Déjà Vu

Well, my little overnight escape is over. 

Just like a month ago, my morning involved a coffee outside close to the hotel, but at a different place and with a cinnamon bun (Extra) instead of a croissant (to stop me getting in a rut).  The waiter said “Thanks, dude” as he put the goodies on my table. I almost told him what I thought of that. 

Then I went for a walk in the locality, just like last month but on a different route - towards Bruntsfield and then back via Marchmont. Again, memories from 50 years ago jumped out at me around almost every corner. 

I walked past the house of a girl I dated a couple of times when I was 17. On the second date I discovered her uncle was my maths teacher. That was the end of that. I had to pass maths to get into university. 

Her uncle came into my life again 2 years after I left school. He was one of the top rugby players in Scotland in his position at the time - good enough to be selected to play for Edinburgh against Australia. I played the same position, and our teams played each other one week. I expected to be humiliated, or whacked, or both, but it went OK. 

Certainly I got a kick in the head from one of his team mates, but that was pretty normal in those days. An occasional concussion was neither here nor there. Yes, it explains a lot, doesn’t it. 

I have not thought about any of that stuff for years. 

La France

Ah but the Blip… It is a view from the staircase in the hotel, looking at the office building opposite.  You can just make out a woman at her desk on the 3rd floor. At 10am she was one of only two people visible in the whole of that 7 floor building. The other is a guy standing talking to her. 

I saw exactly the same thing at almost exactly the same time 4 weeks ago.