Apologies

I am sorry for a recent spate of "typical" touristy photos of Edinburgh. You must have been yawning at them - the sort everyone takes. I think the trouble was that I had taken the day off work to attend a postgraduate course in Edinburgh in the morning and was feeling in a good mood. So I decided that I would give blood ("a whole arm full" as Tony Hancock said) at the Scottish Blood Transfusion HQ next door to where the course was.

This in turn made me feel even more good about myself - hence the cheerful photos.

However, as the author Ian Rankin says, Edinburgh has 2 sides to it. The picture postcard touristy side, and the darker, seedier, hidden side - much like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde which was written as a parody on the 2 sides of the city

Let me redress the balance a bit with this one

Between the smart cobbles, bunting and gastro pubs of Rose Street and the shops and open vistas onto Princes Street Gardens, the Castle and the Royal Mile, is the side of Edinburgh which is kept hidden like a midden.