Embra

Here I am again. I have fled redneck Fife and sought political asylum in the Big City. 

I only made the decision and booked yesterday morning. I reckon 8 days at home, with only 2 of them offering an escape to the Office, had given me severe cabin fever in spite of being just back from a holiday. Cabin fever is something I associate with November to January. The omens are not good for later in the year. 

My morning was well spent (after a good night of sleep, for a change) chasing and checking bits of paper for bookkeeping and accounting purposes. Then after lunch it was into the car and a few miles along the road to the park & ride for a bus into Edinburgh. The usual fast and comfortable ride through the traffic was relaxed and relaxing.  

The city seems much quieter than 4 weeks ago in spite of all the students being back. I think I have picked the best day of the week to be out and about from the point of view of the weather, so it was looking its best.   

Dinner was a slightly surreal experience in a Kurdish place where the food was great and the service less great. The surreal part was amplified by the view of the sun setting on my former high school out of the back window.

Staggering back to my Residence under the burden of 2 glasses of Lebanese red, baba ganoush, a chilli gosht kebab, fattoush and 2 kinds of bread I had to walk past Sandy Bell’s. My drouth overcame my fear of the virus, and I went in.

It was also a bit surreal. It must have been one of the first pubs I went into (being almost next door to my school) when I was 16 17 18. Well, to be honest I was 17 when I left Edinburgh to go to university, so I may have been a couple of weeks months years under age.  

It has hardly changed.