Life in Edinburgh
April 12, 2007
The birds have been singing loudly and joyously all morning. I can hear them now in the trees in front of the flat. I have just returned from a walk along the old railway path where the birdsong was so loud that, along with the cawing of the rooks and the tapping of a couple of woodpeckers, it sounded at one point like some crazy jazz ensemble.
Though I love walks in Holyrood Park, I have discovered that it is such a pleasure to walk over the Meadows. They are like a throbbing heart in the centre of Edinburgh. Last Thursday evening, just before Easter, it was warm and sunny. I walked over to Central Library as I had a sudden fancy to read a book by G K Chesterton. Groups of students sat around on the grass chatting and playing music. The feel of life and laughter was all around me. On Easter Sunday I met up there with some of the class and we practiced T'ai Chi for two hours. Apart from one passer-by who remarked that we were "Ninja turtles" no-one seemed to notice us and I felt remarkably un-self-conscious.
I have been looking at details of flats on the internet in case we decide to stay here a while longer once the chalet sale (finally) goes through. I have found an ideal place for a young single person. It's a studio flat (one big L-shaped room plus a loo) near the Meadows in a listed Art Deco building. That's a little bit later than the style of architecture in the Poirot series with David Suchet, but nonetheless you would be surrounded with spacious elegance. But in addition to that, in the basement of the building, for the use of residents, there is a gym and a forty foot long heated swimming pool. And part of the block of flats is a cinema. What bliss to roll out of bed, have a swim, have a chocloate croissant and cup of tea, walk across the Meadows to work and come home and go to the cinema and make a meal for a few pals. Well, I'm sure there would be disadvantages, but it sounds fun for a couple of years doesn't it?
Still, we need something rather bigger than that, to house three people plus a dog, plus an awful lot of books.