festive coffee

I don't think I've blipped this early for a long time, but to be honest there isn't much else to do at Edinburgh at this time of the morning. I don't usually drink out of paper cups either, but this was the only place open at silly o'clock and I needed some coffee!

That's my December bivvy done and a bit different from my usual sleepouts, I must say. After hearing Liam Gallagher finish his set with "Wonderwall", I headed back to my sleeping bag, which I'd set up next to a small tree, right at the very edge of Princes Street Gardens. John Cleese was reading a bedtime story in a very shouty voice, but I was able to switch off and go to sleep. I woke a couple of times in the night, peeped out and saw a few people wandering around, but it was unexpectedly quiet. All too soon, an event steward came around to wake everyone up. It was 6am and - 6degrees C. I really did not want to get out of my sleeping bag!

There's not a lot to do in Edinburgh at 6am. I think if I was a homeless person I might find it more difficult to fill my days than to sleep out. If you  can't afford to buy endless coffees and are not welcomed in shops or other public spaces, you would have to keep moving to keep warm, which would be exhausting. And it would be isolating. I never feel alone on my bivvies but sleeping on my own at an event of 9,000 people and not was an oddly lonely experience.

But I'm glad I came, I'm glad I helped to raise some money for Social Bite. I'm glad I have a home and a family to go home to.