Festive Spirit

It wouldn’t be Christmas if the Sally Army weren’t out on Princes Street belting out Carols. I do enjoy that bit of festive spirit, albeit a bit early, rather than the Ferris wheel and the pricey Christmas Market in the Gardens drawing in another crowd of tourists.

Also in town are the families of students fresh from end of year graduation ceremonies, filling the Square in front of the McEwan Hall like flocks of colourful birds with their bright hoods. As I walked past, I suddenly thought that it was exactly 60 years since I was one of a similar throng which in one sense seems like yesterday and in another sense, a lifetime. Extrapolating back 60 years from 1962 and the world would have been completely unrecognisable to us today.

Too much philosophising around that thought and it was back to the present and following on Flightradar24 the journey of Porty daughter to Dubai and Sharjah where she will spend time helping to look after my granddaughter and new baby Julia.

Following the plane’s progress across Europe is mesmerising, a bit like watching paint drying. Still it almost as good as being on the journey myself but without the nibbles and meals although I do have a G&T to hand.
As I write, she is over Vienna at a height of 35,000 ft. Nobody in 1902 would know what I was talking about.