‘Babysitting’

Today were to ‘babysit’ the neighbour’s daughter. She’s eight years old and almost taller than JR, so ‘babysitting’ is not the right word...

She wasn’t allowed to come and sit in our house, so we were hoping for a nice day. And we got it. We walked across the Meadows and set off on our usual circuit. Amazingly enough, young M had never heard of Greyfriar’s Bobby! (her parents aren’t Scottish) but we took her to Bobby’s grave, it had a huge pile of sticks, which seems to be the new tradition, as well as rubbing his statue’s nose (which we didn’t).

We walked down to the Grassmarket, normally buzzing on a sunny weekend, with all the pubs open and lots of outdoor seating. Not today, as all the pubs are closed for two weeks (three weekends). Not sure it’s the answer, though...

However, Mary’s Milk Bar was open and the queue wasn’t too long, so it was ice creams all round (Archie got the wee ends of the cones.)

Up the Vennel steps, with the obligatory posing at the top of the steps. Back across the Meadows, with Archie running between us, and M running around with Archie. He loves it when you burst into running. I say you - I would/could never do that. Unfortunately. A two hour walk (6,642 steps), and we delivered her back home.

I then watched the tennis final - thank goodness it wasn’t a five-setter, because I felt very drowsy and promptly fell asleep till 6.30.