Most excellent weekend of eating, eating and more eating in Edinburgh.
Dropped the motor at Burscough then over to the Junction to get to Preston. Hurridly bumped into Lucy on the train as I got off (she was getting on), then over to pick up my connection to Edinburgh. Didn’t take too long to get up there, straightforward ride which allowed me to actually spend some time reading – first time in a month or so. The Daddy got me a fantastic book about discovering Wild Places in the UK, so spent a while discovering a few places that I hadn’t heard of.
Clare met me at the station with a tremendous grin, then after a swift car ride back to hers to dump rucsac, we wandered down towards town with a mate of hers to grab a few beers. A couple of pints in, chatting away & talking random words when I thought that I recognised a bit of head. Convincing myself – but getting wary looks from Clare and Andy – I started shouting, with escalating volume …. ” Ben … BEN …. BEN!!“. Until eventually, Mr Ivitsky turned round. Long time musical top bloke, ex-feller of Liza & purveyor of fast bikes and the growing of trees, I got chance to have a good catch up with himself, had been a long time since had seen him. I used to see him with Liza every few months, but as I got busier, time got more short and over the past couple of years had only seen him a few times. Was excellent to catch up, traded numbers and so forth.
Saturday morning, kicked Clare out of bed at 9 on a mission to Xmas shop. We failed impressivley, Clare got nothing (actually ended up £40), I got the Ma a presant, myself a bow tie (starting the long, dangerous path into eccentricity), and a variety of other random things. Did manage to be convinced by Clare to eat a Hog Burger … most of a pig in 2 bits of bread. Back to the flat then a session at Ratho -the Scottish Climbing Centre. Chuffing big, although at a cost. Most people were belaying in Down Jackets …. and this place is indoor! Bagged a stack of 6b and 6c routes (top roping all of them though), and did the main wall, which must be a good 25/30m high. Proper big. Got memories of the descent from Mount Brassica when I was near the top. Need to do more big stuff to get used to this again!
On returning from Climbing we had to finish off the pudding that we were creating for that nights meal (we’d already made a cake beforehand). Got a bit carried away with the cream on the cake. End product was about 80% cream, 20% cake. Ooopsy. Sat night was a formal (ish) dinner with Clare’s mates. Ate royally, met a stack of people, and did the standard thing of falling asleep whilst in conversation.
Sunday was a slow start. Watching the Wombles on VD before getting up was pretty cool, as was the trip into town round the main Museum ( looking at dead things), and the Elephant House for a brew. On the way back, we stopped into some more mate’s of Clares for Sunday dinner – full roast with a death by chocolate pud.
Starting to feel full now. Waddled back to the flat to get stuff, rolled downstairs and walked ( at a strain) to the car. Clare was a star & dropped me off back at the station so I just had to fall onto the train.
Straightforward journey back, fully under the knowledge that I don’t need to eat for a week or two yet.
It’s now Tuesday, and I’m still full … hardly eaten anything yet!
