Cranes and rain

First night out in a little while, with meles and daveh at the Vaults. A very nice time was had. I stuck to beer, but the others and Mr A obviously had a wee dram. I love the smell and the culture of whisky, but I'm not a drinker of it. And it was great to be in a haven of peace (and dry) after the madness of the centre of Edinburgh.

I went in early to attend some pre interview presentations and give my input, and then spent the rest of the day on my chapters. An old colleague alerted me to the fact that he was in the building (someone I last saw on a panel in Helsinki in February), so I popped down to the visitors' office to see him. Lunchtime saw me heading over to the main library to drop off one book, take out another and collect an interlibrary loan. That gave me some inkling of the madness out there. It also gave me a sneaky opportunity to have fast food for lunch. Whoops.

Shortly afterwards, there was an epic electric storm and the rain came down in sheets. I was happy to be inside. I hate electric storms. It didn't seem to have put off the tourists, though, as when I came out shortly after 6pm to head down to find a bus, the streets and pavements were both gridlocked. I walked all the way to Elm Row before I managed to get a 22 bus. By the way, I also used the contactless machines on the buses for the first time. Quicker and easier than activating an online ticket. I gathered from Arachne on Monday that if you use the buses three (or four) times in a day it eventually charges you the day ticket rather than three (or more) singles. This is a good thing, as I often don't buy a day ticket because I'm not sure whether I'm going to use more than two buses... and then I have ended up buying three separate single tickets and paying more. Oh well, only just over two more years of this nonsense and I might, if the age limit isn't changed, have a bus pass....