whom from whom?

When I first moved up here several of the student-guide-things contained a range of helpful advices for newbie residents of the city of which a fairly popular one (on the subject of personal safety) seemed to be "don't even go near Leith". I accordingly avoided it as much as possible for a while but always wondered if it was it was just a bit dangerous down there or just wasn't the sort of place which would appreciate blaringly southern-accented students walking about as if they owned the place; I didn't have a blaring voice or such an accent and didn't talk about as if I owned the place but being of a relatively socially timid disposition I would have dreaded having to speak to anyone for fear of mutual incomprehension. Books such as Trainspotting didn't exactly dispel the notion of the area being spectacularly dangerous (especially after dark) though it did at least name a few other areas of the city of which people might be wary or might care to avoid if they wanted to keep their face undamaged. Then there came a spate of apparent attacks or potential attacks or at least more reported attacks or approaches than I had previously noticed in the Meadows through which I had been happily (though always warily) walking for years. Compared to completely dark woodland paths back home the well-lit paths with plenty of climbable trees for escape a short distance from a busyish road seemed much safer by comparison though in 1997 I was walking home one night when I saw an obviously vaguely suspicious-looking bloke walk past two groups of people who were actually smoking before then asking a lone and unsmoking woman if she had a light. Although I've lived in or around Newington for most of my time here I've gradually become more accustomed to most of the rest of the city and have noted glumly that there are plenty of incidents around here as well as in the more popularly unsafe sections of town. Odd little bits such as the little gated community between West Port and King's Stables Lane always make me wonder why and when it was gated... is it just because the area is prone to roving gangs of drunken idiots looking for somewhere to wee and be sick between the Grassmarket and Pubic Triangle? Is it a little enclave of the sort of folk who usually live in gated communities in entirely the wrong place despite the view of the castle (countered in any case by the view of the big nasty grey council building)? Is it just the equivalent of the normal lockable tenement main door? It's all very well being lockable but the slightly quieter darkness within at night is probably spookier than a normal front door on a normal street and the gate would just make it more difficult to run away if it turned out that there was something inside the gate.

***

Despite knowing that I should have saved my money I went to see Hellboy this afternoon, mostly out of a terrible dread of the fuckup Guillermo del Toro is going to make of The Hobbit if his every move is not watched extremely carefully by Peter Jackson. Despite a couple of flashes of good cinematography most of the film was shite; as one might expect it borrowed heavily from LotR, Star Wars and Night/Day Watch but there were also a few worrying references to Tron, Gladiator, Starship Troopers, T2 and even (how desperate?) a couple of shots borrowed (and one used thrice) from AVP. It's not looking good for The Hobbit... a rich colour palette and lots of finger-acting from Doug Jones doesn't mask ham-fisted broad-brushstroke large-print child-film direction. The shame is that I quite liked The Devil's Backbone when it first came out but thought it was shite when I watched it a second time.