Morningside Festival Newsdrive

In the past.

The day.

Hooray!

And indeed hoorah!

Good home offered

I can't help but notice that there is a lonely little piano sat at the end of Cuddy Lane.

It has a note on it saying 'do not remove, to be collected August 8th'.

Does anyone know the owner of this piano? Does it want a good home? If it is dark and the note is no longer legible does the warning still stand?

Any thoughts?

Things that go bzzz in the night.

There's bugs in these here hills. Green and purple stripy ones.

Climate change comes to us all. Even in Morningside.

Image courtesy of simpologist.

Tell us something we don't already know . . .

Apparently this isn't an easy area for first time buyers. No kidding.

This qualifies as news?

But if it's tricky here in EH10 then spare a thought for the poor people of Arran.

"Whereas in EH10, the typical cost of a first-time buyer property has gone up by 63%, the figure is 263% in Arran."

Urk. I'll just keep paying the rent then . . .

Bulletproof

Fancy buying something just a little glam to take the kids to school? Something that'll silence the idle chitchat of the Chrysler Cruiser driving Greenbank Mob? Who needs a people carrier when you could have a Popemobile?

Just 11,000 miles on the clock and rumoured to be in near mint condition. S'been on the news and everything. You'll be the talk of the toon. And impervious to artillery fire, explosions and rifle shots. Ideal for an afternoon drive down through Niddrie.

The bidding starts on September 2nd. All previous indications suggest that it'll be off to Vegas before anyone else gets a look in. Unless Mr Abramovich cuts back on his ventures in the transfer market . . . after all he's spent £285,000 on a simple numberplate with a JPII connection in the past . . .

Quickly Jose! To the Popemobile! London needs our help . . .

South Suburban Blues

On a return rail trip from the Lake District, way back in the rainy season, we were forced to endure an unexplained delay after leaving Haymarket Station.

Turns out they were working on the line in between Waverley and the West End. And so we took the scenic route to the city centre. Via Morningside. No stopping though.

The loop out behind Arthur's Seat was kind of pretty too. (It's only a shame we missed the first half of the World Cup Final to see the sights . . . Timing, timing . . .)

So bring on the South Suburban regeneration plan!

This Would Never Happen in Morningside

Could it? Uck.

Poor old Northsiders.

Presidential Sweet: Fringe Benefits of Royal Neighbours

One Royal Mile pub was surprised to find a higher class of tourist looking for lunch earlier this week.

You'll be pleased to know that the President of Estonia was a good boy and ate up all of his neeps.

Paramedics get the hump: Don't fall down the stairs tonight.

One of those stories about which I'd like to be able to sigh and say "Only in Edinburgh.". But I'm fairly confident that this kind of thing is going on all over . . .

"Car crash victims and patients with spinal injuries in particular could have their injuries worsened" indeed. Excellent.

Don't forget to look left then right then left again every time you cross Morningside Road this week. And keep a weather eye open for speeding ambulances going out of their way avoiding those bumps.

"NO! You must not read from the book!"

Or at least not more than once. Seriously, is anyone else beginning to feel gently nudged towards the edge? The edge that begins with subdued muttering and ends with newspaper headlines describing carnage in an inner city library?

If one more librarian says to me, in a tone of gentle pity, "Did you know you've had that book out before?" then there is every possibility I may run amok. What, so reading books more than once is now taboo? Edinburgh Council only allows you one go round, to prevent wear and tear on the pages?

Firstly, if I'm starting to suffer from early onset Alzheimers then I'd rather find out in a medical setting. Secondly, sometimes people do read books more than once. Some people read some books more than once a year. Thirdly, if it's a reference book, such as a cookbook, then they are designed to be read more than once. There is no surprise ending to 'The Naked Chef'. I won't be traumatised when I find out I already know whodunnit. It was Jamie! In the kitchen! With an omelette pan! Fourthly, some books come back into relevance a couple of months after you first read them, books on Afghanistan and the situation in the Middle East, books that are worth reading a second time from a different perspective. Fifthly, travel books are by their nature used repeatedly. Unless now visiting foreign cities comes with a 'one chance to see' ruling. And sixthly, that's what students do! It's called revision.

It's the way they then abstract it from your pile of weekend reading material without so much as a byyourleave and pop it firmly onto the return-to-shelf stack. Aaah!

So, dear Edinburgh Libraries, who in general I love very dearly, please reconsider this move towards interactive librarianship. Please accept that some people are Bad People, who wish to read the same book maybe two or three times in a lifetime. Please embrace the fact that on the rare occasion that this service might actually help - taking out the same Agatha Christie twice in a row for example - that really I would rather discover my own stupidity in the privacy of my own house than at the head of a queue of borrowers.

I know that if I was actually allowed to read books only once then I would read differently. More slowly, more thoughtfully. Maybe I'd make notes. But until that dark day comes I embrace my freedom to read the same book over and over again like a literate city dwelling Teletubby.

Citizens of Edinburgh, cast off your borrowing chains. Hang on to that book with both hands and don't let them take it away until you're sure you never want to read it again. This year at least.

"It's really convenient that the Castle has been built next to the train station."

Oh yes. They're back.

The annual article from The Scotsman listing the foolish questions of bewildered tourists. Which seem to remain eternally unvaried from year to year, summer season in, summer season out.

It's still funny though. "Tonight we dine with my father in Nottingham." type funny.

Smokin . . .

The Scotsman reports on an apparently unforseen consequence of the current smoking ban - apparently when large groups of people are obliged to congregate in the street outside the pub they have a tendency to talk to each other. Loudly. Particularly the ones who have been drinking.

One of the pubs listed as having received a complaint from local residents about noise at night is the Morningside Glory (or the Hermitage as we used to know it back in the day).

Now I'm no real opponent of the smoking ban. Obviously it's undesirable for any worker to be exposed to a hazardous substance as part of their routine conditions of employment. It would never be allowed in industry, and I don't really see why it should be expected in hospitality. Especially for a workforce who are by and large working antisocial hours on a minimum wage salary.

But I don't get the impression that anyone really thought through what the consequences of the ban might be.

All I see is a rise in violence, particularly in areas such as the Cowgate/Grassmarket, an increase in littering with cigarette butts forming a damp smelly carpet on pubfront pavements, and then there's this noise issue.

As a single girl walking back through Tollcross I resent being forced out onto the road by crowds of rowdy passive aggressive smokers taking up the pavements outside every pub. Yes, in a city like Dublin, one with beer gardens attached to most premises I'm sure things are very different.

But here in Edinburgh it only looks likely to lead to problems for landlords which are not of their own making and ridiculous legal excesses such as the proposed Glasgow glass ban. I'd rather inhale a little smoke than drink my Ardbeg out of a plastic cup.

And what are all these discarded cigarette butts doing to the drains?

A little compromise anyone?

Holy Corner International: Multicultural Street Market.

Er, apologies for the slight drop off in posting. Honestly, one week of summer weather and the concept of manana comes to Morningside.

Still, the summer weather is bringing more than just siestas, there's going to be an international street market up at Holy Corner on June 24th twixt the hours of 10am and 4pm. With singing and dancing, food from Ndebele and Khartoum (mmm) and stalls selling a range of world goods.

The whole shebang is a fundraiser for the Holy Corner Community Playgroup, and, if the weather holds looks like making for a pleasant afternoon's browsing and nibbling.

A Big Day Oot for Morningside's Maisie.

The most famous feline in Edinburgh's history has been honoured with a furry replica, now available from the Botanical Gardens.

The toy has been created to mark the 25th Maisie story 'Maisie and the Botanic Garden Mystery'. Although she still looks like a fresh young kitten, it's been twenty one years since Maisie first came to Morningside.

This photo of Aileen Paterson and friend was hijacked from the Edinburgh Evening News . . .

Fine Day: Drop in the Issue of Parking Tickets

It's still a bone of contention amongst traders and residents alike.

But there is good news from the parking wars as Morningside Road drops from seventh place to fourteenth place in the list of most Edinburgh's ticketed streets.

George Street is still top of the ticketing pops with an average of 56 parking tickets taped on to windscreens daily.

Signs of Summer (IV): Violets are blue . . .

Although I think that these ones were more purple than anything else.

There sure were a whole lot of them sprinkled over the dry banks under the trees. I believe they were the Early Dog Violet if anyone's interested in a more scientific approach.

Sunshine, wild garlic and the Holy Grail: A day out at Roslin Glen.

A beautiful day for a stroll through the deep wooded gorge below Rosslyn Chapel.

What with the flowering garlic, the myriads of sparkly daisies and the chance sighting of Scotland's Very Largest Frog we didn't feel too sad that we didn't find the Grail. Besides, didn't Indianna Jones find the grail? In Petra? Not just outside Penicuik.

The tin roof that is now covering the chapel is truly shockingly horrible. Yes, I understand their reasoning and I approve of the intent. It would be a shame to see the building decay unecessarily. But I can't help but think there must have been some other, less jarringly conspicuous, way of doing it.

Fortunately the castle remains free of all such modern architectural paraphenalia, and the red sandstone was glowing nicely in the afternoon sun. Almost like Petra after all in fact. Now, what might that be glinting up there in that dark crack between the rocks . . .

Secrets and Lies: Morningside and the Dark Side.

A fascinating look at the history of the Scottish League for European Freedom (SLEF), a postwar society largely patronised by Morningside ladies of the lunching class.

The League appeared on the surface to be a charitable organisation which raised funds for the poor and displaced peoples of central and Eastern Europe. The fund raising activities of the fur coated ladies of Morningside and the New Town leant it a gloss of respectability and fashion.

Little did they realise that in fact the League was merely a public front for a far shadier operation - a drive to recruit potential undercover espionage agents from the Ukraine to assist in the postwar struggle with Soviet Russia.

And it seems that what went on behind the scenes was darker even than this suggests.

"In 1950, the fundraising activities of the League's Edinburgh members even helped to pay for a special conference in the Central Hall in Tollcross, where Eastern European men pleaded their cases for freedom.

To members, it was merely a chance to see some of the "peaceful" men being persecuted by the USSR, and who were being offered help thanks to their charitable donations. But Macleod suggests that, in reality, it was actually one of the biggest gatherings of Nazis since the Nuremburg rallies. "Some of the guest speakers at this meeting had been former SS soldiers or members of the Nazi party in the Ukraine yet no-one really knew about their pasts.

"MI6 were paying for the passports and hotel rooms and, in return, they were getting to recruit agents that they could send back to spy on Communist Russia.

"It seems a little unethical to recruit the former enemy - the Nazis - but if you're looking to spy on a particular country it makes a lot of sense to recruit people who know the area. With the Cold War starting to heat up, the best potential agents just happened to be former Nazis." "

Intriguing and relevant stuff, well worth looking into.