Day 37 – Reflections on Lock-Down

Today I learnt something knew – I live in Leith!

For those who don’t know Edinburgh, from 1833 to 1920, Leith was an independent burgh and, on Leith Walk, it’s boundary with Edinburgh lay at Pilrig.

Yesterday, I wrote in my blog, that I had officially gone into Leith for the first time on lock-down.  My understanding was the boundary of Leith was at Pilrig, which was marked by a bar called ‘The Boundary Bar’, but more recently has been renamed The Bier Hoose.

I had always thought, that the boundary was in a direct line from this point, but my neighbour, Jan, wrote that in fact this was not the case (see more in Readers Corner).  She included a map and sure enough the boundary is not straight and I do indeed live in Leith!

It may not mean much to you – but Leith is a desirable place to live, in fact it was recently named the best place to live in Scotland.  Leith was made famous by the films, Trainspotting and ‘Sunshine on Leith‘ (and probably others!).  In fact, Irvine Welsh, who was born in Leith wrote:

“Leith is the sexiest place in the world and it’s the home of Hibs, the sexiest club on earth. Of course people want to live there”.

The above named road ‘Leith Walk’ is a long road, that links Edinburgh to Leith.  It has been said to be the most populated area in Europe!

The article I found about the Edinburgh/Leith boundary (CLICK HERE), said that from 1871 to 1899 there was a horse drawn tram service which ran the entire length of Leith Walk.  But in October 1899, Edinburgh installed a cable tram down to the boundary of Leith (at Pilrig), but the Leith Town Council refused to allow it to be extended to the ‘Foot of the Walk’ (that’s the bottom of Leith Walk).  So anyone who wanted to travel all the way down Leith Walk had to change trams at Pilrig (initially to a horse drawn tram), which came to be known as ‘Pilrig Muddle’.

So now I can proudly say I live in Leith!

 

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This morning, Honey acted as my alarm clock for a second day!

Like yesterday, I was up by 7.30am, walked Honey, we both had breakfast and did I 40 minutes of cleaning / tidying my flat, before morning Chi Gong!

I was less focused this morning to get work done.  But I recorded yesterdays blog for the radio station.  I also had a meeting to discuss when it will be played.

The first 7 blogs, will be played next Monday at 10am.  I will provide you a link in the next day or so.

I spent most of the morning catching up on social media, emails, etc…Unlike the last 2 days, I didn’t have a specific project to focus on…I need to set a new one for the next couple of days.  So I can feel that I achieved something by the end of the week.

This afternoon I was feeling tired.  I remembered, last Wednesday feeling the same.  So,like last Wednesday, I spent the afternoon resting on the sofa watching a film.  I’ve learnt over the last few weeks – without a more lazy Wednesday, I am totally exhausted by the weekend and spend most of Saturday and Sunday sleeping!

I didn’t go for a long walk / run today (nor a cycle).  Instead, Honey and I ventured to ‘Kate’s Park’.  Kate was home and so we had a chat with her from her 2nd floor window!

I found myself standing looking at the trees a lot and trying to notice the bird song.  Check out the wee video below:

 

Then back home and started this blog.

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Readers Corner

Today I decided to trial a new feature in Readers Corner.  Having a photo of each contributor, taken from their Facebook Profile Picture (if they have one).  This obviously is by consent and anything included in Readers Corner which is also by consent.

Please let me know, if this works for ‘Readers Corner’?

Some people often edit what to include.

A final practice I have adopted over the last few days or so, is that anyone who contributes to the blog, gets the blog sent direct to their inbox.  Just a little extra touch and appreciation of those who share.

So a whole host of comments today:

 

Pat / Patrick

I used to work with Pat many years ago in Clydebank.  He was the one person that came to wave us off, as we headed down the Clyde on our HitchHop Adventure back in 2011.  But don’t think I have seen him since!

Pat commented on yesterday’s blog, via Facebook:

“Good Read…I Love Dunbar’s Music…He Did Many A Theme For Some Major Films…. I Could Listen To Him All Day…Stay Well And Stay Safe….☘️☘️☘️☘️”.

I’ve never seen the film Dances with Wolves, with John Dunbar’s music.  I looked it up and has many awesome reviews.  I wonder if it is on Netflix?  I cancelled my Netflix account at the beginning of lock-down.  Can anyone check for me?

 

Jan

For regular readers, you will know Jan is my neighbour who lives above me.  She was who I was talking about Leith!  She wrote:

“Your flat’s not in Leith? That’s news to me 😳
When I bought my flat the postal address was ‘South Leith’. I was told the (traditional) Leith boundary on Easter Road was on the corner of Albion Road. When I worked with Social Work, they would ask if an address was “above Cooked Chicks or below it” to determine if it fell into the Leith area (there was a shop that supplied cooked chickens on the corner with Albion Road 😆).
I don’t know if the political boundaries have changed anything – but I’m sticking to the old boundaries. I’m a proud Leither 😊”.

I then looked up Leith and found I am a Leither!  Thanks Jan – you’ve made my day 🙂

 

Susi

Susi is a friend that I used to do work with about 10 years ago.  She also commented on Facebook about yesterdays blog.  She said:

“You and your blog were the topic of conversation at work yesterday 🙂”.

I contacted Susi on Messenger to see if I could include her comment on Facebook.  Resulting in chatting to her for most the day!  It’s great that this blog is helping me re-connect with people I haven’t been in touch with for a while.

Susi then asked if I could add the following:

“Yeah but maybe could you add along with my quote that I’ve found lots of what you are saying that resonates with me…me living in a busy house with no space for myself I find myself envying your solace at times!  But also makes me grateful.  Lockdown is bringing up a whole mixture of things!”

Matt

Matt is coming a regular writer for Readers Corner.  Matt also commented on yesterday’s blog on Facebook.  He said:

“Four alarms and Honey – that must be a world record!  I heard about a shortened night sleep hack recently that suggested getting up and telling yourself you’d had enough sleep, and that helped with getting on with the day and feeling more energy”.

Thanks for that suggestion Matt, I will try this tomorrow!

 

Lisa

This is Lisa’s first appearance in my Daily Blog!!  Lisa has become a regular to my Daily Morning Chi Gong.  She posted a comment at the end of Day 34 blog, when I was quoting Ram Dass.  Lisa wrote:

“Very interesting post. I’m terrified of the thought of dying but I also thinks it’s due to worrying how my family would be without me around to look after and look out for them.

I love the sound of RamDass so might have a listen.

I think many people today seem to have little time or care for one another and it’s sad. I’m hoping that if anything good can come out of lockdown, it’s that people make time for each other more and have care and concern for those around them or those in society who are more vulnerable than others.

It doesn’t take much to smile at a stranger but it’s seen as odd nowadays.

Hope that changes.

I also very much go with my gut instinct on people and the feeling I get when I’m around them and it’s never steered me wrong yet.

One positive from lockdown for me is your Chi Gong in the morning.

It really gives me a great start to the day and I feel uplifted and positive from it which has helped my anxiety.
Another bonus has been meeting new people.
x”

 

I am also terrified of dying, but trying to learn the more eastern approaches of preparing for the moment of death, rather than waiting until it is nearly happening, like we do in the west.

Please keep posting comments about my blogs, so I can include them in Readers Corner.  Of course, if you don’t want to be included, that’s fine – there’s no obligation!

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QUIZ

So how did you get on with the Music Quiz from a few days ago?

Our Quiz Master, Fi struggled to find answers for the second half.

She did say when she shared it with me “it’s a toughy”.

The quiz progressively gets harder.

I tried to find an App to recognise the tunes (to cheat) but alas none of the Apps worked 🙁

It was fun to listen to all the tunes, so please do check it out – https://youtu.be/zsU9GJ7Kc3A

So I am now putting this to you, the Blog Community.

If you can provide the rest of the answer, let me know?!

Here are the answers Fi came up with.

 

If you have any quizzes that you have found or had shared with you, please do send them to me.

In the early days of this blog, we had quite a few quizzes.  After my attempt to lift one off the internet, I decided to stick with those shared with me.

At the start of lock-down there was so much being shared, videos, songs, quizzes, photos, etc…as we all adjusted to the new way of living.

It was kind of exciting back then to get so much bombarded at us!

Now I think we all are cutting down on our screen-time!

So it has all died down.

We are trying to “get on with life” in this “new normal”, which we are realising will go on for quite a while!

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This evening I watched a show hosted by The Pleasance Theatre.  It was a virtual show, which was a show in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016.  This was a filming of the show back then.  The “virtual doors” opened at 7pm and we all watched it from our homes.  Knowing, that we were all watching at 7pm, but no virtual interaction (that I was aware of).

I was curious on how it would work, as I guess this could be one way that the Edinburgh Festival Fringe could operate this August in 2020.  As the official festival has been cancelled.

It kind of lacked the ‘theatre experience’, you would get watching in the real world.  Plus, I couldn’t get it to start straight away on my tablet (using the App).  But finally got it to work on my PC – but then it kept whirling, due to my computer being a little slow!

Be interested to hear other people’s feedback.

You can download and watch this show for the next 3 weeks from here – bit.ly/2VFNGt0

For just £4, you have access to the show for 48 hours.  With some of the money going to NHS Charities Together.

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As I come to the end of today’s blog, I am actually ahead of time.  It is nearly 9.30pm, so I should get it finished and posted before Bedtime Chi Gong at 10:10pm, so I could be in bed before midnight 🙂

My motivation and energy has not been so good.  I haven’t been for a run for a week, so think that would be good tomorrow.  I think, two 8km runs 2 days in a row last week, was too much.

The weather has also turned.  It’s pretty cold today.  I was wearing my winter coat again and was thinking of looking for my scarf!  After the hot sunny spell we have head the last week or so, I thought winter was over 🙁

Honey and I went for a walk round the graveyard earlier, just before the light fell, which was really nice.  Both to give Honey another run and to enjoy the trees, birds and light.

I feel so totally touched that more and more people seem to be reading my blog and talking about it.  Like Susi said she was talking about it at work.  It feels like I just write pretty much how my day has been and fill it up with some other things and Readers Corner.

Whatever I am doing, I am glad that you are all enjoying it.

Stay Safe.

Go Well.

Jim xxx