Wow! Today has been a fun packed day!
The ‘heatwave’ that we have been promised in Scotland since Thursday, finally arrived. Although, I wouldn’t describe it as a heatwave, I think it got up to 24 degress centigrade!
After sleeping until 10am Honey and I jumped on the bus and headed to Portobello arriving not long after midday. It was already filling up with people.
We met up with John, who we last saw on Day 68 and had a coffee sitting outside on the promenade. Whilst we sat there my friends Steve and Jenny walked by with their daughter Violet, they live not far from me! We had a good catch-up before they announced they were walking home so Violet could get a sleep.
I was very impressed to hear from John that the cafe we were at Miro’s did track & trace, only to work out that it was actually a ‘Bistro’. I wonder what the track & trace rules are for Bistros?
We then went for a walk along the promenade, enjoying the sun, chatting and enjoying the sights.
There were lots of people out enjoying drinks and food at tables along the promenade, buskers and a new bar in the car park at the end of Kings Road. The bar reminded me of the kind of bar that pops up for the Edinburgh Fringe.
Before finally bidding John farewell.
Just as I left John I noticed a new city bike store place on the street. John explained you can pay £75 a year to put your bike in them. I checked online when I got home and found that loads of these are going to be put up across the city, two of which are close to my flat.
One of things I don’t like about having a bicycle is that it takes up so much room in my flat. This could be the answer!
Honey and I then went for a swim the sea 🙂
Honey loves swimming!
We then went for another walk along the promenade and Honey went to the Wee Green Van, where she always get a luxury haggis, neeps and tatties dog biscuit for 40p.
We stumbled across another busker, which was less traditional, but the children seemed to be enjoying it!
Before getting the bus and headed homeward bound.
But the day didn’t finish there!
As I headed up Easter Road, I came across a new music venue that had it’s opening night last night – The Walrus Cafe. Steve had been saying he went there last night for the grand opening. I stuck my head in and asked if I could take a photo, mentioning the blog.
The guy seemed excited that it would be appearing in the blog, so gave me a full tour!
Live music and records in the main room, where you can get food and drink. In the back room, there is a small lounge area with a big wall one end, he explained they are going to show films in that room. There is a downstairs too, which they are going to turn into a recording studio.
When we got home about 6pm we chilled out in the flat, until about 9.30pm when Danny came round!
We had planned to head up Calton Hill to watch the Edinburgh International Festival light show, so we headed up there.
It was relatively busy when we got there, sitting down on the grass and having a beer.
The midges were out and I got bitten loads! Danny reflected on whether midges carry Covid-19?!
There was a great sunset over the city 🙂
Creative / Gardening Corner (formerly known as ‘Poetry / Art Corner’)
Anna suggested I changed the name of this section of the blog to ‘Creative / Gardening Corner’. This widens the scope and input. So if any of you want to share anything creative or gardening you have done, please do send it in.
Today we have a change from Anna’s paintings and instead something from Brian.
Brian said:
“This one might make you cry!”.
“Is this art?”.
It’s creative and probably art so its in here 🙂
It didn’t make me cry, but I haven’t been to the Edinburgh Tattoo for years! Did it make you cry?
Brian sent it in a tweet – https://twitter.com/EdinburghTattoo/status/1291797293746786312?s=20
Readers Corner
We have two comments in Readers Corner today 🙂
Brian
Brian sent me a message on Messenger saying:
“Hello there, Jim! One of the main reasons I love your blog is your attempts to follow all the various lockdown rules as they are introduced and eased and then changed again. It is really interesting as I also find them really confusing.
What must it be like if you are running a business or a public building? You have done incredibly well trying to translate everything for all the blog readers! The good news, as you still have more than half a year to go – are you having a half-year party to celebrate!? = is that we are all going to be living with rules well into 2021 and I’m sure you won’t be short of material!”
Brian then sent me various links from the Scottish Government saying that things are going to change again.
Thanks Brian. I’ll be taking a wee holiday to celebrate my half-year blog writing. I’m sure you and other regular blog readers will be there 😉
What I picked up from the news is that from next Friday, every pub/bar will have to Track & Trace, which was a guideline, but will now become the law. Also, those who wear visors will now have to wear face-coverings as well!
I’m glad that the Scottish Government is also reading my blog and taking my observations as guidance 😉
Helen
Helen sent me wee message on Messenger about yesterdays blog (Day 137) saying:
“Great blog today Jim!”.
Glad you enjoyed it. It always surprises me which blogs are enjoyed by readers! I find that those that I think are really good get no comments. So when I do get a compliment, I feel happy that it’s touching readers.
It Made Me Smile
Another contribution from Brian! For this he said:
“This group asked people on social media what they would miss about the Fringe and then made up a song about it! It made me smile and think about all the people who are sitting at home all over the world and dreaming of being in Edinburgh right now…
The chorus is quite catchy!”
Thanks Brian, this made me cry! But then I perform in the Fringe every year and am missing it loads this year.
Music Corner
Today in Readers Corner we have the second way you can submit music, your Spotify playlist! To do this, send me the Embed Code, which is in HTML format. However, it seems that it just plays small segments of the tunes. So to hear the full playlist you need to sign-in/sign-up for Spotify!
Helen
Helen sent this Spotify Playlist saying:
“The back story is that I love new music so when Brian shared a video I looked up the singer (Jean Butterworth) on Spotify and listened to another one of her songs. Then I like to go on these Spotify Adventures, clicking on a recommended song or artist and finding more new music.
We’d been to Ikea that day, so the thumbnail photo is some shelves I took a photo of.”
So Helen’s playlist is called ‘What I listened to Today’. With the description – ‘Some celtic tones, a detour via the Nordics, then off piste before returning to some classics’.
Thanks for this Helen, it’s great music, from lots of my favourite musicians/bands. I’ve listened to the Playlist whilst writing this blog 🙂 – I found it was easy to log in via Facebook, so listened to the full playlist.
It took me a while to work out what you meant by the Ikea Shelves photo, but worked out it was the playlist cover.
If you missed the video Brian shared in ‘It Made Me Smile’ with Jenn Butterworth. It was a fun song that made you want to dance and sing along too (or tap your foot!) that appeared on Day 127.
As I come to the end of this blog, I am exhausted!
I think today has been the busiest day I’ve had since lock-down began. Saying, that it has been laid back, chilling out lots! It’s not until I write it all down in this blog, that I realise just how many things I have done.
The weather has been great! The deep blue sky all day, no cloud, lots of sunshine and a great sunset! I think the temperature reached 24 degrees, pretty good for Edinburgh, but not as impressive as 37 degrees that I believe the south of England reached – I think that is too hot 😉
I was in shorts and t-shirt all day, even on Calton Hill. It got a bit cooler around 10pm so put on a wee jumper.
Lots of videos in today’s blog….if you get a chance listen to Helen’s playlist – I’ve listened to it twice whilst writing this blog, I love it.
I look forward to listening to other readers playlists.
It feels like everyone, including myself, is out and about this July and August, taking every weekend as a mini-holiday, rather than going abroad. Being in Portobello today definitely felt like being on holiday for me.
I hope you have all had lots of fun today in the sun.
Lots of Love.
Jim xx