Bonnie Scootland
A good weekend. A beautifully sunny day on Saturday with soaring temperatures and whatnot, so I lubed the chain on my bike and got a little bit greasy replacing my tax disc (now purple), before lounging about for a bit. Then went and caught my train northwards. I've noticed that I spend a lot of my life on trains recently!
Straight up to Edinburgh no troubles, into beautiful sunshine and to meet Carole. Now this in itself was an unusual experience for me, since every time I've been to Scotland in the past, it's rained. And constantly, relentlessly and awfully. Not that I've been to Scotland very often, it must be said. But we had a nice catch-up, she's getting along very nicely and also has a job for when she finishes her phd (lucky lady), and will move to Bristol. So I'll know more people there again, and will have an excuse to visit more, perhaps! Though one thing I've noticed, is that I dont have the desire to move back to Bristol again like I have the desire to return to Oxford or Soton. Funny, eh? Bristol is a lovely place too......
Anyhow, we climbed up Scott's Monument (without scaffolding for the first time in donkey's years) to take in the fabulous view. There'd be an even more fabulous view of the Firth of Forth if they flattened a selected few buildings though....*grin*. Also waved at some random guy sunbathing in the gardens and promptly ran away when he waved back! Admitedly this was half-way up the monument, and I'll never meet the man, but still (:$ . An afternoon of coffee and chat in various locations around the city (nice place too, bet it's crap in winter though), and then dinner.
Dinner was a little bit of an adventure, my first trial foray into Japanese cuisine (rather apt considering the recent previous post - no raw prawns though). I got Carole to do the picking but under instruction not to be too outlandish, and sat back for the results! A bit of a mixed bag really; wasabi did not blow my head off like I've been warned (though I only had the most miniscule dab of it), tuna sashimi was nothing but bland to my taste, though quite palatable and not retch-worthy, and the sushi rolls were very nice, and I shall be having those again. Followed by grilled prawns and noodles to make a most seafood-y meal, though there was some weird stuff on these noodles that wasnt so nice - the best description I have for it is smoked onion-skin, but it definitely wasnt. Just an over-powering smoked flavour, one I'm never very fond of. But otherwise very nice. Something I shall be trying again.
And then we were both knackered and went home. I'm so far past it these days.....
Sunday was spent chasing cows around town. Well, kinda. Ever heard of the famous Cow Parade? Well, Edinburgh is having one at the moment, and we managed to get hold of a map and go hunting, collecting about half of the available cows. Good fun, and it gets you around places! Unfortunately some cows have been vandalised, and even totally removed. Shame.
Throughout the course of the weekend there were also many varied moments that I thought 'must blog about that' but I've forgotten them now. Never mind!
Straight up to Edinburgh no troubles, into beautiful sunshine and to meet Carole. Now this in itself was an unusual experience for me, since every time I've been to Scotland in the past, it's rained. And constantly, relentlessly and awfully. Not that I've been to Scotland very often, it must be said. But we had a nice catch-up, she's getting along very nicely and also has a job for when she finishes her phd (lucky lady), and will move to Bristol. So I'll know more people there again, and will have an excuse to visit more, perhaps! Though one thing I've noticed, is that I dont have the desire to move back to Bristol again like I have the desire to return to Oxford or Soton. Funny, eh? Bristol is a lovely place too......
Anyhow, we climbed up Scott's Monument (without scaffolding for the first time in donkey's years) to take in the fabulous view. There'd be an even more fabulous view of the Firth of Forth if they flattened a selected few buildings though....*grin*. Also waved at some random guy sunbathing in the gardens and promptly ran away when he waved back! Admitedly this was half-way up the monument, and I'll never meet the man, but still (:$ . An afternoon of coffee and chat in various locations around the city (nice place too, bet it's crap in winter though), and then dinner.
Dinner was a little bit of an adventure, my first trial foray into Japanese cuisine (rather apt considering the recent previous post - no raw prawns though). I got Carole to do the picking but under instruction not to be too outlandish, and sat back for the results! A bit of a mixed bag really; wasabi did not blow my head off like I've been warned (though I only had the most miniscule dab of it), tuna sashimi was nothing but bland to my taste, though quite palatable and not retch-worthy, and the sushi rolls were very nice, and I shall be having those again. Followed by grilled prawns and noodles to make a most seafood-y meal, though there was some weird stuff on these noodles that wasnt so nice - the best description I have for it is smoked onion-skin, but it definitely wasnt. Just an over-powering smoked flavour, one I'm never very fond of. But otherwise very nice. Something I shall be trying again.
And then we were both knackered and went home. I'm so far past it these days.....
Sunday was spent chasing cows around town. Well, kinda. Ever heard of the famous Cow Parade? Well, Edinburgh is having one at the moment, and we managed to get hold of a map and go hunting, collecting about half of the available cows. Good fun, and it gets you around places! Unfortunately some cows have been vandalised, and even totally removed. Shame.
Throughout the course of the weekend there were also many varied moments that I thought 'must blog about that' but I've forgotten them now. Never mind!
posted by J at 10:44 PM
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