It’s 11:30, local time and I’ve just returned from Goldie’s Pub on Rankin Street after having consumed multiple whiskies with my tiling mates. Almost all of the world’s problems were solved.
The evening started out with a wee bit of Cornish Cruncher cheese consumed at my bed sit, with a roll and bread. It seems my days here at the Rosevale Guest House are numbered however. As I prepared to leave my room for the evening my landlady informed me that I’ll have to clear out of here two days sooner, on account of the Wales vs. Scotland rugby match. It seems that she has hordes of other paying guests and my custom is no longer required.
Informed that “there’s no way I’ll find accommodation anywhere else in Edinburgh for that weekend”, it seems that I’ll have to evacuate the city entirely. Future blogs will reveal where precisely I’ll end up.
But that is weeks away, so for the time being, I am secure in my own wee bed.
In the meantime, I really must try to find a green vegetable…
Frankly, I don’t understand why there is not an epidemic of scurvy in this town. There doesn’t seem to be a green salad on offer within miles of here. The best I could manage so far this week was a single piece of cauliflower and a few peas next to mounds of potatoes and a few slices of pot roast. The rest of the week was creamed this and creamed that. The menu at the Peffermill Snack Wagon remains stubbornly rooted in fried tatties and mystery meat.
Today I learned how to bend copper pipes and how to install electric shower units. Never mind that we do not have electric showers in Canada, the experience was memorable nonetheless. In among a lengthy discussion of mixed showers, silicone profilers and combi boilers was the understanding of new words:
Pikies = gypsies
Scrappies = recycling yards
Tomorrow I complete my plumbing course and head off to Glasgow, where I’ll meet up with a very sweet lady called Grace, my mother’s cousin. From there we’ll journey on to Ardrishaig, the seaside ancestral maternal home of my Scottish forebears.
It should be a treat.
For now, I will share with you a few snaps of bonnie Edinburgh…
$12,000 Bottle of Hooch
Edinburgh Castle
Wee Fish Easting the Skin Off the Soles of Dutch Tourists' Feet
A Hidden Corner
The Fabulous and Very Chic Peffermill Public Housing Estate...
... and Where I'd Much Rather Be
Edinburgh Royal Mile
4 comments:
I'm really enjoying this blog, Mark. Re the green veg.: Maybe try a restaurant with "bistro" in its name? a Greek or Italian restaurant? Keep taking those vitamin pills!
I just love your blogs. Mum, kevin, and I just laugh and laugh. Why are you so worried about green veggies? Don't waste your money on asparagus when there is so much good scotch available.
I read Noddy as a kid so I know just how you look in class
We miss you. Take care
Julia
Mark, this is the male equivalent of "Eat, Pray, Love".
I finished reading all the earlier entries and this one - really enjoy reading them. You should be a travel writer in your next life maybe - they are truly delightful and informative.
Glad it went so well.
Bob S.
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