Musselburgh Harbour.

I had looked forward to today's run, it was to be the longest of the year and I needed the training; the weather forecast wasn't good and I rode to the start of the run through a soft mizzle. There I found two of my compatriots discussing whether to have a coffee around the corner and then go home, or to ride out to a cafe before going home or to just go straight home. My arrival changed everything, nobody likes being called a wimp, so the decision was that we should ride to Gifford, some twenty miles away, and see what the weather was doing then.

By the time we reached Gifford the weather was warm and dry, so it was decided to continue to the lunch stop at the top of Redstone Rig, a notable local hill. When we arrived, I discovered that I had suffered a lunchbox malfunction and my saddlebag was full of Waldorf salad; it didn't taste too bad, but the texture was a little gritty. Apart from that, everything was fine and the sun even played a minor walk-on part in the proceedings.

An hour or so later, for some inexplicable reason, we stopped at the top of a hill near Monynut Forest, and had a lengthy discussion on the relative contributions such notaries as Galileo, Copernicus, Newton and Einstein had made to the understanding of the workings of the Universe, but without going as far as explaining why it's always the same rider who gets the punctures. This particular puncture was expensive; feeling a little peckish, I ate some chocolate while we waited but forgot to close my saddlebag. Somewhere between there and the coffee stop in Haddington can be found my purse and last Snicker bar although strangely, Galileo, et al. would not have been able to explain why the suntan lotion, for which I had no use whatsoever, had not jumped ship with the other items.

It was in the cafe that we heard an elderly lady chatting with friends about some esoteric points of her native tongue. Not being nosey, I had no idea of her nationality but, as she left, I said "Arivaderci" to her. She put her arms around me and thanked me for knowing how to be polite to a venerable  Italian lady. Although I hadn’t been previously aware of either the meaning or the language of the word, it was a further quarter of an hour before we were allowed to leave during which time we discovered that she had voted “YES” in the referendum and that the wife of one member of our group knows the Italian for “How much is that handbag?”

As we left for home, the rain finally started

I usually take a picture before the start of the run in case there‘s not a better opportunity. .

I've just posted blips for the last two days.