This morning, on my morning walk with Honey the Dog, I was surprised of the quietness of Leith Walk, there was hardly, if any traffic. Only to find that the road has been shut for Edinburgh Tram Works. They are building an extension of it, which was the original line, but due various factors, never got finished, but now it is. I am not sure how long Leith Walk is closed for, about 1.5 years!
I was talking with the owner of Word of Mouth this morning, which is on the corner of one of the side-streets of Leith Walk. He was saying that he was struggling to get customers as it was. With Leith Walk now shut, it’s going to be even harder to get any passing trade.
The massive downside of Leith Walk being shut, is that all buses and traffic is now being diverted along Easter Road, where I live! Leith Walk is the main road that 
links Edinburgh city centre with Leith, so now Easter Road is the main road that links Edinburgh city centre to Leith.
There must be at least 5 or 6 extra bus services now being added to Easter Road. So much, for hoping we could return to the lock-down peace and quiet 🙁
This afternoon there was nearly a collision with two cars, one experiencing road-rage, trying to pull out too quickly in front of another car – I guess due to all the traffic jams that are now piling up on the side-streets.
But hey, I guess on a positive note, it may give more passing trade to Easter Road and so could boost business for independent shops 🙂
Poetry Corner
Another poem from myself, written during my mental health nurse training.
Once a fortnight on a Friday, we had to go to a module, called ‘WHHSCS’ – pronounced “whiskers”. It was about government policies and the World Health Organisation (I think). I found it really boring and didn’t understand much of it. It was the second module of the whole course. I think if they had put it at the end of the course, it would have been so much more useful.
The campus, where it took place, was at St. John’s Hospital, in Livingston. About 15 miles outside of Edinburgh on the way to Glasgow!
Luckily, I had a car and so would pick up various friends along the way.
As the weeks went on, less and less people would turn up. On the last Friday, only 13 people turned up out of the original 80!
After lunch, one Friday, during a particularly boring one hour lecture, I wrote this poem. We were all squashed into one classroom which was too small for the number of people. Those students, not sitting on a chair, either stood at the back or sat on the tables.
Luckily, I was sitting on a chair.
The Prison Sentence
The alarm goes off and it’s time to get up,
As we start to DREAD what lies ahead.
We make our ways there via bus, train or car,
Continually questioning “What is the Point?”.
We sign ourselves in and find out groups.
Daring each other to go home at lunch.
Yet lunchtime comes and we decide to stay,
Planning to later go out and get drunk.
And then we sit for one WHOLE hour,
Regretting our choice for not making an ESCAPE.
As the TORTURE goes on we watch the clock,
Telling ourselves that our SENTENCE is short.
At last our SELF PUNISHMENT is coming to an end,
As we split into groups, to end the day.
We leave the big corridors of another world,
Feeling PROUD that we made it and many did not.
“Who goes to the place?” I hear you ask.
“Murderers, Rapists or the Clinically Insane?”.
It may sound strange, for me to tell you.
But it’s the keen Student Nurse, who chooses this HELL.
If you have a poem to share or even words of a song, please send to me and I will put in this section!
Readers Corner
I was about to write, that we had nothing to add in here. But then a Facebook comment popped up from my ‘Twenty-Five Day Push-Up Challenge’ video from yesterday, from Briony. So I will include it here 🙂
Briony wrote:
“Rocking the beard Jim Campbell😄”
Cheers Briony! Welcome to Readers Corner 🙂
It Made Me Smile
There are two things in this today! One from myself and one from Matt.
Today, I saw an ‘Not in Service’ bus on Easter Road, diverted from Leith Walk. Usually, the buses that are not in service, have that on their front, sides and back on the digital sign But this one had “Thank You To all our key workers”. See photo. This made me smile 🙂
Matt
Matt posted a Facebook comment on yesterday’s blog. He later messaged me saying it was to go into this section!
Matt wrote:
“The real you, Jim?! Sounds like you’ve let things slip and there’s a need to up your standards pretty quickly! Now worried about Honey – we may have to send the canine social worker round. Kind regards Sergeant Major Brayshaw!”.
Ha! Cheers Matt 😉
Twenty-Five Day Push-Up Challenge
I was well impressed with myself today! I managed to do FIFTEEN press-ups without putting my knees down. Yesterday, I was struggling to do 10. In just five days I am getting so much better.
Within just a couple of hours of posting on Facebook, I have had a couple of posts of encouragement –
Kate
Kate wrote:
“I love these videos Jim! It’s great to see you improving day by day. Well done 🏋🏼♂️”
I know – its amazing!
Lisa
Lisa wrote:
“Well done Jim, keep pushing!”
Thanks for your encouragement Lisa.
As I come to the end of today’s blog, I don’t feel I have written much about my day. I have been working for most of it! I went for a short run, just 3km – I was hoping for longer, but didn’t have any energy.
I spent ages “on hold” on pop-up chat to Amazon Customer Service. I finally got through to a real, person, then she said can I wait a couple of minutes and I was on hold for 10 minutes. I then sent another message and she said, just a couple more minutes, waiting another 15 minutes! I’ve never experienced that before, being “on hold” on pop-up chat. I was trying to sort out Honey’s food, that should have arrived on Saturday, but won’t arrive until Thursday now. I get her food through Amazon every 3 months on ‘Subscribe & Save’. Due to her doing so much more exercise in lock-down she has loads of weight, so I increased her food by 10 grams a day. But this extra 10 grams over 3 months, meant this morning she ran out of food!
I ended having to go and buy her some food from the Ear Shop at great expense! But I guess we are supporting a local independent business.
The rest of my day I have been catching up on work.
Tired now, it’s after midnight!
Thanks for reading.
Jim xx
Bandarq Terpercaya
Greetings! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say
I truly enjoy reading through your blog posts.
Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that cover the same topics?
Thanks a lot!