I went out to my car, which was parked in the street just by my flat, and opened the hatch-back door and put Toby, my 15 years-old Border Terrier dog into his travel cage. I then drove through the busy Friday morning Edinburgh traffic, with Radio 3 playing to help with my mood. I decided to take the route out through Tollcross, along Lauriston Place, round past Greyfriars, by the museum, them down the little narrow street onto the Cowgate, through Holyrood Park, passing Meadowbank and onto Portobello.
There was a little car park just off Portobello High Street where I seem to always get a space, so I parked up and Toby got out of the back. It was really cold with a brisk wind that made it feel much colder. I walked along the promenade a bit towards the amusement arcade but then went down onto the sandy beach. Toby always seems to love to run out on the sand but he kept looking at me, so I took a photograph of him standing in the wind looking back at the camera, which I put up on my Instagram. I used to post images all the time but recently have laid-off doing this while I was ill. I just didn’t feel the need to share things.
I continued to walk along the beach, then up onto the promenade, and into that beach café to see if I could get a takeaway coffee, but it was really busy with people queueing up for lunchtime already, so I came back out again and just continued to walk along the promenade. Thankfully there’s no sign of Toby’s limp he picked up the other day when we were in Inverleith Park.
I walked all the way along past the Portobello swim centre, but then turned around as it was so cold in the wind, and came back along the promenade. I checked into the café again but it was still very busy but that’s okay. I decided to take the side road back up to the High Street, maybe get a coffee somewhere, but I noticed that there was a Scotmid supermarket up a side street, so I tied up Toby on the railings outside with his lead and went inside. I selected a meal-deal of a chicken-salad sandwich, an iced-coffee thing and a flapjack, and also bought a Guardian newspaper. Putting my lunch into my bag, I then went back out onto the street, across the High Street crossroads and into Tills second-hand bookshop which was a very nice place, as I’d been in a few times before. I had a good browse along all the shelves to see what they had. There were many very interesting books such as “Finding Flow” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, classic dramas, Philip K. Dick short story sci-fi, a Douglas Copeland novel, “Girlfriend in a Coma”, various editions of “Catcher in The Rye” with different covers; that sort of thing, lots of stimulating reading, writing and graphics.
While I was browsing in the bookshop, I began thinking about the director Wim Wenders’, “Perfect Days” film that I’d seen the day before at the Cameo cinema, in which the main character regularly goes into a little bookshop and finds cheap books to read. He buys various thin books but I can’t remember which ones they were, I need to check back on the film in some way as it would be great to find the very same ones. I really need something good to read just now, as the compilation book of music journalism by Tom Hibbert I bought recently was actually rubbish and not very interesting. He sounds like a bit of an idiotic public schoolboy from the 60s, who gets lucky in the 80s by working his way into journalism jobs on Smash Hits and Q magazine because he knew the people who were editing those magazines. I really need something good to read, something stimulating in its writing, expression and ideas.
In the bookshop, people asked me about my dog, which was always the case when I’m out with him, a mother with small children, and a woman who was sitting in the shop’s window space with her laptop and headphones, which actually looked a bit awkward. So, I came out of the bookshop, went to the crossing then walked all the way along the High Street and into the Portobello Bookshop. It was a bit pricey, retail prices and no discounts, but they have lots of interesting things out on-display, so I looked at various books on music and art then sat on the benches at the front window. I checked my Instagram post of Toby on the windy beach to see if there were any likes, which there was. I then walked back along to little carpark where my car was parked and just sat in the warmth of the car and had my sandwiches that I had bought from the Scotmid. I tried to open the iced-coffee can but it splashed all over the place, which was annoying, although it was quite tasty. While sitting in the car I watched people trying to reverse into tight parking spaces.
It was still only early-afternoon so I decided not to go straight home and drive along the East Lothian coast road which goes through Musselburgh. I took a left out onto Portobello High Street, taking me out along to Joppa to Musselburgh; through Musselburgh, past all the shops and S. Luca’s specialist ice cream shop (est. 1908). Turning left at the roundabout and along the coast road, past Seaton Sands caravan park. Along the left-hand side was the Firth of Forth, and it’s great just to cruise along in the car. It’s cosy and safe, with the radio on. It was still very cold so I just kept driving. I drove through Aberlady then kept going all the way along and all the way up towards Gullane, which is a golfing town. There are golf courses on both sides of the road here, with the golfers firing their golf balls across the road. I then took a turn to the left because I knew that you could go through the side-streets leading down to the little car park above the beach.
I parked up on the grassy parking area. Just sitting in the car for a bit, I then took Toby out the back so he could have a wander about and I took the rubbish from my lunch to the bins. I ate my sweet flapjack bar that I got in my meal deal. Reading my newspaper, I see that Dave Myers one half of the Hairy Bikers TV cooks had died, I read some satirical politics column and the top ten of American singer Gwen Stefani and her band No Doubt’s songs (number one being “What You Waiting For”, although at number 3 was “Hella Good”, which I think was…hella good). There’s also an article about music venues having trouble keeping open and deciding to close down; it talks about the consequences of these venues closing and the effect on the local culture, which was interesting but also concerning. I finished off reading the newspaper and started to head back home. I just decided to drive the same way that I came: along the coast road all the way back past Seaton Sands and through Musselburgh; all the way back to Portobello and then back into town through Holyrood Park, up to the top-end and drove through the Grange area. I carefully followed a woman with lots of reflective gear on, cycling her children in one of those big cargo bikes, all the way to Holy Corner in Morningside. I then drove up Bruntsfield Place and turned left down Leamington Terrace, readily looking for a parking place. I drove down to my flat but had to drive round the block again but luckily found a space that I had parked in before. Parking up, I noticed that the Council had put big yellow signs up on the railings saying not to park where they are going to install all the new bin hubs. This was great, as the bins in front of my flat will soon disappear round the corner. No more breaking glass noises.
I got out of the car, released Toby from his cage and we went into our flat. The flat was empty but I just had a cup of tea and put on the wood-burning stove.
In reflection, I really needed to experience fresh air by walking on the windy beach, and getting out of town and finding some space for a bit. It helps me to cope with things that unexpectedly come my way.
Iain Irving 