue dinosaur which Chris couldn't do as he didn't have enough balloons, I asked Lorna if it was okay to film Chris making Charlie a balloon dino. I made this decision as animals are often quicker to make than characters and I thought a short video would play better on the page. In the end Charlie asked for a brown dino (didn't want a green one).

I started filming and right away I could see that Charlie was a great kid and an enthusiastic and engaged audience. This really brings out Chris's performing side and he warms right up to Charlie. They have this incredible double act going on in seconds. Chris and I did a video once before that got 10K views which we were pleased with and Chris has said that it completely depends on the personality and engagement level of the kid if the vid is a success or not.

That day when I went home I cut out the last 10secs or so of the finished balloon and Charlie's reaction to it for tiktok which lends itself to short vids. That vid was fairly popular but not wildly so despite the Jurassic Park music I put over the top of it.

On Thursday 30th December 2021 I came up the town to collect content. However it was very quiet and I thought I would have no one to film. I posted Chris's video at 10am. By lunchtime I had got some content and when I checked the page I was stunned to find that Chris's balloon dino vid had 20k views. Normally if a vid has 10k views by the end of the day I feel it's doing very well. This had 10k views in an hour. This is unprecedented. I messaged Chris with the news. By the end of the day it was at 1million views and Chris and I couldn't take our eyes off it.

I started to monitor comments intensively. When a video goes worldwide and viral a lot of very weird people suddenly come out of the woodwork and they are often very ignorant or just nasty. The reason we think this vid went viral was because of the engagement and I didn't want to disrupt that too much. But I also didn't want Charlie, Lorna or Chris to be made to feel bad in anyway. We had the following comment threads:-

Most people being very positive about how lovely it was. How great Chris and Lorna are with Charlie. How great Charlie is. How clever, funny and engaging Chris is and how generally great the video is. That's the vast majority of the comments.

One guy said the vid was too long, he was bored and I should have made it 30s. That generated about 90 reactions alone and 40 odd replies about his short attention span. I even told him that there was a 10s version on tiktok if that was suitable. That was a fairly common comment even though the vid was literally 5mins long. TBH I'd've been a bit ashamed to admit that especially in public.

There were a lot of enquiries about where the vid was shot and I answered everyone of those as it's neutral. One woman actually argued that it was Paisley which was pretty funny. Why can't people see that it's posted by BuskersofGlasgow and work out where it is from that? There was also a bit of debate about which street it was on and once again people actually arguing with me about it.

Some people asked about the music playing in the background and that was an opportunity for me to tag Ally and add to the engagement.

One person complained that it was a very low resolution video and I responded with the make and model of device I was using and one person responded with three pics of how to change the resolution on their device for better viewing.

A number of people asked what Chris was making as they hadn't/couldn't read the title. This prompted another argument about whether velociraptors had wings and feathers and could fly with someone responding with links to wikipedia articles to set them right.

There were a fair number of people commenting on the price of the balloon and an equally large number of people pointing out that it's Chris's job and why shouldn't he get paid and that a fiver was pretty cheap for that experience and that amount of enjoyment.

There were a lot of people complaining about the lack of masks or the presence of masks. I left all of those as it's neutral and not about the people in the video and it can be good to let those sorts of arguments rage. It's all engagement.

There was even a fire engine in this video which I had actually forgotten about in all the excitement.

The comments I had to delete were about Charlie being an annoying kid. He's not, he's adorable. There were a few about Chris needing to get a "proper job". There was a small amount of what I call negative yapping such as "shit" or "crap". Not much of that. I deleted quite a lot of spam posting where people would post a link to their unrelated videos on youtube. I just deleted all of that.

The messages I got to the page were mostly yapping "hi, hi, hi". One woman was trying the befriending technique on me. This happened a previous time to me too where they try to work out who I am by asking personal questions. Or by flattering me saying what a nice person I am (?). And when I decline to answer those questions they ask things that they can easily find the answer to if they just look at the about section on the page or watch some of the videos. That's what alerts me to that fact that they are some kind of scammer who is looking for a deeper connection to later tap me for money. Also a bit of incomprehensible copy paste spam where they don't actually ask me for money but you know that's eventually where it's going. And someone who comments repeatedly on stories in a language that google translate has problems with. That's an unsolved mystery.

So far Chris has a few hundred extra likes on his page and some enquiries about gigs and stuff. I've had about 10K extra followers, 2k additional likes. Nothing from the press. We don't know if this will lead to anything else. The vid has slowed a lot and is no longer actively viral. Still getting a few views on it though and sometimes you get a resurgence. I'll update if there are any developments on this later.

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Money Found on the Ground 2021

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 13:02:44 GMT

Here is the Money Found on the Ground Annual Update.

This year's total is £18.88 which is an increase on last year. This may be slightly unexpected due to lockdown at the start of the year but we did have a very active Summer and Autumn.

There were no remarkable coin finding events this year. There were 344 coins found in total which is an increase on last year, surprisingly.

Five pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate just over one every 3 months. Two 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 26c Euro and 8c US which is a decrease on last year, but with no tourists in the country, not surprising.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year I have been walking to the office most days of the week. In fact I cover 6-7miles everyday. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week or in this year, even every month.

What can we conclude? This year has been very unusual although quite similar to last year. There is probably no sense in drawing any comparisons. But I will say that the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments despite there being no real evidence that coronavirus survives on coins.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, but and an increase on last year.

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Buskers of Glasgow - Three years on

Fri, 14 May 2021 09:52:21 GMT

On the 12th June 2021 the Instagram page will be three years old.

The last narrative update was August and we had a patchy time through the Autumn and Winter with lockdowns and tier systems that no one really understood. When it was still possible to have an audience to play for, then the buskers of Glasgow were out, but lockdown on the 26th of December meant a cessation of all activity.

Until Ross and Kieran started to play in the park. Some of the others joined in park busking and I did park livestreams and started park and city walk arounds. That was just to give me something to do and give the fans an explanation for why there was no videos for them apart from occasional reshares and saved vids from Christmas. It was difficult collecting content at this time as I really only live close to a couple of parks that were being used. I could only really go to the others at weekends and days off, but I still managed to get some great videos. With the arrival of Spring we had some great afternoons in parks in the sun.

After a couple of new viral videos (Gary with Brown Eyed Girl and a resurge of Kiera Marks’ Son of a Preacher Man video) the page has a new lease of life. We currently have 51K likes and 87K followers. We also have 17 subscribers and stars are enabled on the page. The reach peaked at this time at 2.37M.

During May I handed out the collected money to the buskers and have so far distributed £400 and there is money coming in every month.

Live music indoors is allowed from the 17th but indoor gathering s are still small. The weather is not good enough yet for garden parties but I have had enquiries on the page for buskers for a few outdoor events. At the time of writing large groups are still not allowed to gather outside but that is due to change in May. There have been rumblings that indoor live music at full capacity will start in September and the others are hopeful that their pub and restaurant gigs will resume then.

Personally I have recorded a podcast with Bobby Hamilton and David Walker which has not yet been released. There are no other broadcast opportunities at this stage and it sounds like the Saturday Jam session at Celtic Music Radio is dead completely as the radio station is giving up the studio space to downsize.
We had a fraud account set themselves up called “BusketsofGladgow – give” and facebook wouldn’t take it down. I had to report them for copyright violation as they had stolen my logo and one of my pics so that they looked like me. I was very disappointed with facebook’s lack of response to a profile that was clearly set up to fool people. It’s still there, but at least it doesn’t look like my page anymore.

We have no events planned atm and no plans for the future. Although the page is stronger than ever from a likes and followers perspective, I feel it has no direction and there are no promotion opportunities at the moment. And despite the monetary handouts I’m not sure I’m doing any good at all. I do still meet new buskers all the time and I still enjoy what I’m doing and I hope that what I do is making some difference to some people. I have no current association with any venues or promoters. I don’t know what the Summer will bring, but hopefully with the return of tourists and the office workers it will revitalise the busking trade as it’s very hard to make good money right now.

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Money Found on the Ground 2020

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 12:26:03 GMT

Here is the money found on the ground annual update.

MFOG Annual Update

This year's total is £16.16 which is a decrease on last year. That's hardly a surprise, but I think given that I was in the house for the whole of April, May and most of June it's not as bad as we might expect. Previous totals are below.

MFOG 2020 Annual Comparison

There were no remarkable coin finding events this year. There were 325 coins found in total which is an increase on last year, surprisingly.

MFOG 2019 - Matthews Analysis

Four pound coins have been found which is a decease on last year and a rate one every 3 months. Two 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 11c Euro and 11c US which is a marked decrease on last year, but with no tourists in the country, not surprising.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and walked the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. This year however, not only did I worked from home for six months, but when I did start back in the office I walked all the way into the office. I have also been taking longer local walks. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week or in this year, even every month.

What can we conclude? This year has been very unusual. There is probably no sense in drawing any comparisons. But I will say that the banks have been putting increased pressure on businesses to take contactless payments and to not accept cash payments despite there being no real evidence that coronavirus survives on coins.

Additional bonus analysis. The 20p analysis shows a general slight upward trend, but a decrease on last year.

20p Analysis

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Blog post for work intranet

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:32:09 GMT

While for some lockdown has provided opportunities, for others it has presented difficult challenges on a daily basis. Here, Health Information Scientist Carolyn Sleith tells us how she has struggled with the change in her situation.

I had things the way I wanted them. It had taken me a while.

When I started as an information scientist ten years ago, it was a big wrench going back to work after being self-employed, a mum and a university student at 40. I live in Pollokshields which is about 30 minutes away from Delta House. The great public transport meant I could take the full-time job at Healthcare Improvement Scotland as I could drop my son at breakfast club on the way to work and pick him up from out of school care on the way home. He is now at university and I no longer need to be certain places at certain times to look after him. For this reason I was able to do more things that I wanted to do.

Like lose weight. Get exercise. And start a social media empire. That's right. I'm pretty big on Facebook. Or rather my page is. No one knows who I am. But my page has 76000 followers. Everyday at lunchtime and after work, before lockdown, I would go out and video the buskers of Glasgow. That's what the page is called if you want to follow - BuskersofGlasgow – all one word. Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. For two years I did this. I was getting pretty good at it. I have a network of musicians as friends. Some of them are very good friends now. I fitted my social media work round my hours at HIS. It also led to other opportunities like being on the guest list at gigs and having a radio show on community radio. I was happy.

Locked down and lonely

Then lockdown started. Overnight I was no longer allowed to even leave the house. Every musician friend I had was suddenly and devastatingly out of work. My job suddenly became much more panicked and intense, with requests from Scottish Government and urgent guidance requiring searching and sifting and an undercurrent of panic and stress all the time. Normally I'd get a break from all that and spend a few minutes decompressing and listening to some great music in the street. But that was not possible. It was long featureless day after featureless day. I didn't see colleagues. It felt like there was no support although we were all going through the same thing on our own. The isolation was crushing. I started earlier and earlier every day. I religiously took my one hours walk every day. When we were allowed out twice a day I started couch to 5K. I started to learn guitar (well all my friends play guitar and I just wanted to fit in). It's not all been bad. But I also had days when I just cried all day for no good reason really. I reinstated the daily cry that I used to allow myself when my son was small.

Normal, but not…

My friends, the bunch of adorable extroverts that they are, all struggled. I tried to help by being the wise old lady. I took a course on psychological first aid to try and be a better friend to them. We had a facebook live festival. It gave us something to do, some purpose. We even raised some money. We had zoom chats, drinking sessions, games of cards against humanity. Then lock down started to ease. We could meet people in the park. Then busking was allowed again. I could feel life returning to normal. I still feel horribly disconnected from my work team. Hours are so long and with a return to core work, I am still so busy.

But I still can't get my life back. The life I had worked so hard to create. My days are still structureless, featureless, grey. Long and hard. I still can't listen to the live music at lunchtime and home time. I still have no live gigs. I can't even go to the pub without making an appointment. Have you tried arranging a night out with friends when you have to book the pub? It's not easy. I used to take spontaneous pints for granted and now I long to just go to the pub on the spur of the moment. I have to start work early to take a two hour lunch break to come up town, make videos and then dash back home to finish work late. I can only do that a couple of times a week.

Missing the routine

I miss my team. I miss people not in my team. I miss the general chat. I miss the day being broken up by distractions and other activities. I miss my trip on the subway that marks the beginning and the end of every day. I miss my routines and rituals. Also some people have left the organisation since lockdown and I might never see them again and that makes me so sad.

With the news that we won't be getting back to Delta House till the spring I was devastated. The months stretching out in front of me through winter and Christmas just seem so interminable.

I know I'm not alone in feeling like this and if anyone wants a chat, I'm up for it. We can meet downstairs in Starbucks under Delta House, if you need to get out of the house. You can talk to the wise old lady, because she's lonely too.

Picture shows Carolyn and busker friend Gregor Hunter Coleman, a former X-Factor contestant and Buchanan Street busking regular.

Support

If you can relate to some of the experiences and feelings Carolyn has shared in her blog, please know that support is here.

If you'd like someone to talk to, speak to one of our Confidential Contacts, or come along to our Wellbeing Support Group sessions, which take place on Teams every Thursday afternoon at 4pm. We've also restarted our randomised coffee trials, a chance for you to connect with a colleague in an informal way. Finally our employee assistance programme provides you with free and confidential advice, including online counselling.

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Buskers of Glasgow - Back on the streets

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 11:23:35 GMT

Since the beginning of July we've been allowed to resume working outside and this has meant a return to busking. With people visiting shops and pubs and coffeeshops, allbeit with booking and seating restrictions in place and contact tracing enabled, there has been an audience to play for. Live gigs are still banned unless they are outdoors and as Autumn draws in, those are less practical. So this means that people who had been supporting themselves through gigging and pub residencies are now forced back onto the street to earn some money. This, however, is good for the page as the acts on the streets are such high quality.

There are fewer livestreams these days as I think the interest in them is waning from an audience perspective and a performer perspective. The performers get very little feedback and it's just through delayed comments and reactions on facebook. I think any donations through paypal have also diminished making it not worthwhile.

I have had a couple of well performing videos including one by Kiera Marks which was picked up by The Music Man page which has 1M followers. This usually benefits the page and the artist as we pick up some new likes as a result. At the moment that vid has >120K views although my instance of it has only 20k views. Also a video from Adam Shaheen did quite well for a week or so with >80K views. But I have had no other runaway virals from my page.

I have resumed the busker of the month profiles which have been doing well, but I do spend money to promote those. Because I am still having to work from home I am finding it very difficult to get time to come up town to record videos. I have to pick and choose the best weather days or just come on the weekend and annual leave/ flexi days. I find this very frustrating as I was enjoying the way I had arranged my life, making vids at lunchtime and hometime and weekends and holidays.

I also had a bit of a success story with Blair Gilmour. I recorded him a year ago and the video was spotted by a scout for The Voice Kids. Blair got on the show and did very well. He got as far as the semi-finals and it was so nice of him and his family to say that my vid helped that happen. I don't often get stories about the impact of the page, but that was a really nice one.

I continue to try and build the audience everyday. At the moment the page has 42K likes and 75K followers on facebook and 3.7K followers on instagram. But the most important thing for me is that I meet new buskers all the time and make new friends including some that I feel will be in my life a long time.

There has still been no resumption of the radio show and as time drags on I feel it will never start again. It might be a coronavirus casualty.

Gigs have yet to resume and I don’t know if they will before Christmas.

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Buskers of Glasgow - Lock Down Update

Sat, 11 Apr 2020 12:35:39 GMT

I last gave you an update in December and I think we need an update on how things are going. I still don't have any kind of plan or goals for this, but I am proud of what I've achieved so far.

In January I had another viral video. This time it was Ryan Wallace singing Perfect by Ed Sheeran. This video was way more successful than the previous viral. I'm not gonna lie, the feeling was awesome just seeing the views, likes and comments and followers jump every single day. Lots of messages direct to the account too. I know Ryan sold a load of CDs as a result. At the moment it's at 3.9m views and I still hope it will trip over into 4m at some point.

The result of this was that the likes on the page leapt to 30K. I have continued to build on that since quite slowly and I haven't had another video I would class as viral, although there have been one or two that have done really well.

We had quite a mild January and I recorded as many videos as I could as I knew the weather might be bad. And in truth February was wet for three weeks and I was really glad I had built up the backlog. As the news of the coronavirus spread round the world I stored up as many videos as I could especially in the last week. That's why there are only three or four artists predominately featured in the last few weeks. But, to be honest, I think my foresight really paid off there, as some other accounts I'm following have resorted to tedious repetition.

I was devastated when our radio show on celticmusicradio.net got cancelled. Then the pubs and cafes and non-essential shops shut and there was no audience in the street to play for. Then lock down. But there have been some highlights of lock down. The group chat on facebook that became a group video call and games of cards against humanity in the evenings. Also some virtual drinking sessions and heart to heart chats. I can honestly say that MaryJane and Matthew Gibb and Cam McTavish and Paul Howie are now four of my closest friends and favourite people. I have so loved their company of the past few weeks. We have in jokes. I'm so happy they let me into their circle.

My role as promoter has had some benefits. When someone does a live facebook show I can regularly bring another 50 or so viewers to the party by sharing it on the page. I don't know if that translates into more donations, but it does make a difference to overall views.

As I now have only a handful of freshish videos left and I want to space them out, I am now going to start reposting things from the Summer. I'll continue to share some live shows that I'm given advance warning of especially of regular buskers. Facebook isn't always that prompt with its notifications and I can miss substantial parts of the show before it tells me that it's on. I also have to be a little careful that I'm balanced. I still need to keep the content varied. I'm also sharing livingroom covers or demos that I really like of the busking regulars.

At this point in time I have 33.5K likes on Facebook and 2.5K followers on Insta. My reach on Facebook had a high point of 1.9m, but it has dropped back now to 1.1m and is still dropping. I don't have any current viral vids.

Future plans are rather broken right now. Streetsound at Room2 likely won't happen. The gigs I was going to are all postponed. I don't know when we can start the radio show again, but this has made me realise that I want to do more than just the five shows we had planned. Hopeful for the future and hoping for another viral. And still glad that people like what I'm doing enough to continue supporting.

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MFOG 2019 - Annual Update

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 12:18:46 GMT

Here is the money found on the ground annual update.

MFOG annual update

This year's total is £18.93 which is a slight increase on last year. Previous totals are below.

Money Found on the Ground Annual Comparison

There were no remarkable events this year. There were 265 coins found in total which is an increase on last year.

Coins found by value - Matthews Analysis

Seven pound coins have been found which is an increase on last year and a rate one every 2 months. Two 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 72c Euro and 17c US which is an increase on last year.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and now walk the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? After a plateau over the last five years there has been a slight increase. So many more places have introduced card payments and so many more now have contactless paying, notably Greggs and all the supermarkets even local convenience stores and market stalls. People just don't need to carry so much cash on them and so there's less opportunity for droppage.

Additional bonus analysis. It's been my feeling that I am finding more 20p pieces than before. So I have looked at past data and I think there is a definite trend upwards in the % of 20p pieces as a function of the total number of coins, but a decrease this year on previous years. No idea what this means though. I have noticed though that a 20p piece often resembles a blob of chewing gum and so is easily overlooked. Also 20p pieces are no longer shiney and so often don't look valuable.

20p Analysis

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Buskers of Glasgow - Update on progress - Account

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 13:48:14 GMT

At the peak my reach was at 1.7M. It’s now dropped back to 1.1M. Before the viral video it was about 300K so I guess that’s where it’ll be dropping back to. Still inviting people who react to the video so still increasing in likes all the time. At this time though the likes are at 10.4K which is a high.I think that's been peak buskersofglasgow.

The Ross Let it Be video got to 60K likes (this is like my third best video of all time though), so not as great as the other one which is at 750K. It might not make the million mark as it’s slowed down considerably.

My Ista following has completely stagnated. Hardly any new followers in the past two weeks. Maybe that’s just a function of fewer videos everyday because of the season.

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Buskers of Glasgow - Update on progress

Sun, 24 Nov 2019 17:04:52 GMT

Back in March this year I posted something about how Buskers of Glasgow got started. I think you're due for an update.

Currently the Instagram page has 1700 likes as of today. There has been a slow steady build with no obvious leaps in numbers. About six months ago I hit 1000 followers. Whenever I record a new busker I do pull in some of their followers so that's often a noticeable increase. There is a site StreetMusicMap that regular shares my posts on their story and I think that contributes to the accelerating numbers of followers.

Facebook however has had a massive spike recently. About six months ago I posted a video of Ben Monteith which he liked and shared and it got 50K views. This was, at the time, the best video I had ever had. I invited everyone who reacted to that post and I managed to convert about 1000 of them into likes. This was unbelievable. I also developed a bit of an association with The Music Man page who reposted rather than shared a few of my videos. This resulted in a few hundred extra likes each time. And these videos got 20-30K views.

But in the last month I had a video of Ross Anderson and Adam Shaheen go viral. And it went viral from my account as a shared video.

I posted it in September and usually after a week or so I stop seeing notifications of reactions. But someone shared it on Quality Music Appreciation group which has 10K members who are real music lovers. I think it gained reactions and shares from there that tipped an algorithm threshold and it was put on the facebook watch page. And from there it went mental. It now has 590K views as of today and I've had three invite bans after trying to invite all of the 10k people that have reacted to it. My facebook likes is currently at 8600. Which is double the amount it was about three weeks ago. In fact one video of Jason Allan has also done really well with >100K views, but it's been over-shadowed by this one of Adam and Ross. It's not even that good. There's loads of feedback from the amps and stuff on it.

Personally, I've been to more gigs this year than I've been to in the previously decade including as a guest of Malachy, The Visceral Noise Department and Atlas Run. I also was interviewed for a student project website GlasgowDiscovered. There is a beautiful write up and birthday wish video from two of my best friends in the community. In the next few weeks I'm going to the Buskers Christmas Night Out where I will know absolutely everyone. I'm meeting new people all the time including visitors. I am also continuing my association with ForePlayCrazyGolf and I suggest acts every month for their #teeinoorpark event.

I'm not sure it can get better than this.

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Cancer Diary - Part 16

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 15:17:23 GMT

My appointment was at 3pm to see Mr Romics. I was there too early as usual so I got a coffee before checking into the clinic. I have to admit to being pretty nervous. I mean what if they find another thing and I end up getting another biopsy and going through the same wringer as I went through this time last year. I saw a female Dr whose name I immediately forgot. She told me that the mammogram was clear and she had no concerns. She asked how the boob was and I confirmed it was fine and the scar was barely noticeable. Then it was off with the shirt, a bit of a robust examination then dressed and back out the door in 10 minutes flat. She also complimented me on my weight loss. I made an appointment for next year and I’m all fine.

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Cancer Diary - part 15

Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:00:50 GMT

I got an appointment through for a followup mammogram. It was when I was on holiday. So I phoned up and got it moved to Tuesday 6th. It was at the New Vic. I had a trainee radiologist. So we had two scans of each boob and then a repeat of one as there was a roll of fat marring the view *sigh*. I was done in about ten minutes and home by 9.30am. So my next appointment is 25th September for a chat about the scan with Mr Romics which I’m hoping will be an all clear chat.

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Buskers of Glasgow - Origins

Sat, 30 Mar 2019 15:05:53 GMT

So for the past almost 2 years I've been trying to lose weight. Last Spring, in an effort to be more active, I started taking a walk at lunchtime. Previously I would just have eaten lunch at my desk. I am really lazy and I don't like physical exercise. But I had to do something. So I was sort of forcing myself to go out. I had been doing this for a while, trudging round a 1m circuit, then one day I heard music from Buchanan St and there was a busker and he cheered me up. I'm pretty difficult to cheer up, as once I'm in a mood, I'm in a mood for the rest of the day. So I videoed him as he completely changed my attitude to the walk, to forcing myself to get some exercise and to the rest of the day. It was Oisin Murray. If he could cheer me up, then he could cheer anyone up and that alone needed to be shared with the rest of the world.

On June 12th 2018 I started the buskersofglasgow Instagram account. The first video I posted was the one I had recorded of Oisin playing Budapest by George Ezra. June that year was glorious for weather and every lunchtime brought a whole new set of buskers. And all of them (with a couple of exceptions) were amazing. There was such a variety of styles and genres too. It was like walking through a free music festival everyday. I felt it needed to be shared with the wider world and more specifically my Facebook friends who weren't in Glasgow. And just as importantly it gave me a reason to go out at lunchtime and get my exercise.

Because I had been trying to lose weight I hadn't realised how much my weight was affecting my self confidence. I used to make the recording, make a donation and then move on quickly and somewhat self-consciously. I'm not sure when the next phase started, but one day I waited till the end of the song and spoke to the busker afterwards. Actually I think it was Liam Doyle, as he had gathered an audience of adoring school girls by playing Wild Mountain Thyme. I had such a good conversation with Liam about music and memory and how music has a dedicated part in your brain and your soul. That brought about a change. After that I spoke to almost every busker sometimes just to get an Instagram handle to tag them in the video, mostly to tell them that I loved their work. I think I had realised too that they recognised me and because I was feeling more confident about myself, I felt it was alright to impose myself on them.

After I had been off for a fortnight after my operation for breast cancer (false-positive) Mary Jane said she was pleased to see me back. She'd noticed I'd been gone. So I told her why I had been away and that was a turning point too. I had a different outlook on life and having a brush with potentially serious illness made me realise that there was no time to waste. I may be having a mid-life crisis, but so what if I am.

There were some buskers I saw almost everyday and I now think of as friends. They recognise me, they know my name and I sometimes get a hug. Mary Jane invited me on a buskers night out at Christmas Time and I decided not to go. For lots of reasons some of which are still self-consciousness, and the fact that I'm old and it was a school night. But it was so nice of her to invite me and after that I felt I belonged a bit and a bit less shy.

Now we're coming back into tourist season again there will be more buskers coming from all over the world and I'll continue to post them. Some people have started to ask me how the busking scene works and even if they can buy CDs of some of the artists. I now ask the chuggers to follow me on Istagram too which I find hilarious.

Recently I had a stroke of luck and a cascade of events. Cheggy of The Rain Experiment followed me and shared one of my posts on his story. [Not every busker that I record and feature follows me, even though I tell them my handle and ask politely if they want to and tell them how much it would mean to me if they did]. That post got picked up by walkingthroughglasgow and monochrome_scotland and they both gave me a shout out and overnight my following went up by over 200. Currently I have over 700 followers which is absolutely amazing. One of my videos of Sara N Junbug on Facebook got 3700 views because they shared it on their page and their fan-base is massive.

I have quite an inclusive and positive philosophy. I try and record everyone, sometimes just once, even if I don't particularly like what they are doing. I don't like bagpipe music, but I know others do, so I record 20-30secs as I reckon that's enough.

I'm not sure how this is going to develop in the future. It is my intention to go to some gigs, but it will have to suit my old lady life. I can barely hack a midweek night out and I'm not going to travel anywhere. I have, on a couple of occasions, gone out deliberately to see a busker if they post that they'll be playing that day. I now almost always listen to an entire song and have a chat while I give them money. I have considered doing a logo for the account which I could put on a T-shirt even if it's just for me. I had idly fantasised about organising an event, but I don't think I have the heart for that as I know exactly how much work would be involved. I think that would kill the enjoyment for me.

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Money Found on the Ground (MFOG) 2018 - Annual Update

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 12:08:13 GMT

Here is the money found on the ground annual update.

MFOG annual update

This year's total is £17.14 which is a decrease on last year. Previous totals are below.

MFOG 2018 Annual Comparison

There was one remarkable event this year which was the finding of the very rare £2 coin. There were 217 coins found in total which is an decrease on last year.

Matthews Analysis

Four pound coins have been found which is a decrease on last year and a rate one every 3 months. Four 50p pieces were found this year. Foreign coins amounted to 46c Euro and 9c US which is an increase on last year.

In previous years the route to work/university etc has been varied. The daily journey from 2011 to 2017 was identical. However in 2018 I changed journey and now walk the length of Shields Road to the subway station. In addition, I am also hanging out on Buchanan St at lunchtime. It is no longer the case that I find a coin every week.

What can we conclude? After a plateau over the last four years there has once again been a decrease. So many more places have introduced card payments and so many more now have contactless paying, notably Greggs and all the supermarkets even local convenience stores and market stalls. People just don't need to carry so much cash on them and so there's less opportunity for droppage.

Additional bonus analysis. It's been my feeling that I am finding more 20p pieces than before. So I have looked at past data and I think there is a definite trend upwards in the % of 20p pieces as a function of the total number of coins, but a decrease this year on previous years. No idea what this means though. I have noticed though that a 20p piece often resembles a blob of chewing gum and so is easily overlooked. Also 20p pieces are no longer shiney and so often don't look valuable.

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Cancer Diary - Part 14

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 12:20:20 GMT

I got a letter form my consultant today. It said I had "an unusual benign sclerosing lesion with some hyperplasia". He also said "in the background was a classical type lobular carcinoma in situ." But I "definitely don't need radiotherapy or hormonal treatment."

So my take from this was that the thing they removed was a hard but benign lumpy thing which did have some pre-cancerous characteristics. LCIS is also a pre-cancerous state. That's why they are not treating it any further.

See you in a year.

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Cancer Diary - Part 13

Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:34:54 GMT

Day 18 after the operation was my follow up appointment with Mr Romics at the clinic. He got caught in traffic so I ended up seeing Miss Reid and she was just reading from my notes. She said that there was no cancer in the sample from the operation. There was evidence of pre-cancer, but as that was now removed there was no need for further treatment. So I was confused by this. There is going to be no radiotherapy and no tamoxifen. Mr Romics phoned me later to explain a bit further and reassure me that all the best pathologists in the country had looked at this and the MDT had discussed it and they all agreed that there was no need for further treatment. This was of course good news, but having come to terms with a cancer diagnosis, to now be declared cancer free was a bit hard to process. The next thing that will happen in a mammogram in a year and for the next five years at the New Vic, but that will be all.

People have been telling me well done, but it wasn’t anything I did. I wasn’t exactly fighting or battling it in any active sense. I’ve got lucky. This is not an achievement I’ve worked for. Some people have said I should be celebrating, but as I'm actually still recovering from the operation and I feel that I've had the rug pulled from under me again, I don't really feel like celebrating. I feel like I’m still processing.

The next appointment for 25th Sept 2019 came in so this might be the last blog entry on this topic till then.

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Cancer Diary - Part 12

Sat, 29 Sep 2018 12:34:19 GMT

Back to work on day 17 after the operation. I was glad that I took the full fortnight off my work. I might’ve been technically able to work, but I wouldn’t have been properly dressed and carrying my lunch bag would have been painful, so I really did need that extra week. Arm and hand bruises are all gone now.

I got a lot of welcome back hugs this morning. But by the end of the day I was shattered (I was quite surprised how shattered) and in pain (for the first time in a week). I also have a bit of a scab which I think might be from the guideline wire which wasn’t obvious as it was under the steristrips.

Some people have warned me not to do too much. Sometimes getting up and getting dressed and going out is apparently too much. I should have asked the doctor for a phased return. I guess I thought the extra week would be sufficient.

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Cancer Diary - Part 11

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 10:49:15 GMT

Day 12 post op. The stristrips came off the armpit wound and today was the first day that I took zero pain killers. Any pain was just a twinge or a sting where the wounds intersected clothing and passed really quickly. So I still have a yellow bruised boob and the steristrips are still in place on that. The bruise on my left hand has gone, but there's still one on my right arm.
My followup appointment was also moved form the 27th to the 25th which is a real problem as I have a family funeral that day. After a chat with the consultant's secretary I have to go in at 845 on the 25th and I'll get seen first and then I'll have plenty time to get to the funeral afterwards. The consultant says he wants to see me for continuity rather than any other more sinister reason (I Hope).

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Cancer Diary - Part 10

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 10:26:39 GMT

Five days after the operation I took off the surgical dressings.

The boob is yellow with bruising. The wound is curved which I'm sure is for aesthetic reasons. It looks pretty ugly as it still has ink and steristrips on it. After a chat with my mum I covered it up with a dry dressing held on with surgical tape so it didn't catch on my clothes.

The armpit wound is smaller than I thought. The dressing was large, but the wound is only a couple of inches long. I've left that uncovered as it doesn't get the same friction especially as I haven't tried putting on a bra. The steristrips will probably fall off quite quickly from that.

The breast cancer care nurse phoned me to ask how I was doing and to ask if I had enough paracetamol which I do. I'm only taking it first thing in the morning and last thing at night as it isn't sore all the time. It just twinges sometimes.

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Cancer Diary - Part 9

Tue, 11 Sep 2018 11:38:08 GMT

Didn't sleep all that well on Saturday night (couldn't get comfy and woke up early). I also had indigestion which I needed to take Gaviscon for for the first time in well over a year. I think it was a reflux rebound from the Ranitidine. By Sunday night I was feeling shattered, so I had a more settled night.

On Monday I phoned up my GP to get a sick note and decided that I absolutely needed to get some fresh air. So I walked nice and slowly round to the surgery and back again before taking up residence on the couch again to watch loads of Arrow. Elizabeth came round in the evening with some rolls of paper for spirographs and a scented candle. That'll stop me running out of supplies. Still taking some paracetamol/ibuprofen, but not so many. And it's not because it's agony, just because I can feel the deep low level ache.

On Tuesday I took a walk round to Morrison's for some fancy fruit and to see if he could repair a bag strap. He couldn't so now I have an excuse to go up the town tomorrow.

Some friends on facebook have been remarking on my positivity during this adventure. And I think it comes down to Pollyanna. This is a book that was on my grandmother's approved list of reading. There weren't many things on there, as she wasn't a reader and disapproved of a lot of things that weren't Christian enough. I'm not a Pollyanna and my friends will find this hilarious because they know how cynical I can be. I also do not identify as an optimist, I'm a realist. But Pollyanna tried to find something to be glad about in every bad situation and I've been applying that principle rigorously to my recent health misfortune.

Yes it's cancer, yes I have had to have an operation, yes I'll be having radiotherapy and yes I'll be taking Tamoxifen for five years. But it was a very tiny early stage cancer, the operation was straight forward and I have no other health concerns that would have made it difficult or risky. I only had cancer for about a month before it was removed so I haven't even had time to acquire the "woman with cancer" label. The radiotherapy will only be an inconvenience for three weeks and yes I'll have to take the tamoxifen, but even that isn't forever and I was already perimenopausal anyway. I haven't lost my breast, I won't be having chemo and by Christmas it'll all be over. I do have a lot to be glad about. I have also been looked after by the best medical people in the world and cared for in the best medical system in the world.

Don't get me wrong, I have had a few wobbly moments, mostly when walking up the road or on the subway, but I just practice mindfulness and remind myself that there's nothing functionally wrong with me. I can still breath and eat and walk and see and hear and talk and draw and write and do all the ordinary things that are enjoyable in life. This is just a blip and to be honest I've been blessed to get this far in life without any major health issues before. I am very fortunate and it's easy to be positive when you're so lucky.

Also what else am I going to do? It's not possible to cry for weeks on end. You've just got to woman up and get on with things.

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Cancer Diary - Part 8

Sat, 08 Sep 2018 11:38:30 GMT

I was awake at 6am. I decided to take some paracetamol as there was a bit of discomfort, but to be honest not as much as I thought there would be. I had visions of me being in constant agony. My shoulder is fine. I've been doing my exercises, but so far there seems to be no stiffness or difficulty in putting my hands over my head. There also doesn't seem to be any numbness in my hand which I feared greatly.

I went back to bed, but couldn't get back to sleep so I got up at 7.

I sent my husband a shopping list so he could do that. I got the washing on and then I sat down and watched TV for the rest of the day. I took some ibuprofen at 12 but just because I could feel some tenderness. Haven't tried putting on a bra yet.

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