Spartans

Since L and K were selling some of their grandmother's effects at a car boot sale, they needed A to ferry them about. Hence I had the morning dog walk on another dull day. I then headed into North Edinburgh to watch the first leg of the play-off between the Lowland and Highland League winners, The Spartans FC and Brechin City, respectively. One is a community club based in one of the most deprived areas of Edinburgh, the other looking to bounce back into the SPL where they'd been for 67 years until 2021. Since both teams play in red and white, it took a few minutes to work out which was which, but the atmosphere was good, with both stands packed. The Spartans lost a player to a straight red after 36 minutes when, as the "last man" (on the edge of the centre circle!), he brought down a Brechin player. Spartans took a while to recover, but shaded the second half, scoring the game's only goal in the 90th minute. Next Saturday sees the second leg to see which team will play Albion Rovers or Bonnyrigg Rose in the promotion play-off tie. I'll be watching Bonnyrigg, who need a point against Elgin, but only if Albion defeat the League Two champions. I'm not concerned, but strange things happen in football!

After that, I walked along Ferry Road to visit the Bulgarian grocers. I've known about it for years, but have never been. I bought some lukanka (dry cured sausage) and sirene (feta-like cheese), and had a good chat about Bulgaria (and living in Edinburgh) with the guy behind the counter. 

I'd hoped to return to the city centre via the Botanical Gardens, but they'd closed by the time I got there, and I only just got to walk through Princes Street Gardens before they closed!