Alternative accommodation

Welcome to the Edinburgh the tourists don’t necessarily see. This encampment of homeless jakies has been in situ for several months half a mile from Princes Street and nobody seems to be keen on moving them on. The squalor has grown as the weeks have gone by and now is so bad that I think the inhabitants have departed with their alcohol to pastures new leaving the council using some of my Council Tax money to clean up the mess.

Apart from the visual horror, there are no toilet facilities nearby as the public toilets on the opposite side have been shut for a while. However the pharmacy with the Methadone is within a few yards.
Complaints have been made to the University whose Medical School is the building in the background and to the Parks Department, but nothing has been done. It seems the Town Council are allowing Christmas Markets to go up without planning approval and anyone with a tent to erect it wherever they like , but you try to put up a hut in your own garden though and the Powers that be will be down on you like a ton of bricks if you don’t have planning consent. The world is mad.

Guilt is a terrible affliction. It forced me out to buy more Christmas cards this morning in order to respond to the ones through my letter box whose senders were not on my truncated list.
With that guilt assuaged it was off down The Rabbit Hole for a Christmas lunch with my friend. We were joined in the restaurant by a group of about 16 ladies of a certain age who were enjoying themselves so much, that I have arrived home hoarse from having to shout to my friend over the din. I’m sure they must have been talking with their mouths full as there was no lessening in volume when their meal arrived.