Through the Wheel Darkly

I was up like the lark that was having a long lie this morning, but I did arrive in Princes Street just after 9am hoping to do a few errands before the hordes descended. Actually the whole city centre was preternaturally quiet, far less people about than usual. I imagine everyone else was having a long lie to avoid facing the chill.
I liked this view of the Bank of Scotland building at the top of the Mound seen through the Wheel in the Gardens.

One of my missions was to acquire English pound notes for my two Yorkshire grandchildren. The English shopkeepers are very suspicious of the prettier Scottish ones and tend to hold them up to the light thinking  they are counterfeits. Most holes in the wall here  give the home grown variety so I thought the M&S currency exchange desk would give me English notes on production of my bank card  but no they don’t. 
I was directed to other banks in George Street or I could visit the cash machine inside my Royal Bank of Scotland branch which apparently dishes out the English variety. I decided to do the latter only to find it doesn’t open on a Saturday. Frustrated, I got the required fistful of Scottish notes from the outside hole in the wall and traded in as many of them as I could at my local Sainsbury’s. I have still more to convert.