One elephant, went out to play...

My lovely girl slept right through from when I gave her her 'dream feed' (a bottle she is lifted for at 10 pm when she is more or less still asleep) until 7.15 this morning. I can't complain about that at 11 months can I? She had breakfast then I took her out for a walk, see extra. She's had been so happy and content while she's been with us, it's been lovely. We took her home at around 2pm, she was very pleased to see her mum&dad, as were they to see her. They're much better today thank goodness.
I went to a funeral at 11. 30, one of our bridge players and somebody with connections to our church too. The service was at Cramond Kirk. What beautiful stained glass there is there, wonderful rich colours.
On our way back from dropping Josie home, I noticed a young couple outside our garden leaning on the wall. I could see he was really upset so stopped while reversing to ask if I could help them at all. They looked as if they had been at a music festival from their luggage and dress - I thought perhaps they were having money or transport problems. To my horror when the girl came to the car, he was on his phone, she said he had just been told that his father had died and they were waiting for somebody to come and pick them up. The poor boy was understandably distraught. I asked if there was anything I could do, they thanked me but said no. I parked the car and spoke to Colin then went back down to them to see if they wanted to come into the house to wait, or if I could bring them anything, I didn't know how to help not how long they were going to have to wait. The boy came over and said no, somebody was on their way over from Rosyth and were already on the bridge. He thanked me again. They were so polite and grateful in the midst of what must have been the most awful situation, I couldn't stop thinking about him all day. They'd clearly had a good weekend away and then to receive news like that away from home and out in the street. So dreadfully sad.
The rest of the afternoon involved dropping Colin's car off at Meadowbank. York Place and Leith Walk are traffic chaos. Avoid them if you can.
I then came back and picked up the girls from after school club, took one to gymnastics and the other home, Katy made it back soon after that and she's going to drop the second off at gymnastics and bring the first home. Busy, busy!
I was delighted to see that tonight was the start of quiz night Mondays again. Jeremy Paxman was still on UC, I wonder when he leaves.
My main blip today is one of the stone carvings at Cramond, there is a fish on the shore too, but this elephant is in the church grounds. It is the work of Ronnie Rae, as is the fish and several others around Edinburgh. Made of granite it's a tremendous piece of work.
The refuse strike is over, thank goodness, the festival visitors have largely left too, hopefully we will return to a degree of normality soon