So far I thought I was in some sleepy city set scenically between hills, waterways and pastures green. From the day I arrived, being bussed passed this beautyspot that goes by the name of Queen's Park, that I'd end up living in. A leafy park, in the quiet south of Glasgow, duck pond inclusive, model boating pond, bandstand, flagpole on a hill, looking out to the Trossachs. Victorian built spacious park and tenement flats, feel good factor in the package. A park perfect for jogging (4 circumferences for a 10k run, with a perfect hill training terrain), walking, relaxing, piknicking, cygnet watching, duck feeding, going to glasshouses full of creepy crawlies, and now the perfect toddlekingdom for Cubling.

Except that the park has been closed for over a week now.
A week ago Moira Jones was found murdered in Queen's Park and it is apparent that the investigation hasn't got the foggiest as to who beat her to death after raping her. She lived on the same street where I used to live. She's my age. And I thought I'd passed the age of needing to be afraid of rapists.

I've always lived around Queen's Park from the day I first came to Glasgow. I know the area like my own trouser pocket (I don't do handbags). I never ever considered it unsafe, though I wouldn't necessarily walk in the park at night time, but that's just common sense. It's a family park for goodness sake, not a place for a murder. The police are taking it seriously which is good and bad. Of course the murderer needs to be found. Over a week on though, it feels like they can't possibly get any more evidence and that the investigation may not produce any result. In the meantime, the park has been taken over. Saturday's farmers market has been relocated and I just hope that the southside festival and Bungo in the lanes won't be affected by all this. The longer the park is peopleless, the more the murderers have won. To scare us, to make us feel unsafe, to claim the park to fear. At this time of the year, the park should be filled with people. Instead, it is empty apart from 100 police.

Amidst all this, there is the contradiction that the murder of a successful business woman in an affluent area of Glasgow makes for a major enquiry while just two days later, a man was killed in the nearby deprived Shawbridge area. That murder got a mere mention, while Moira Jones continues to make the headlines. Then again, you can picture a murder scene in Shawbridge, but you just couldn't in our beautiful Queen's Park