My Life

It takes determination and bloody mindedness to leave the house at 6am to  catch the bus from Princes Street to Porty and swim at 7am just to avoid peak traffic and hold ups, but on the other hand my BP does not rise to a dangerous level. Swings and roundabouts. 

It seems that Edinburgh Council Roads Department try to make sure that road works coincide with the Festival shenanigans  and at the moment there is work going on at Abbeyhill with temporary traffic lights and Portobello High street  is one lane again but the hold ups never seem so bad between 6-7am I have found.

I was swimming solo today and the sea was quite lively near the shore. It is what I think of a billowing - the wave effect one gets after passage of a boat. Being early I caught one of the two #45 buses which ply along the shore before 8am and was home by 8:15.

I had my Söderberg experience at 9am, and since my drink was a  free one  today on my loyalty card,I  went the whole hog for hot chocolate with marshmallows. Well it would be rude to refuse such a treat.

I had an interesting chat with one of the student waitresses who is saving up to travel to Russia and China on her own before she starts back at University in October. Her parents are Russian living in Britain and she has shared a flat with Chinese students , so perhaps it’s not so daunting for her as it would be for me.

I bit the bullet later to  walk through George Square to get some shoppingin Nicolson Street. All the eateries have their stalls up and presumably running and the lovely George Square gardens are home to the UnderBelly events. 50 yards from my building, huge prefab buildings have been erected to house the book festival in the grounds of the Edinburgh Futures Institute.  People are gathering in droves and there is a complete spectrum of humanity and fashion. 

Meanwhile back at the ranch……… I have started knitting a FairIsle kep……….giving the granny squares a rest for now.