A WOMAN apologises as she walks past me on Glasgow’s King Street, interrupting my view of a shop window. “No, that’s exactly what I want you to do,” I shout, pointing to Nigel Johnson’s Light Pool, a luminous blue screen that produces ripples, as if stones had been tossed into an electrical pond, in response to any movement. The woman stops, backs up and is duly delighted. Her push-along suitcase makes particularly entertaining patterns, as if she were a champion pebble skimmer - as does the bike that someone wheels by. Could such a happy meeting of strangers ever happen inside a gallery?

Johnson’s artwork is one of the more unexpected discoveries in Radiance, Glasgow’s international festival of light, which flickered briefly across the Merchant City over the weekend. At the back of the City Chambers, we find a brasher version of the same idea: three giant screens pulsing with ever-changing patterns of light and colour which change all the more violently in response to people jumping on the platform in front of them. On an icy November night, adults and children alike are only too glad of the after-hours warm-up in front of United Visual Artists’ dazzling monoliths.

Not all of the 40-odd exhibits are as much fun. Quite a few, such as the series of local history slide projections along the High Street, are a little half-hearted. It’s not a bad idea to project a medieval map of the area onto a gable end, but my ten-year-old’s suggestion that it should have taken us on an animated journey through time would have been much more dynamic. When you’ve made the effort to walk through the winter streets, it’s a bit of a let-down just to see this or, for example, a few rather ordinary pictures of flowers above the site of a future garden.

They are not the only weak pieces, but a lot of the others benefit from their unusual location. It’s a real journey of discovery to explore the streets around the Trongate, wandering into dodgy-looking back alleys, neglected basements and even wearing a hard hat to venture through the rooms of the old bath-house in Osborne Street.

In such circumstances you’re more forgiving of indifferent work and get added pleasure from the star-like lights floating inside washing machines, insects buzzing like loose wires onto TV monitors and Simon Corder’s Bough 2, a flourish of fluorescent strip-lights up the side of a building, first seen in Radiance two years ago.

Also amusing, in a disorientating way, is Michael Pinsky’s Transparent Room, in which you find yourself surrounded on four sides by speeded-up images of car journeys around the city.

Andrew Flintoff will continue his rehabilitation from ankle surgery tomorrow when he plays for England Lions in a one-day game against Mumbai at the Cricket Club of India.

The all-rounder, who has not played for four months, will feature as a batsman only and will not bowl. Flintoff has been working with England’s second string during their Indian tour but was not expected to play in a game until next month when he joins up with Lancashire.

His progress has been encouraging and team management have no qualms about pitching him into a competitive environment. He is yet to bowl since the operation, however, and will not start to do so until he returns to the Old Trafford indoor school in March.

“It will be great to play again. Everything has been going well but you can only do so much net practice. I’m ready for a match,” Flintoff said. “I’ll be playing as a batsman and fielder and I think I’ll be batting at No5. I won’t be bowling. In fact, I haven’t bowled a ball yet since the operation. I’m still taking things steadily on that score.

“My time with the Lions has been brilliant. It’s great to be around a cricket team again and they are a terrific bunch of lads. People shouldn’t expect too much from me in terms of scoring lots of runs, although it would be nice.”

New rave champions Klaxons are set to give number one single Umbrella a “Goldan Skans twist” when they perform a duet of the song with R&B singer Rihanna at this year’s Brit awards. The band spilled the beans on their planned duet with the American singer in an interview with Radio One’s Newsbeat, saying: “We’ve made our own slant on a contemporary version of it. It’s an electronic version with guitars on it”. Klaxons also said there had been some difficulty in reaching a decision on exactly how this “contemporary version” would sound. “They’ve got this funny idea of what our band sounds like and we’ve done three or four different versions,” the band said. “Her people kept sending versions back going ‘No, this sounds more like you.’”

Klaxons, who won the coveted Mercury Music prize last year, are nominated for two awards at this year’s Brits: Breakthrough Act and Best Live Act. Rihanna is nominated for the International Female Solo Artist award. Other performances scheduled to take place on the night are a duet by Adele and Mark Ronson on the single God Put A Smile on Your Face and a closing performance by Sir Paul McCartney of his recent single Dance Away.

In other Brits related news, the final shortlist for Best Single of 2008 has been announced. Mark Ronson, The Hoosiers, Take That, Mika and Leona Lewis are the five artists to have survived the cut, while the likes of Kate Nash, Sugababes and James Blunt are out of the running.

Mark Owen and band will face stiff competition for their upbeat single Shine from fellow pop compatriots Mika, and his annoyingly popular Grace Kelly, and the Hoosiers’ radio friendly Worried About Ray. However, the two biggest singles of the bunch are Leona Lewis’ record-breaking number one hit Bleeding Love and Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse’s cover of the Zutons’ Valerie.

Voting lines for Best Single of 2008 are now open and the winner will be announced at the ceremony at Earls Court on February 20th, presented by mater and pater Osbourne. Start-studded live coverage of the star-studded event will be happening on the «blogs.guardian.co.uk» on Wednesday evening.