It's some time since I wandered down to Parkhead, where the long established bottling plant of AG Barr was located, until it was closed recently, and they relocated in Cumbernauld. I did manage to get through the doors for a few minutes once, when I had to ferry some test gear down to our engineers who were working there during plant shutdown, but there wasn't much too see, despite the size of the place.

Even though it had been a while, it was still a bit of shock to see the former site for the first time in ages, as it is completely gone, razed to the ground, and with new foundations already being assembled. No doubt something to do with this Commonwealth Games nonsense that keeps getting heralded in the news every so often.

The most disappointing aspect seems to have been the loss (or rather, I hope, the re-siting) of a memorial plaque of some sort that was installed in one of the walls that faced into the Gallowgate. I'd wandered down a few times in the past, hoping to catch a pic, but as the wall also faced into the works yard, where vehicles were always working, I could never get a clear view, or there would be something parked in front of, and obscuring it.

Hope someone knows what it was, and that it has been logged somewhere.

The newest extension at Parkhead was an interesting brick building, and hadn't really even been there long enough for me to stop thinking of it as a 'new' building, and there it is... gone.

There's a small display of past Barr's product in the reception at Westfield, including an early piece of bottling machinery - afraid I can't remember the detail as I too busy looking at the detail of the artwork on the labelling.

I did a short stint there a while ago, and according to the staff I spoke to, the most 'modern' container is actually the one they classify as being the one which delivers the product as they intend. This is the aluminium can which, not surprisingly, is the only container that maintains the fizz (carbonisation) of the drink at the level it was established in the factory when the Bru was packaged.

The closest I found was also the (free) drinks provided in the canteen, delivered from fresh and freezing cold chilled water, syrup, and gas, combined as you waited. You only drank this quickly once, as you didn't really want that 'Cold Headache' punching through the back of your head twice!

Damn! You're making think of that ideal mix now... a blend of two of Scotland's National Drinks. (Why are they the same colour? Coincidence?)

I happened to be walking on the same side of the road as the entrance to the former Barr's factory, and this is now behind a low brick wall.

Everything is gone, including a fairly hefty set of pipes and valves that used to lie within a cage next to the pavement, and apart from the road which leads to the show flats and sales office, all has now been turfed.

Although, oddly (after all that effort), they've left a few twisted pipes bent out of the way, along the cemetery wall - they could easily have been cut away rather than left to make the place look unfinished. Hope it was contractors that did the job, and not the same team that is building the houses. The new home owners won't be too happy with work to that standard.