past present

I moved through to Edinburgh in 1995 with my best mate Clare. She was coming through to study Psychiatric Nursing and I was coming through to find out if the relationship I was in would go anywere (fast forward to 2010 - Clare excelled in her studies, and my relationship did and then didn't go anywhere).

When we first arrived in this fair city we frequented 2 places pretty much the entire time - The Basement and Bar Napoli. The latter was our favourite because they'd let us sit in the corner drinking red wine till 1 in the morning, giving us a standing ovation when we would finally stagger out, scarves and handbags flying everywhere as we stumbled up the stairs).

We go back there from time to time - no, it's not the best Italian in Edinburgh, but that's not always why you go to a restaurant. We go because within those walls are the whispered secrets of our early 20s. The gasps and cackles of gossip we had in a different decade. Somewhere in the ether, people are singing 'happy birthday' to Clare on her 21st. People are wishing me well at the leaving do I held there when I left my first Edinburgh job. The nerves of trying to impress my ex boyfriend's mother are still ringing in there somewhere.

It's part of our history.

So we celebrate another birthday here - Clare's. We pick over the past - how nervous we were to move to Edinburgh, how exciting it was. How our lives are now compared to what we thought they would become.

The waiters gave us their usual chat, people came and people went. The hen parties arrived, the anniversary couple, the pizzas passed us and the canneloni, the bruschetta, olives, spaghetti. Buzz buzz buzz.

Didn't make it past 11pm this time, but we gave it our best shot.

Me and Clare. We'll be drinking too much wine in that place till we're well into our 90s. And the staff will probably still be the same even then!

(this photo reminds me of a Jack Vettriano picture, not sure why!)