Posts filed under 'Out and about'
It’s meant to be a penny, of course. A single bus ride in Edinburgh costs a pound. Inflation affects even the imagination these days.
Regular readers will know that buses play a fairly large role in my life, and I’ve just written the last entry all about buses, one way or another. But I did realise yesterday how much buses help me get ideas for blog entries.
The last couple of days, I’ve been at home for only short periods of time. I’d been out doing nice things, seeing people I love. But just sitting at home in the evening, thoughts were not really coming for writing the blog.
There seems to be something about bus travel, about glimpses of things, or perhaps the space to be on your own and reflect, that is conducive to writing it down. Just sitting at home may not do it. This is a little concerning for someone who a) wants to write more and b) wants to be at home more.
Of course, there’s nothing to stop me being around home more, but with a few bus rides here and there. Moderation in everything. But just as travel broadens the mind, it also broadens the input of information, stimulates you to make connections.
Trains work too, I have to say. Trains are especially good when they cross spaces where roads don’t run. Crossing fields, working through forests, seeing a house there, a car there, someone on a bike waiting at the train crossing for you to pass…All of these immediately suggest stories, worlds to step into, that can being as soon as pen reaches paper, or hands square up on a laptop.
Funny business, writing. We all do so much, live so much, in our days, that there is plenty to write about. Yet we live in an age where so many aspects of life are recorded more and more. There are plenty of others at the same task - security cameras notwithstanding. Is there a need for us to record?
Blogs suggest there is. The opportunity to record, but also to get others’ feedback, not just on your experience, but also how you write, is something above and beyond what’s been available before.
They say that both introverts and extroverts go to parties. But introverts leave earlier. They need to get away, to process what’s been happening. While the extrovert recharges their batteries through being with others, after a while, the introvert needs to do this by spending time on their own.
I wrote enthusiastically about yesterday’s party - and the party, the company, the chat, were all good in themselves, not just the food or the leftovers…Today, I am full on people, and ready to fill up on being on my own. But I do see that, while I long for time at home during busy working weeks, just being at home will not push the imagination.
I have to do a few things in order to write. Input leads to output. Writing is not so much of my life that I’m at a point of writer’s block. But I now understand the point of “digging ditches”, to requote Erica Jong from a recent post, in order to find the words again.
Even given that, words are elusive at times. Perhaps like being out in a boat, waiting for the fish. My discipline at the moment is to go out fishing each day, or at least most days. But sometimes, a shoal of words, of ideas, or memories, comes past. As this is the third post today, you can guess that I’m keen to keep dragging them into the boat while they’re still around.
December 20th, 2007
So, firstly, I’m on holiday (but I’m not allowed to be smug about it, given that others are still working). Which secondly means a chance to catch up on things that don’t often happen during ‘term time’ (despite the fact I’m not at school).
One of is the option of meeting up with family. Had the chance to meet Mum for lunch, look round the shops in Bruntsfield, then head on together to see Granny. Now I know you think I could be doing this at the weekend too, and that does happen too. But there’s something particularly nice about doing these things on a week day, as though you had all the time in the world, or at least enough to choose how to spend the day.
One way and another, the combination of buses to get around between these various points in town meant that I was travelling particular routes that I hadn’t done for a while. When we lived in Inverleith, we would frequently get buses that went up the Mound, so I was able to catch up on what has been happening up and down that route. I used to walk home that way when I worked in Bruntsfield, and you skirt the university area between the two, so got a glimpse again of that.
Bruntsfield itself is familiar from a couple of years working there, so the chance to go out for lunch in a familiar area, and see what had changed, was good. Discovered a new children’s book shop, Fidra Press, which both sells their own books - reissuing classic school stories, amongst others - and others. It has a comfy armchair in the window. I can only say it’s a good job for my bank account that I am no longer working in Bruntsfield…
Coming back on the bus from Juniper Green, happened to get one which goes through Colinton. This is the route of my memories as a little girl, visiting my grandparents in Edinburgh, and on occasion, going into town on a double decker bus. Colinton is a good place for overhanging branches, so if you sit upstairs at the front, they fairly thwack the top of the bus, which is exciting when you’re six, and still quite interesting when you’re thirtysomething…
All these buses pass through Tollcross, where we used to live when we were first married. Again, with the emergence of both German and Polish master baker shops, it is again helpful for my purse, and my waistline, that we are no longer living there…but worth a thought for a return visit.
Now I could do all this on a regular day, it’s true. But travelling at this time of year, with thick frost, with mistiness as you come down the hill into Edinburgh and see the lights below, with shop windows lit up and families out and about having pre-Christmas treats at the theatre or cinema…It’s not so different to being six again. The warmth of the bus, the extended journeys on each route, lull you into a state of observing, watching though drowsy, like a child on a long trip home.
This is my city. I may not always have lived here. But I have been here for over a third of my life now, and I love the fact that I have memories of it before that. I remember Slateford Road before all the new developments were built. When you could park on a muddy bit of land where the Western approach road now hums between banks and leisure centres in order to visit Princes Street. When there was still a cafe at the top of Habitat on Shandwick Place.
Yesterday, standing by Tollcross, waiting to change buses, a car swung by, and someone leaned out of the window to shout “Merry Christmas!” I can still feel the size of my smile about it, writing today.
December 20th, 2007
Frost has stolen over even this mild coastal area of Edinburgh. Yesterday and today, the garden has been covered - and stayed covered nearly all day. The top of the shed was two tone at lunchtime, with one half normal colour, the other half still frosted over.
For those trying to get some sense that Christmas is nearly here, this and the warm coloured light are a reminder that it’s December, at least. Heading off to the shops today, part of an oratorio came back to me that I must have sung over twenty years ago, our first Christmas concert when our school choir had just formed, and we were getting used to proper four part singing.
“Hodie Christus natus est…Hodie salvator apparuit…” Kindly, the school laid on Latin too, at least while I was there, which helped me understand what I was singing. Today Christ is born, today the saviour appears…Even though it’s not ‘today’, the opening song wouldn’t leave me while I was walking up, and back to the shops. Which is what it’s for, really - it’s the processional at the start and end of the piece.
As we get older, trying to find Christmas can get harder. We expect it to appear in our homes, our spirits. Some fortunate friends seem to retain the excitement, year after year. The first year I was experiencing Christmas as a Christian, aged 19, I got some of that back. I was singing carols, not just because it was the time of year to sing them, but because I was excited about what they were telling me.
Perhaps today, for me at least, I need the processional to walk Christmas back into my life, my home. Going to Dan’s church in London, predominantly Afro-Caribbean, you sing the same song again and again until you are ‘walking’ in the truth of it. It becomes part of you. So, today, I process out of the house with the news of Christmas, and process back home, bringing it back in with me.
Hopefully it will stay too. Like the best of guests at Christmas, there’s nothing like having someone who you want to be there. Even a brief visit fills up your heart again.
December 17th, 2007
Another Christmas party today, combined with a house warming do. Our friends Alison and David have recently moved to Dunfermline, and had a general open house party.
So far, so good. We drank the mulled wine, admired the large greenhouse, views of the golf course behind, and tried to stop their (currently) youngest from eating the entire contents of the coffee table. (Actually, if he ate the lot, that would be worrying, given the toys stored in the boxes that are part of the table. Anyway, you get the picture.)
In good pedestrian mode, we got there by public transport, and trecked up through town from the train station. Dunfermline needs to market its ownership of a Primark to inhabitants of Edinburgh. Why go to Glasgow, and pay lots more on the train, when you can go to Dunfermline? And, indeed, continue your shopping in Peacocks next door? (Peacocks is particularly favoured by 9 year old girls who have an eye for current fashion trends, but I’m pretty sure it would say its appeal is wider than that.)
Heading back, all going fine, until we hear that points failure a couple of stops up the line mean that trains are all quite delayed. The nice station guard arranges taxis, and by the time we are at the head of the queue, they are running them all the way through to Edinburgh. However, this move, while generous, means that all but two of Dunfermline’s taxi fleet has been pressed into service to get people back over to Edinburgh. On a Saturday night in December (a rather chilly one by that time), this would probably not be popular among other evening party goers.
On our way over to Edinburgh, the lady on the taxi radio service was heard to enquire who was ‘back over the water yet?’ Clearly we will have to learn the lingo for further visits. But it was quite a reminder that it is quite a journey between the two toons, and that we have two mighty bridges that allow us to take these things for granted.
On the train over the rail bridge, it is rather ominous looking at the girders, some showing paint, and some clearly showing rust that bit more. Hopefully they’ll hold out a bit longer, even for the sake of keeping up auld aquaintances.
December 15th, 2007
Well, Christmas party completed. And no, I didn’t really manage to talk to any new people…so now having an away day to do the job seems the only way to fix it. (There are around 20 of them, and I have got to know around 8 of them, so I don’t feel too bad.)
Being rather shy at parties, I was rescued by a more convivial colleague who soon roped me in to assisting her with selling raffle tickets. It does mean you can keep your head down, write names on the back of tickets, and not worry about the appropriate thing to say next…
Despite the party not doing the ‘new colleague’ bit for me, what it did allow for was some catch up time with people I do know. Nice to sit with some who’ve been around for a year or more, and who I have some background with. Because being in the same office as someone, even when there’s only 60 of you, is no guarantee of talking to them, let alone keeping up with the ones you consider as good friends.
I also attempted to master a pashmina…Yes, even more out of date than my mobile phone blog recently. But thankfully there are more glamorous colleagues who are prepared to lend you a pretty scarf for an evening, and even tell you how to wear it. And with wall to wall little black dresses, I even felt appropriately dressed when it became too warm to keep the pashmina on.
Best of all, we raised over £300 for Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh, and the atmosphere of the raffle kept everyone going, and in a good mood. I even discovered a new second career as a maker of impromptu raffle tickets when both books of proper tickets were used up…
December 14th, 2007
There’ve been a few longer posts recently, so I’ll keep this one brief.
Off to the work Christmas meal out tonight. Haven’t been to one for a while, and not sure what to expect. Everyone has been asked to bring a baby photo, which we’re then meant to use to identify who each other is…but there’s also a raffle, raising money for Maggie’s Centres, in memory of our colleague who died at the start of the year.
Possibly a strange mixture this evening. There’ve been so many departures of many types this year, and so many new faces will be there. I’m hoping I’ll get to know the names of a few more of my newer colleagues.
However, the meal may well remain short and sweet, given that it’s been a bit of a struggle to fit into what I had in mind to wear…hmmm. Only difficulty with not being a huge party person is that I don’t have a large range of options to wear, so it’s time to suck it in and see.
December 13th, 2007
This should properly be tagged as both home and out and about, since I’m at home, and Dan’s out at the cinema with friends from our church small group.
Arrangements to get together tonight got a bit complicated, and in the end, I stayed put. Have been feeling a little guilty at how much I’ve enjoyed having the flat to myself…A few Christmas cards, a first attempt at some Christmassy music this year, followed by taking myself off to the bath to do some useful preening prior to tomorrow’s work Christmas do.
Back when Dan ran his business from home, I used to joke that the flat was more his than mine…but he was there almost all the time. This week, he probably feels like he’s been here all the time, given further visits from the heating Man (or rather Men - different ones at different times). Fingers crossed that it gets finally fixed tomorrow!
Meanwhile, despite some hiccups with it tonight, managed to get heat (and therefore hot water) on for most of the night, which allowed me to have a nice long bath and catch up on Saturday’s magazine from the Times. Interesting mini article on what they call microtrends. You can evidently get patterns off the Internet to knit your own beard - there are Bee Gee style full pokey out beards. However, this is the opposite of bathroom preening really, although the attempted knitting circle at work might be interested…
Even though the business is now away from home, it’s still fairly rare for me to have the flat to myself. So unlike Macauley Culkin, I am too pleased with a nice hot bath to be worrying about fending off inept house burglars. Perhaps the advent calendar will distract them, should it be needed.
With two days to go, and the prospect of a longer chunk of time off work, slowly realising that I can also have the flat to myself for much of next week, while Dan is still at work. Had a similar set up last year, although I was still writing essays for the counselling course as much as I could…This year is probably more of the Grand Tidy Up, but I think we’ll build in some fun stuff too.
Even though I have the prospect of travelling less, now we have more staff at work on the same activities as me, I’m still the one of the two of us who tends to be away with work. Sometimes just day trips, sometimes overnight. Was away last Friday, stayed on an extra day. Often it’s good for us, Dan and I. We enjoy being together more once we’re back together - without it being of the same epic proportions of months apart when we were engaged and I was working in Poland.
As a result, it is still a treat for me to be at home. I’m sure this annoys some of my friends who are at home all day every day with kids, and would like a quick escape without them now and then, let alone a night away on their own. Maybe I’ll get to this point some time. I wouldn’t quite go the full IKEA, but yes, home is a really important place for me.
And a good dose of it should help me muster up the courage to face a party tomorrow…less familiar territory, but hopefully a good end to the working year.
December 12th, 2007
It’s a quote isn’t it? Can’t remember where from. But Dan was kind enough to lend me his iPod when I had a work trip to London at the end of last week. This meant that I had the option of watching the scenery roll by while listening to whatever I fancied.
Now Dan and I quite like soundtracks to films. Like lots of other music too, but have a soft spot for a soundtrack of a film we’ve enjoyed. Probably the top one on the list would be “Sneakers”, one that Dan got me into, with Wynton Marsalis adding to a sense of excitement and espionage.
The thing about listening to a soundtrack while on the move is that you feel like you are becoming part of the film. Or, perhaps even better, starring in a film of your own. One that uses a soundtrack related to Paris (”Amelie”, since you ask) with a backdrop of London. As I was going to a work meeting relating to languages, this was probably a reasonably good match.
Funny how good a bit of good music can be to help one’s mood. Going to a work meeting in another city, you can be a bit concerned about arriving on time, and something peaceful in the earphones helps in this way. And when a meeting has lasted a bit longer, had a few things you weren’t expecting, and so on, same peaceful music on the way home is also no bad thing…
December 9th, 2007
Got home early today - though up scarily early to do a day trip for work.
My noble steed to carry me home was a Lothian Regional Transport bus - nothing special there. But it was one of the old ones, which are becoming quite scarce today.
I’d been reading a magazine on the way back from the worktrip, where a couple had a sign from a London Routemaster bus - when these were decomissioned, parts were sold off to transport enthusiasts (and no doubt the odd mechanic too). I’m not suggesting that I want to keep specific items for an earlier LRT bus - that suggests a little too much devotion.
But it got me to thinking about why I have a soft spot for these older buses. Various features that you can’t quite put above your mantlepiece:
The spiral staircase - the stairs on these buses have a genuine, regular curve. This actually makes getting downstairs easier, even when going round corners, because you can always move down in the same way. Newer buses are of varying models - some have shorter stairs, some longer, but they all tend to pitch you headlong if the bus is going at any speed. And this is even when you are hanging on to both handrails.
The luggage compartment - there is a specific luggage compartment for suitcases etc. This is a real help if you are getting the bus up to the station or the airport bus - there’s a specific place to put your case, which stops you taking up an extra seat or blocking the gangway.
Two sets of doors - now I know some of the newer buses have this too, but it does make life easier letting people out of one door, and new ones in the other door. After all, this feature was meant to speed up time spent waiting at bus stops for passengers to finish moving about. On the other hand, because more of the newer buses require you to walk back past the driver to get off, I hear more people saying thank you before they get off. This is a) polite and b) preferable to yelling ‘thanks driver’ half way back down the bus…
Sitting sideways. You don’t get so much of this on the new buses. I’m not sure that I should be championing this, given that I try to face forwards when travelling, if at all possible. But as a child, sitting on a sideways seat, it feels a little different. Decent sized sideways seats are excellent again for two people, big or small, plus luggage or shopping.
The higher up seats in the middle of the bus. These are really useful if you get on with large items of luggage, or other things to hold onto - you don’t have as far to sit down, and it’s easier to get up again. For fairly similar reasons, they are popular with the elderly. There is however a certain fun in sitting with a friend in the higher seat behind the driver - it’s a bit like having a booth to yourself in a restaurant, because of being self contained.
I understand why the buses have changed. Legislation for disability you need to be able to get wheelchairs on. The same space is a real boon for parents whose tot has just gone off to sleep in the pushchair, and avoids you having to hoick the child out, disgorge shopping etc, just to get on the bus. (I’ve not had to face oneupmanship between parents who think they have rival claims on this space - it only takes one pushchair - or how it feels to hope for a space and find it already full.) The new buses can go lower to make them easier to get on and off - back to support for the elderly.
All of these groups are particularly likely to need to use buses, quite beyond equality of access. It doesn’t take much looking at our local paper to see how people have lobbied for more of these buses to start their service in our area, because there are lots of people wanting the benefit of this kind of bus. So three cheers for a decent public transport system, that’s also affordable, on the monthly pass at least.
But still…these were the buses that captured my attention when, as a child, I got to ride them into town while visiting my grandparents on holiday. At least there are a good number of double deckers around still, new bus or old. The delights of sitting at the front upstairs still persist. And with a husband who needs the legroom, surprisingly, it’s often still better at the front than in seats further back.
LRT seem to keep winning awards for their bus service, so something’s going right. Let’s hope they can acknowledge the earlier buses in their hall of fame, as well as their innovations.
December 4th, 2007
Here’s a good use of winter afternoons - board games. We had lunch with friends today, and, aided by a good stew, a couple of kittens in the background and a nice fire, a little board gaming ensued.
I found myself observing us a couple of times in the afternoon. This is part of what life is for, isn’t it? Good food, good company, comfort, a little entertainment?
It may not be trendy, it may not be cool or even youthful. This is of a piece with buying a shed, having discussions about lawnmowing and other delights of one’s thirties. Some would say that actually we could have got going on the board games earlier in life, though, because clearly our friends are well trained in strategy, distracting each other, explaining instructions and other social and competitive behaviour…
Anyway, this here board game is called Settlers of Catan. Part of the interest in the game is that you set out the map of the board in different ways each time; the commodities that make or break the game change each time. It also shows you how you can get stumped, collecting lots of one thing you can’t use, failing to get anything of what you actually need.
A couple of Christmases ago, we researched board games for family in the States. It’s a big market. I don’t know if you have to have grown up with lots of board game playing to get into it more, but there’s no shortage of people out there inventing more games to play.
Many are board game versions of the kind of thing now done by Sim City and other computer simulation games. Obviously Monopoly has been there long before, but it’s interesting to see that there’s still a lot of interest in making things, selling them, conquering other people, that kind of thing, but happily limited to some pieces of card on a table.
What with Dan and I playing cards on holiday, learning new board games today, perhaps we’re going through a make your own entertainment renaissance. Maybe I’ll even learn to lose gracefully? Who knows? Raise me a few sheep, some iron ore and some bricks, and I’ll let you know…
December 2nd, 2007
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