Where's the castle?

I was trapped inside today, awaiting a delivery between 07:00 and 18:00 (ie ALL DAY). And if there was nobody at the property when the delivery arrived, I would be fined £30! I can see that if they say the delivery would be between, say, 10:15 and, say, 10:35 then a £30 fine would be quite in order. But the whole day??!

Fortunately, it arrived in the morning. Just.

I popped into town in the afternoon for a blip. As I came to the top of the Playfair Steps (they are very steep and go on for ever) there were four older people laughing their heads off. I veered towards them and as I got closer, one of them, between guffaws, spoke to me.

‘Where is the castle?’ Then collapsed laughing again. One of the women explained that they had just walked up the steps and when they got to the top, none of them could speak, so they all got the giggles. I pointed to another big hill and they were off laughing again.

I headed, like a moth to the flame, to the ice rink, as I had such fun yesterday. There was an older chap who was really whizzing around. I took some photos of him. He came round again and stopped by me.

‘I’ve got a new camera and wanted some action shots,’ I explained.

‘I know,’ says he. ‘You took my photo the other day in my kilt!’

Took lots there, there was one girl who was doing twirly bits and had nice tartan trews on. But I did ice skating yesterday…

I had a wander round the market. The smell of ‘flavoured coffee beans’ was everywhere. And it was horrible. Like crisps - why flavour coffee??

Above the Christmassy songs I could hear a saxophonist and found him. Pity I didn’t have the Playfair Steps in background (they're behind him) that would have rounded my visit to town nicely. I liked the nice chap who smiled.

On the bus home an elderly lady next to me was telling me how she’d been at the Canongate Kirk for soup and bingo. They also had mince pies. She talked about Alan, whom I took to be her husband. We chatted about this and that, then she asked which home my husband was in… We both realised at the same time that she thought I was someone she knew. If I’d been thinking quickly I could have played along a bit and told her I couldn’t remember.

Back home, with a big bag of Maltesers, doing the Christmas cards with the afternoon play on Radio 4.

Exciting day tomorrow.