LAST Friday life changed for seven members of the SNP when they were elected as MPs to sit at Westminster.

One new member STEWART McDONALD won the seat for Glasgow South. Today he shares his First Week at Westminster with the Evening Times.

NEVER have I enjoyed being at a sporting venue as much as I enjoyed being at Glasgow's Emirates Arena as the counting began last Thursday.

After what has been a hard five months of campaigning it became clear pretty early in the night that the voters of Glasgow South had put their trust in me in big numbers - 26,773 crosses beside my name on the ballot paper, making me the Member of Parliament for a part of Glasgow I love; the Southside.

At the risk of gloating - and possibly irritating some of my new colleagues - I received the highest number of SNP votes in Glasgow and have the largest majority too.

That is testament to the hard work of my campaign team, who I'm sure readers will forgive me for taking the time to thank from the bottom of my heart.

The following day - after getting just a few hours kip - I spent time seeing family and friends.

My family could not have been happier for me.

My partner, Gordon, has been with me through the whole process and my parents are of course bursting with pride that their wee boy has become an MP, that is after I had to correct my mother who thought I was instead elected as a Glasgow Councillor.

So then it was on to the job.

After a photoshoot with my new colleagues and the First Minister, I headed down to Westminster on Sunday night so that I could begin my induction process as a new MP first thing on Monday morning.

I confess to being just a tad nervous.

I expected to be glared at like a newbie joining a gym in January, but my experience couldn't have been further from that.

House of Commons staff were on hand right from when I set foot in the door.

I was taken around to have my pass sorted, my IT account set up and given information on setting up a full office.

It was a case of complete information overload, but I'm sure it will set in.

Then it was on to a brief tour.

The most exciting part had to be setting foot in the Chamber of the House.

However, it came with a warning from one of the Doorkeepers: "Don't sit down until you've taken the Oath." "But my feet are killing me", I replied, thinking this was a bizarre and arcane rule. "You don't want to trigger a by-election in your constituency."

Indeed I do not.