He’s very good!

I had a burst of energy this morning and cut the grass. Then sat and chatted with the neighbour. Millie is off school at the moment, as COVID is rife, but they were out the back doing exercises - well, Millie was, dad was sitting directing operations. Young Millie is a very promising tennis player - she ended this season as Number 1 in the UK for her age group. I will look out for her winning lots in the years to come.

The people in our other neighbour’s flat moved out today - they’ve been there for months, but have now bought a (smaller) flat not far away. They fled from Hong Kong. They left the flat spotless, so JR was very appreciative, as it was her job to ready it for the next people.

Archie and I set off for a walk. I decided to get the bus into town, and while we were waiting, a young lady said, ‘That’s a lovely dog you’ve got there’ and patted him. ‘I miss my dog at home,’ she continued. I mentioned BorrowMyDoggie, which she knew about, and we swapped phone numbers. Hopefully she’ll contact me next week and Archie will have a new friend to take him walks.

We had a walk down the Royal Mile. I spotted one of those gold painted street performer statues, he was sitting on a bench about 100 metres away in by the Council Offices. I watched him for a while - he was very good - didn’t move a muscle - but why was he not sitting out where more people could see how good he was? I went to find out. As we got closer, I realised that he was, in fact, a statue. 

He is General Stanislaw Maczek, a polish soldier who did brave things during the war, and lived in Edinburgh after it. I was familiar with his name, as there is a plaque on the flat where he lived in Marchmont. He’s been there since 2018 - amazing how you keep discovering new (old) things in the city.

Archie was well pleased - both ‘Milkman’ cafes were busy on the way down Cockburn Street, so we couldn’t stop. I couldn’t be sure, but I think he speeded up and tugged harder as we passed each one…