Time for a dismissal

The Leith Police (station). The junction of Queen Charlotte Street and Constitution Street is currently closed off to all traffic apart from bicycles, so this was a good time to catch this picture. Once the trams start running down the road, they will probably make quite a racket inside the Hideout, as they will be very close. We were there for an excellent coffee and a morning roll (bacon), on our way down to Ocean Terminal where Mr A had an appointment with a vaccinator. He now has a sore arm and says he feels weak and tired. I had promised to make dinner and delivered on my promise, with a version of my preferred chicken masala. I also wielded the hand juicer, to prepare some fresh orange juice for the next couple of days.

We've actually had a really pleasant local domestic day. Walking down to Ocean Terminal via the graffiti wall. Passing by the quirky plant shop on North Junction Street, but managing to resist the temptation to get more balcony plants (the balcony is a bit short of colour at the moment, but we are just waiting for the three chrysanthemum plants which survived and thrived from last year's bedding plants to blossom in profusion....so I was tempted by some insta-colour....but resisted). Popping in to the new Edinburgh Community Bookshop on Great Junction Street, not once but twice. I spotted something I thought I might like the first time, but we went home and I did a bit of research on the author Ruth Ozeki, to choose which of two books I would prefer. I decided to go for The Book of Form and Emptiness, which I have nominated for the December book group which will be here. I therefore went back to the bookshop, armed with a bag of books, and bought the volume I wanted. I also picked up a few bits and pieces from the small supermarket on the corner, which were needed for dinner.

I've started my new book, although probably I ought to be reading my own book in preparation for some teaching on Tuesday.... I'll have to fit that in amongst meetings tomorrow. Three very busy days coming up, before an escape to Tain.

The one thing I omitted to do this weekend was to collect my new reading glasses. What with going away, I now won't be able to get them before the weekend after next. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with this business of going backwards and forwards. The advantages are obvious. Leaving the city and going to our new bolthole which we are gradually making more like a home. I also appreciate both places more, with the coming and going. I've noticed quite a lot of new things springing up in Leith. Not only new cafes, but two new bookshops, and quite a few other little enterprises (such as the ones that will fill the newly refurbished Stead's Place shops....I'll be blipping them in due course). Leith seems busy with visitors as well as locals (despite the obvious inconveniences caused by the tramworks), and obviously the locals have changed somewhat over time. A gentrification process is ongoing..... Meanwhile, we're still exploring Tain, and finding new places for shopping and so on. And we appreciate the capacity just to be, in our new place, which is very relaxing indeed. The disadvantages, of course, are things like not being able to collect my new reading glasses, or feeling a bit pressured by the coming and going. But they seem minor, in comparison.