A friend was telling me about his unfortunate car accident, a rear-end shunt, that occurred, he said, on Al Bidda, “near Booey-Gooey’s Tower”. Now I know Al Bidda pretty well. I walk the length of it every Friday lunchtime on my way to the Belgian Café. And I could honestly say if there was a Booey-Gooey’s Tower along the way it had thus far escaped my notice, but I didn’t challenge him on it, in case the car accident had involved a bump on the head. Concussion can trigger strange notions, till it wears off. Instead I resolved to check for myself.
So, today being Friday, walking along Al Bidda, I checked the name of every tower building I passed, looking in vain for a Booey-Gooey. And to take my mind off the searing heat, as is my wont, I entertained myself with a few impromptu lyrics:
And as I came home on a Thursday night /As drunk as drunk could be /I saw a tower against the sky /Where no great tower should be. /Well I called me wife and I said to her, /Will ye koindly tell tae me /Who built that tower up tae the sky /Where no great tower should be? /Ah, ye’re drunk, ye’re drunk, ye silly oul’ fool /Still ye canna see /That’s the Booey-Gooey Tower /Me mother sent tae me! /Well there’s many a day I’ve travelled /A hundred miles or more, /But a Booey-Gooey Tower, sure I never saw before.
But enough of that. Though I found no Booey-Gooey Tower fully built, I did pass a building site that I’ve passed every week for a few months. A new Tower building has broken ground and is beginning to rise above its fences. The prime contractor is French and has his name writ large on the site sign-boards: “BOUYGUES BATIMENTS” pronounced Bweeg(eh), more or less. But for me, forever more, it will be Booey-Gooey’s Tower. Glad to have solved that one.