Visa-versa

Today is St Andrew’s day, the patron Saint of Scotland and a public holiday. This meant that, unbeknownst to me, the Chinese Visa Application centre in Edinburgh was closed! Getting together all the documentary evidence and filling in the visa application has been a marathon task with a lot of stress attached so to find the office shut up felt as deflating as a flat tyre on a frosty road. I had to sit down in the Under-croft at West Princes Street gardens with coffee, cake AND lunch before I felt better and could plan the next move. 
This was to find accommodation for the night, so I could try again in the morning. Thank goodness I found a budget bed at St Christopher Inns Hostel just outside the Waverley Station. Furthermore, although in a mixed gender 12 bunk dormitory, no-one snored and the lights were out at 11.00pm.
Before that however I went off to look at the Christmas market and Fun fair that stretches the whole way from the National Art Gallery to the station. Chilly but cheering with lots of families all enjoying perambulating round festive wooden cabins filled with carved Angels and Stars, and eating German sausages in Scottish baps. I found a ‘Black Forest’ stall with salmon grilling over a brazier, which was giving out some heat as well as dinner. 
Poor old Walt Scott on his Monument though had his back to the whole show and was dwarfed by the towering ride beside. I knew how he felt, as I went to bed with the enormity of the visa paperwork still hanging over me – and no toothbrush or towel.