Today I joined countless others to cheer on the Queen's Baton Relay.  Living where I do, I could easily have seen ot go past in as many as four different locations, but various other commitments made that impossible, and even I can have too much of a good thing!

I saw it first just up the road from where I live.  An interesting blend of wealthy and working class cheek by jowl, people flocked to see the baton and it was wonderful to be just a few yards from a hand over point... the man carrying the baton was mobbed by children longing to be in the official photo!

A couple of hours later, I saw it again just round the corner from The Gathering Place, now knowing exactly how to spot the hand-over point at a bus stop, I was ready and waiting when a young woman arrived with her extended family and friends to take her 100m (if that!) stretch of road to the next bus stop.  A busy shopping street, the crowds were thinner, bemused tourists and shoppers waited for buses... and the lady who had served me in Boots nipped out early for her lunch break to see it (hope she made it back in time!)

Then for some unknown reason I turned left rather than right and headed home the longer way round, which took me through the grounds of the Gartnavel hospitals (there are four of them) including the Beatson WoSCC

It brought back to mind a time when seeing the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games felt like an impossible dream, when the bank card that expired in July 2014 might have seen me out (I cut it up last week when its replacement arrived), and when I vowed if I was still here to go and watch the netball finals (the tickets are in the drawer!)

It was so good - so incredibly good - to cheer on these baton bearers, without a shred of fear or dread in my heart.  So good, almost four years on to be close to achieving those goals and to thinking about new ones.

I feel very blessed, and the Queen's Baton Relay somehow symbolises hope realised.