17th Century Lamb

Flu jab this morning. It was an open surgery. 4 staff on hand to administer the dose. Unlike some queuing systems where you all form a line and go to whoever is next free, in my surgery you were allocated to one of the 4. Your name was called out when they were ready for you.

I don’t want to say I drew the short straw - because the person was very pleasant. All I’ll say is that a neighbour came in after me and less than 15 minutes later was on her way out. From start to finish it was 35 minutes for me. But I was under no pressure.

Had my first retirement lunch out with my wife today. We went to Leith to a great Tapa restaurant we frequent and had a lovely lunch. We also met my godson’s new 7 week daughter Maya and the family which was an added bonus.

We parked the car next to the original site of Andrew Lamb's house. it is suggested that Mary Queen of Scots spent a brief time there ( as she did in numerous locations across Scotland). On this occasion it was apparently on her return from France in 1561 where she spent an hour there before heading to Holyrood Palace.

The house is typical of the 17th century houses in Leith - from which a lot of trade used to go to the Hansiatic League. In the bright sunshine - ahead of the dark clouds and torrential rain - the building stood out beautifully against the sky. It used to be owned by the National Trust but us now in private hands.