Straiton…..

….was once a pretty one-horse-village where country folk lived a simple, peaceful life on the edge of the city. Then Midlothian County Council built a dual carriageway through the middle, demolishing several homes in the process, and latterly they turned the surrounding fields into a mahoosive trading estate full of furniture warehouses and chicken restaurants. Awful.

First we visited Nancy’s aged aunt in Drumbrae to help her with a wayward laptop and generally catch-up (very pleasent) and then we joined people who looked dead behind the eyes at Straiton, to view settees (not so pleasent). The Pentland hills are prominent on the skyline and I willed parents to take their gurning off-spring there instead.