Monday 13 August 2007

Edinburgh

Once upon a time we lived in Scotland.

My very first visit was to the Edinburgh Festival just about nine months before our first was born. No, no, no! I was already pregnant but did not yet have confirmation. Honestly.

Roughly six years later we moved to Scotland and stayed there four years. That was a record that took a while to be broken.


I used to take the boys into Edinburgh occasionally, because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Once I remember we went to meet their father who was in his Edinburgh office that day. I took the boys in on the train (great excitement) and then we would return all together in Daddy's car. Except that our wires got crossed and by the time I arrived, he had left and we had to turn around and go back. By train again. When we got off the train at our station I suddenly discovered I had only one boy. I was absolutely frantic. He eventually reappeared, 92.5 years later, hand in hand with a man he had found in the car park. If you are that man, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Another time we had a picnic in Princes Street gardens. I had carefully prepared sandwiches: I made the boys their favourites, and my own was to be prawns. The younger decided he would prefer mine. When he got to the last bite he asked what those pink round things were. "Prawns," I answered honestly. "I don't like those, you can have it and I'll have the cheese ones". So that was nice: I had the crust. It was a hungry day.


The final time we went was with another family of two boys of much the same age. We did all the sorts of things we thought young boys might like to do. They whined and moaned, All. Day. Long. It was a bitterly cold and windy day, of the sort that Edinburgh does best.

If you don't have small boys, Edinburgh is a lovely place. Really it is.

The pictures are scans of postcards I have and one in particular has been marked. No doubt I could remove the marks if I had, and knew how to use, photo editing software.

9 comments:

  1. That was a different story and view of Edinburgh, which I enjoyed very much :-)

    ...Of course I wasn't the one that had to go hungry, or lose my kid or listen to the kids moaning all day.... *giggles*

    Great post! I've linked it up in my post :-)

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  2. Very interesting reading and I love your postcards the way they are, without the software perfection!!

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  3. That brought back happy memories as I was born and raised in Edinburgh. My school was not too far from Princes Street. I used to get there by tram, before they stupidly ripped up the tramlines and converted to buses. And now they are thinking of reinstating trams at vast expense......

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  4. I've only ever spent a few days in Edinburgh... back in 1980. Would like to go back some time. Had a wonderful time there -- visiting museums and palaces and eating baked potatoes, haggis and Scandinavian food (though not altogether, of course!). :b

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  5. Boy, those postcards must be old because Edinburgh has changed a lot! I love Edinburgh and all the old buildings!

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  6. Thank you all for your comments. The postcards were part of a collection given to me by my father who collected them haphazardly over years. Those Edinburgh ones were dated 1980 Caledonia, so yes fairly old but hardly antique - yet. That must have been just before we went to live in Scotland.

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  7. The biggest change is in the last postcard, the empty area in pink is now partially covered with Princes Mall and a tourist centre. It's basically the same shape though since the buildings are essentially flat and the shopping centre is mainly below ground level. Plus, only buses are allowed along Princes St now.

    At the moment it is covered with temporary tents selling Fringe tickets!

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  8. Thanks Caledonia. It's surprising how quickly things can change really. Even looking through more recent postcards and photographs, they can look very dated.

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Forethoughts, afterthoughts, any thoughts. Tell me.

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