Wind and the Steampunk

The alarm went off at 4:20am this morning. I was later than usual in booking my train to Edinburgh and couldn't get an economically viable ticket for Friday. The 6:13am from Piccadilly was unsurprisingly cheap though but it involved cycling the 20km to the station to get on it.

I really enjoyed the ride with only a few cars being on the road until nearing the city centre. Piccadilly was busy with night revellers on their way home. Girls in tiny skirts and heels looking very unglamorous and plenty guys stumbling about as their coordination was lacking after a night on the sauce. There were also plenty immigrant workers on their way to do long days to keep the economy propped up! Chapeau!

Platform 14 is the worst place to embark a train anywhere on the planet......it's a narrow 'through' platform with hoards acting as though they are at the Harrods Sale. Fortunately, it was very quiet and there was no one to argue with on the train when asking them not to sit in the bike space. I was at Rosemary's just before 10am, waking her with the door buzzer.

After a bit faffing, we left the house after 1pm for a cycle to North Berwick. Goodness, the wind was strong with both of us nearly getting blown off the road in Leith! Because we were late, Rosemary had expected that we would simply blast down the coast. I had other ideas, heading up through Inveresk and Carberry. Shit........the wind was strong that an average hill was feeling like Ventoux. It was so tough in fact that we stopped for a Feed Zone Portable snack.....a French toast thing which had been cooked in a muffin tin and come out like a donut! Yummy.

As we turned towards Haddington, friend Sandra and an unknown man pedalled the other way, with waves but few words being exchanged. The wind was a real challenge with one gust forcing R off road. Her cyclo-cross skills were admirable. By East Linton, I was starting to get a bit tired and my confidence in the wind was disappearing too. It was apparent that if we did the planned cafe stop, there was no way we would get back to Edinburgh before dark. The decision was taken to get the train home from North Berwick. This proved to be a wise one as we would have been riding into a howling gale. A check of the weather said that wind speed was 30km.h gusting to above 70km.h. On exposed East Lothian roads, this was a nightmare.

The cafe in North Berwick was heaven! Steampunk, a small coffee roaster had opened it 3 days previous in an amazing warehouse space. They even had a customised linear La Marzocco coffee machine which had just been plumbed in. I was slightly disappointed that the barista wasn't enamoured with making me a very slow Chemex brewed coffee. I had a very nice espresso instead.....Rich chocolate with kumquat acidity.....a very good effort for a brand new machine, with potential to be excellent.

Espresso used to be my libation of choice but I now far prefer the more complex but delicate taste of V60 or aeropress, expertly brewed. My 3 chocolate brownie was lush. Rosemary was surprised by the taste of her chai but she really liked it. Her cardamom cake was good too!

I wanted to buy a bag of coffee to take home and the barista was a wonderful help. I suspect his initial slight shortness in doing a Chemex had something to do with being asked to do a complex brew at the end of a very stressful Saturday. Judging by the flow of customers, he'd probably been run off his feet all day. He was knowledgable and passionate about his coffee and very friendly too! Although Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a favourite, I decided to go with a Peruvian bean, simply because I've never had coffee from the birth place of Paddington Bear. I can't wait to try it and I wish Steampunk all the luck in the world. With an amazing space and passion for a great product, I'm sure they'll do very well. My silly dream is to have my own cafe and I'd be very proud if it was like this one.

Argggg.......after the chat with the barista, we ended up late for the choo choo... and we didn't really know where the station was. Rosemary picked a slightly thick and inebriated soul to ask for directions and fortunately he pointed us on our way. We caught the train with a few minutes to spare. Rosemary had lost a banana in the panic!