Adventures in Edinburgh Angels With Bagpipes

I was going to post this earlier in the week , but have been so shattered with work that my mind has not really been working after I walk out. But.. here coes...

Spent a couple of days in Edinburgh last weekend , grabbing first class travel on the train which gave a bit of extra leg room and a sandwich. Noticed that there was a special James Martin menu... breakfast consisted of an orange or a banana or a yogurt , that obviously took a lot of thought. I wonder how much they paid for that? Anyway that's being picky.

Got to Edinburgh and found the Premier Inn Hub, and that was excellent for a short term stay, big telly , big bed , shower and a 24 hour bar kitchen.

It was close to the Royal Mile but we went the other side of the tracks to eat at and enedd up at Shezan near the playhouse , which despite being busy found us a table and served up to excellent food, though they were surpised that I didn't have rice, naan bread or poppadums with my meal.

We also ate at The Dome which is an impressive building, the food and staff lovely but the only thing that grated was the rope barrier at the entrance (to keep the riff raff out I suppose) , Saturday night was at the excellent Angels with Bagpipes(booking essential and they don't need a rope) and The Abbotsford Arms was great on Sunday, it looks impressive inside and is welcoming and the food great too.

I was glad to see Fopp and Coda still full of life and these are not the only record shops in Edinburgh, but were the only two I got to visit while I was there relieving them of their last three Nick Cave Complete Lyrics books.

I was tempted to buy a set of bagpipes but the shop wasn't open when I visited it, much to the relief of my neighbours, though bagpipes played correctly are brilliant, and only people with no taste would disagree.

Anyway I thought I'd just write this to remind me of some of the good stuff that is in Edinburgh.

There are some huge buildings there, and I did get 3/4 of the way up The Scott Monument and you can see some of the video I shot here.

I thought I would leave you with some fun bagpiping from a Pipe Band, Have a great night my friends

Up Close And Personal With Sir Walter Scott

I will post more about last weekend in Edinburgh, but on Sunday morning I was wandering round and noticed a flash of red halfway up the Scott Monument, which houses a statue of Sir Walter Scott within a huge spire like structure. There is a virtual tour here but when I looked it was just a picture and a bit of text, I was expecting a 3D 360˚ tour , but either they've not done it yet are don't know what people expect of a virtual tour.

Scott Monument Through The Trees

Anyway I thought I'd walk up and saw the "Best Views In Edinburgh" advertised, and saw the entry
fee was £5 and it was 287 steps to the top, which is more than doable and went to pay and discovered I had no cash. The guy directed me to the Waverly Station Mall but as it was only 10:30 it was shut, so I found a Barclays on the main street and went back, paid my money, went through the turnstile, and saw my first problem. I'm mildly claustrophobic and was presented with a very narrow stone spiral staircase. I took a breath and went for it, going round and round and up. There are four levels so I reckoned this would be about 70 steps and I should be OK as long as I didn't meet anyone coming the other way. I think the lighting is minimal but eventually I saw daylight and came out on the first level, and chatted with a few people.

I also suffer from mild vertigo, although level one was only a quarter of the way there. I took a few photographs and then hit the second stairs. Still narrow, spiral and cramped although they did have the luxury of a handrail. This time I met a couple coming down, luckily they were quite slim (I am not), and there was a lot of bodily contact as we squeezed past each other on those stairs. If I met someone as big as me coming in the opposite direction I may have a problem, though maybe people like me don't usually go up Scott's Monument.

I came out on Level two and the views were much better, and the next staircase was in the main spire, much wider , with a handrail but with lots of wire covered openings, not ideal if you're scared of heights. A few pics , a few conversations and thought Level 3 here I come and set off for Level 3.

Here I digress...into a short horror story by I think Christopher Fowler. He's in his car and drives into a underground car park, there's a car follows him through the barrier so he descends looking for a parking spot , followed by a couple of cars, he starts noticing that the descending lanes are getting narrower, and he becomes jammed, he can't reverse, and it's getting hotter .....

That's what happened with the level three stairs, they started to narrow, the handrail disappeared but luckily there was light and I came out on level three and the height started to really get to me , I was feeling distinctly queasy. I forced my self to take more pictures and some instagram video here.

Coming down was a lot easier, though there was a group of about ten who had to squeeze past me on their way up. I came out and the guy reckoned the views from Level 3 and 4 were the same.

It was an experience that I would recommend to anyone , but I've done it now and don't need to do it again.

There's only one song and it has to be Siouxsie & the Banshees "The Staircase (Mystery)" which I could hear in my head as I walked up .

Have a great day my friends.

Marching On

This is my first March post and obviously the month name gives me lots of opportunity to play on words.

Yesterday was Wold Book Day which I thought was a good idea until I found out it was mainly about kids going to school dressed as TV characters. I am shocked by the number of people who simply do not read books and state it as though it's a positive thing. My friend Katie posted on Facebook the questions "What do you prefer music or books?", I answered neither as I love moth and often listen to music while reading a book. I am a slow reader but I certainly feel the benefit of reading.

World Book Night this year have changed their model and I think it's becoming more corporate, so this year is the first year that I won't be involved. It was nice being able to give a "World Book Night" sleeved book but now you have to do it on behalf of an organisation or just give away your own books, which I do on a continual basis anyway.

So it's the first Friday in March , the weekend is here, and it's time to have a great time.

Not sure what song to have so we'll go with The KLF's "America: What Time Is Love?"

Have a good one my friend.

A Short Month

We're almost at the end of February and between February and March for most people is the shortest time between paydays. While I need to be aware of when I get paid these days I'm lucky enough not to be wondering  how I'm going to get through to the next one, though obviously I always did.

Wouldn't it be a great idea if each month we had a short week, a four day week that would give people something else to look forward to. Imagine if the week you got paid was also a four day week. It's just a thought. The thing is if you create a great working environment with things like that, the productivity will improve because people are concentrating more on their work while they are there. Very simplistic I know, but I also know what it's like to be on the journey to work and really not want to walk through the door.

Anyway we're at the end of February now, and although I had a very restful weekend I could still do with another two hours in bed. Still it's time to go to work and get this week underway. For some reason Spandau Ballet's "Musclebound" came to mind, love the relentless chorus and the totally over the top video that I've never actually seen before.

Have a brilliant Monday my friends.

2PM

I managed to go back to bed , get some sleep, get up , get the papers, saw the Daily Mail blaming immigrants for the latest pensions crisis, went into town and bought lots of stuff from the Grainger Market , steppend on to a bus home and now I am writing this as the football is due to start in an hour, Asda are delivering a load of bottled water (taking advantage of  a Topcashback offer) after the games have finished then off to see The Handsome Family at the Sage.

So all in all it's been and it's going to be quite a full day, and I'll probably have to wait til Sunday to have a real rest.

Anyway this gives me a chance to share "Gold" with you, and now it's time for a cup of coffee. I really shouldn't get up and do things during the night, but I still act like a ten year old at times. I can stay up , so I will , I'm not tired honest.

3AM

It's 3AM and because it's Saturday I don't really have to get up for a few hours. Yesterday I had to get up for work and I was really tired, but when you don't have to get up , you can be up during the night and do things like write blog posts. I'm sitting here with a bottle of Coke, well Diet Coke (though I have just noticed it only mentions the name Coca Cola in very small writing on the label.

How times change, Cocaine was once an advertised ingredient in the drink, not they've replaced it with another "bad for you" ingredient , aspartame. The alternative of six teaspoonfuls of sugar in a can is not pleasant either.

This post comes after me eulogising my excellent vegan breakfast at Wildflower, but hey , it's Saturday morning and it's an excuse to bring up Negativland's 1997 album Dispepsi which you can listen to here or attempt to buy here. Definitely one of the best albums ever made and more relevant today than when it came out, with it's cut and paste dissection of marketing and media.

Enjoy your Saturday my friends.

The Wildflower Hour and The Quest For The Perfect Vegan Sausage

At the weekend I was jealous cos I missed out on a vegan all day breakfast then I saw Jessica at Wildflower was now doing one. While I love Wildflower , often my work lunch break doesn't give me time to get there, have a meal cooked, eat it and then get back in a reasonable time. Wildflower is probably a ten minute (uphill) walk , and fine on a summers day but in the current climate, not quite as attractive a walk, though what's at the end is so worth it.

Gorgeous Wildflower Vegan Lunchtime Breakfast

Then I thought why not use Facebook Messenger and ask them to start a meal for me. So I did. And they did, and when I got there I got a huge come of coffee and soon was presented with and gorgeous all day vegan breakfast. There was toast, with a lovely spread , beans, hash browns, mushrooms and vegan sausages. I will be honest I am yet to find a vegan sausage I like, but it was so filling that I ended up leaving a slice of toast and half a sausage. It was absolutely gorgeous and you should visit to try this and the many other vegan culinary delights in store.











So a combination of social media and an excellent cafe meant that I had an absolutely brilliant lunch (even though it was a breakfast) and has set my mind ticking on what would the perfect vegan sausage contain? I thinking lentils, chickpeas, spices and herbs (not sure which ones) and some way of binding them together but not making it too dense or inedible. I'm sure that some of my culinary friends can point me in the right directions.

I found this recording of The Wilde Flowers featuring Robert Wyatt singing "Memories" which seemed fairly appropriate even though it's almost fifty years old now.

It's Friday and the weekend starts here. Enjoy my friends.