Leaving ‘Auld Reekie’

My chief complaint about Edinburgh is there are too many distractions. The festivals don’t stop after August — a steady stream of them follows soon after The Fringe, involving storytelling, fiddling, folk music, dance and heaven only knows what I missed. There are always must-see exhibitions, compelling lectures, and art films to watch in vintage cinemas. There’s a difficult choice of cosy pubs where fiddlers are fiddling; lots of ceilidhs, several cycle tracks to Victorian swimming pools, yoga workshops, beginners’ courses in stepdance, song, whistles and the pipes. More problematically there are too many shop windows displaying must-have shoes for sale. Then the Christmas lights come on, soon after that it’s Hogmanay, and all these distractions mean the hills and seashore become forgotten. It’s no use to me to live half an hour’s drive from a track or the beach because I just don’t reach them often enough. So next week I’m travelling through great big hills to miles of seashore eight hour’s drive and a ferry ride away. It’ll be too far to come back for shoes. And what’ll it matter, I’ll be in Orkney!

‘Dreaming Spires’ sculpture

My favourite place for meeting in central Edinburgh is under the bellies of two larger-than-life giraffes on Leith Walk. The sculptures are brilliantly shaped from rusty car and motorcycle parts, and the words of a poet form a circle round them in the paving stones:

Giraffes! — a people who live between earth and skies Each in his own religious steeple Keeping a lighthouse with his eyes

And it’s funny that I’ve come to like this spot so much, as it was only when I Googled the poet, Roy Campbell, that I discovered he was South African. I should’ve known that, having been an English student in Cape Town, but it was fun finding out this way.

Poem by Roy Campbell (1946)

Sculpture by Helen Denerley (2005)