Get Orf Moi Land!

A wee wander into East Lothian, not really to see the planes involved in the air show out at East Fortune (though the Spitfire flew more or less straight over us, and the Hunter was unmistakeable). We were just getting out for a while, blowing the cobwebs off after the night before, and paid a visit to the Chesters Hill Fort near Drem. Nice spot it was too, and the cows were rather inquisitive...

Earlier in the day I'd had to suffer a bus journey into town to collect the bike I'd left at work yesterday. By god I hate buses. It's not really that I generally end up with the weirdo beside me, or that I don't like being in close proximity to the germ-ridden air of a packed double-decker, but more because, quite simply, I'm tall.

Not freakishly tall you understand, but tall enough that the normal seats will do their best to cut off the circulation to my toes through the pressure exerted on my knees pressed up against the back of the seat in front. And so my only option for comfort are the 'Disabled and Geriatric' seats at the front. This then clashes with my basic 'nice' side to mean that I'm always looking out to see if someone needs the seat; my 'shy' side means that making that offer of the seat is an initial squeaky entreaty; and my 'hacked off' side doesn't want to give up the only place of comfort I can find within the whole creaking and shaking contraption.

Just when, do you think, are there going to be seats on buses reserved for those of us a few inches over 6 feet? 'This seat is for tall people, please give it up if a tall person should board the bus'. Buses could have little height measurement things at the door like a fairground ride (and with some of Edinburgh's bus drivers the ride is a damned sight scarier). And finally I wouldn't find myself uncomfortable and annoyed by a basic 25 minute journey into town. Longer, as it happens, than it takes me to ride.

And coming home? Now I know the Queen's back garden was very very busy today because of the Gathering, and the cycle path in the park is pretty much completely and utterly abused by anyone walking as it is (which is why I always stick to the road there), so I wasn't expecting to make any quick progress. But surely it's taking the piss, just a little, to park your ice cream van so that the queue from the window starts right slap bang in the cycle path?