Scottish weather is back - light rain, thick fog, sleet and there is me driving in all that circumstances, desperately trying to keep on the left side of the road! Luckily my mum will be in Edinburgh for several days to console me!
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Friday, 26 March 2010
Broughton Food
We have been complaining with Simon about unavailability of decent, simple food that one could just scoff in 15 minutes without putting on heels and suit. There are not so many places like this in Edinburgh where folk favour dimly lit designer bars where overly made up lassies hang for dear life perched on a high stool that they have managed to nail with their Jimmy Choo heel.
I have recently rediscovered Broughton Delicatessen, where you can just eat your food without fuss. Order at the bar, eat a nice dish made with fresh and local produce, pay as you leave (well, it is not exactly cheap: 8.50£ for a salad, drink and a piece of vegetarian tarte) and enjoy the rest of your day without hands trembling from hunger while you are dashing downhill to drop your negatives at a photolab in Leith!
I have recently rediscovered Broughton Delicatessen, where you can just eat your food without fuss. Order at the bar, eat a nice dish made with fresh and local produce, pay as you leave (well, it is not exactly cheap: 8.50£ for a salad, drink and a piece of vegetarian tarte) and enjoy the rest of your day without hands trembling from hunger while you are dashing downhill to drop your negatives at a photolab in Leith!
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Almost here
I almost kissed the ground popelike when I got out of the car after my second driving lesson (remember? drive on the left side!) but one does not have to bend too much to see these beauties. They are all over Edinburgh's lawns at the moment!
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Friday, 19 March 2010
There are more things...
The famous Shakespearean quote was put to practice yesterday when I went with Simon to visit infamous Edinburgh's vaults under The South Bridge. One of Simon's aquaintances is a medium and we were invited to take part in an open Paranormal Investigation. He stated beforehand that we were both sceptical but we were invited nevertheless. The group was full of young women in their mid thirties with spiritual expressions on their faces, armed with measuring equipment and the whole experience was meticulously documented with video and temperature and electrical meters readings. The group was accompanied by a Merkat Tours guide, Liz (who won a title of the best Edinburgh guide of all times) who was filling in with the history of the place and the Old Town.
The vaults used to be a shopping and trading area after the Bridge was built but after a while they became too damp for the bussinesses which moved somewhere else and some other type of clientele moved in. Apparently it was a chief place for Edinburgh's Hell Fire Club meetings but also for the poorest of the poor place to work, live and die in an overcrowded slum. Authorities left these people to sort their things for themselves and simply later sealed up some of the vaults, which consequently laid undisturbed for last 170 years.
There were many unexplained occurences happening to guides and visitors but I would say (well, I am sceptical, non?) that majority of them could be blaimed on drafts (vaults have the same temperature of +8 all the year around) and ladies reacitng way too emotionally in the darkness. However at some point of the visit I SMELLED a very strong smell of port in one of the chambers - the waft dissapeared immediately when I got slightly scared at this sudden experience. It might have been one of the lady visitors passing by (wearing a strong perfume) but I am pretty much sure that by that time everybody moved on to another vault. Later Liz mentioned that some of the vaults were used to store wine and port by Edinburgh wine merchants.
So Hamlet speaking to Horatio was after all right?
I must admit I felt more scared when my driving instructor told me today to drive in an afternoon Edinburgh traffic...
Some more vaults and special 'trigger objects' - a dog biscuit for a ghost of a dog which can be sometimes felt by mediums in the vaults:
The vaults used to be a shopping and trading area after the Bridge was built but after a while they became too damp for the bussinesses which moved somewhere else and some other type of clientele moved in. Apparently it was a chief place for Edinburgh's Hell Fire Club meetings but also for the poorest of the poor place to work, live and die in an overcrowded slum. Authorities left these people to sort their things for themselves and simply later sealed up some of the vaults, which consequently laid undisturbed for last 170 years.
There were many unexplained occurences happening to guides and visitors but I would say (well, I am sceptical, non?) that majority of them could be blaimed on drafts (vaults have the same temperature of +8 all the year around) and ladies reacitng way too emotionally in the darkness. However at some point of the visit I SMELLED a very strong smell of port in one of the chambers - the waft dissapeared immediately when I got slightly scared at this sudden experience. It might have been one of the lady visitors passing by (wearing a strong perfume) but I am pretty much sure that by that time everybody moved on to another vault. Later Liz mentioned that some of the vaults were used to store wine and port by Edinburgh wine merchants.
So Hamlet speaking to Horatio was after all right?
I must admit I felt more scared when my driving instructor told me today to drive in an afternoon Edinburgh traffic...
Some more vaults and special 'trigger objects' - a dog biscuit for a ghost of a dog which can be sometimes felt by mediums in the vaults:
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Jedziemy!
After almost 4 years without any reasonalbe holiday, yesterday we suddenly booked flights and 5 nights in a hotel in Florence. It will have to last us long, this quick getaway to warm Italy. A brilliant excuse to reread Monika Zeromska's Italian diaries anyway! Cannot wait!
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Speed up!
There is a lot of things to do, to draw, to design and to photograph. And my mum will be coming in next couple of weeks, hopefully we will have some time to go and have a look at Diane Arbus exhibition. I am missing her a lot though I know that I will not be able to spend with her as much time as I would like to. Also...but thie details will be in my next post!
Image from a sunny early afternoon when I was not locked in the college scanning my negatives frantically! Now I just have to clean these scans, prepare them, print at least 3 copies of portfolio...Holiday seems to be so far away. I am wondering how we are going to survive the summer!
Image from a sunny early afternoon when I was not locked in the college scanning my negatives frantically! Now I just have to clean these scans, prepare them, print at least 3 copies of portfolio...Holiday seems to be so far away. I am wondering how we are going to survive the summer!
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