Slip slide
(The Scott monument and ferris wheel on Princes Street: Edinburgh, UK)
This ferris wheel isn’t actually part of Edinburgh’s Scott monument, just to clarify. On my way to Edinburgh Waverley rail station the other day, I got off the bus rather too early and had to walk the length of Princes Street. It is the main thoroughfare in central Edinburgh, the equivalent of Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street. On Saturday it was, as expected for a December weekend, absolutely heaving with people, despite the icy, snow-ridden conditions. Edinburgh is certainly snowier than Glasgow at present, but for sheer danger, Glasgow leads. It has rained atop the snow, adding a slippery layer of invisible ice.
I must admit, based on several accounts from yesterday, I didn’t actually venture out of my home at all. My mother and her friend Lynda were in town for Christmas shopping and came to eat with me. They ended up staying for most of the afternoon, partially due to the unpleasant outdoor situation. When they did leave, they were stuck at the railway station for over two hours and then their train only took them two thirds of the way to Carlisle, leaving them stranded at Gretna. Thankfully my sister was one phone call away and could drive them homeward. Some friends then joined Ying and I for dinner last night, but two more friends who ran into problems en route depleted the party number. One of the pair fell badly on the packed ice and they decided to turn back. I received a message late at night from one of the friends who had left my house and she related that her husband had fallen down some steps after leaving us. Rather than being remotely sympathetic, she checked he ‘wasn’t dying’ and then proceeded to giggle at him the rest of the way home. It was perhaps understandable from her description of his falling at the top of the steps and then sliding down them on his backside.
– Today Rosie is working in Glasgow, UK –
