8.30 p.m and only minus 6 c outside, it was minus 8 c when we got home at 6.30 p.m so perhaps we may have snow during the night if it gets milder.
Took the chance of a lift into town with RGB and then headed off from the Mercat, which, like the rest of West Maitland Street is now adorned with the fencing indicating that the tram works are about to commence again. Spoke with a local business who were saying that they did not think that they would survive the next round of tramworks and their business would go bust !! very sad, considering that pre tramworks they were doing well.
Off on my wanderings, into Fraser's where Smelly Gillian was having a day off but the lovely Kirsty was back on the Chanel counter after a years maternity leave, nice to see her again and so chirpy.
Next stop the Standing Order, however Archie the Pole Dancer was in absentia, no doubt having a duvet day in view of the weather and leaving Robert and the troops to run the show - but it was quiet.
Along George Street where the statue of James Clerk Maxwell sits at the junction of St Andrew's Square ( with the Melville monument in the background). James Maxwell was one of the countries greatest scientists and discovered the Electromagnetic theory, In a Millennium poll he was voted the third most influential scientist after Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. there is a building in the Edinburgh University Kings Building complex named after him.
In St Andrew's Square I took time (for the first time ever) to have a good look at the monument which was erected by seamen in memory of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville , from Dalkeith, Midlothian, who was the last person ever to be impeached ( and acquitted) by the House of Lords when he was accused of missappriation of public funds when in post as Lord of the Admiralty. He later became the Governor of the Bank of Scotland and was also known as "the Uncrowned King of Scotland", and during his lifetime was a great supporter of the abolition of slavery.
His monument was erected with the assistance of Robert Stevenson, a well known civil engineer, who was responsible for the erection of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, and fourteen others around the British Isles. Although he studied at Edinburgh University between jobs ( and the close season for building lighthouses) he never got a full degree as he he could not learn Greek or Latin !!! an engineer !!. His grandson was the famous Author Robert Louis Stevenson, writer of "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped".
Met Mrs B at John Lewis PLC, St James Centre ( who did well in the x mas sales), handed in one of my beloved Cross fountain pens which is "ill" and in need of some TLC.
We later headed out via Harvey Nic's ( rip off) and went back to the Standing Order and partook of the Thursday Curry Club menu - nice and needed.
By the time we left the temperature was falling, but we jumped on a No 37 bus for Penicuik, which stopped at every stop en route, and then took 20 minutes to travel the last mile and a half from Milton Bridge into Penicuik, where we had to walk the last quarter mile or so home - BUT- it was so cols ours ears were freezing, legs were going numb, and we were getting headaches with the cold. Lovely to get in and then soak away the cold in a nice relaxing bath.
No comments:
Post a Comment