The vision that is Andy!

Another beautiful day, and what better way to spend it than three hours on a bus! No, this meeting with an old pal (as in long-time, not ancient) was arranged ages ago.E lives in Ayr, and so we met up in Glasgow. With my encouragement, she has just availed herself of a sparkling new iPad (64MB- I'm jealous) and having avoided thus far all but necessary interactions with techie stuff, wanted to find out a few tricks quicker than happy accidents.

We met up in a certain American coffee shop which offers free wifi. Of course, the muzak was loud, and I briefly thought of sitting outside, but there was a lone bagpiper out there! Much worse! I love pipe bands, but one piper on their own can be excruciating when they hit the wrong notes. There are many examples of the genre in Edinburgh. People throw money at them to stop, but it just seems to encourage them!

Anyway, we just shouted at each other, along with everyone else, but spent a fruitful couple of hours downloading a few must-have apps and putting them neatly into folders of course!

We took a walk along the river, but it must have been about 30 degrees (I kid you not!). It would have been nice to sail up the river, but walking along, in full sunshine, with NO wee cafes at all, was murder. It was too bright, of course, to take a photo of the famous Bendy Bridge and I was about to collapse in a sweaty heap, when what was that I spied ahead? Yes, it was a little silver caravan, with seats and shade beside it, possibly selling cold drinks!

As I staggered towards it, I saw another vision, was I possibly hallucinating due to heat stroke? But no. It was a real vision!

The vision was Andy. I admired his tattoos (a little ginormous white lie) and commented on the facial ones, which were like Maori moko. He said he'd been in the Navy, and had been to NZ. Not sure if he got them done there, or it was merely his 'inspiration' ... he had a huge spider on the back of his head, and his whole back, which was pretty immense, was covered.

I asked if I could take his photo and he was most obliging. He said his tattoos had cost him thousands of pounds over the years. In fact, his wife had left him because of them. 'And who could blame her?' I didn't say.

I thought the Sherlock Holmes pipe just set off the whole ensemble. His legs were covered too! Not that we saw them.

As we shook hands and bade a cheery farewell to our new friend, we headed for said silver caravan selling cold drinks and offering shady seating. But what is this? He was shutting up shop! Still no drinks or seats or shade!! But Andy was worth it.

A long walk back in the heat (and no shade). At last, on the point of collapse (me - E seemed fresh as a daisy!) we came across a different American coffee bar, and this time the muzak was low, and the place was cool and they had seats. I have never rushed into one of these establishments with quite such enthusiasm! With free wifi for half an hour, E was able to go over a few of the tricks she had learned, and set off happily to impress her techie (but not Apple) hubby.

The bus journey takes one and a half hours. The AA say it's 45 miles and should take an hour. It took half an hour from the Edinburgh Bus Station to the outskirts, a journey of 4.5 miles (should take 11 minutes! lol) What a mess the Edinburgh West End is still in. Traffic is directed round wee corners never meant for buses, left, right, round in circles. I think the bus companies must dish out Valium to their drivers each day in order to cope!

Go large to see the rivulets of sweat!