I lay my head

If top notch accommodation had been a priority then we probably wouldn't have looked on Laterooms in the first place and the location would have been a warning. However, the reasoning was simple: the night would inevitably go something along the lines of dumping the weans, check in, a nap, a shower, pub, dinner, wine, whisky, pub, another pub, another pub, another pub, chips, sleep.

Since the only role of the hotel is as a place to crash when we've run out either pubs or steam, it need be no more than cheap, quiet, reasonably clean and reasonably comfortable. On that basis, the Acorn Lodge, a two-star hovel on Pilrig Street, ticked all the boxes. But it's just as well that the expectations were low.

The fun started with a dander up Leith Walk in the warm evening sun watching the ambulances go by and the paramedics attending the casualties who'd been enjoying the cosmopolitan air of Edinburgh's roadside tables all day. We wandered all the way up to Bristo Place, dodging drunks and stag/hen parties and had a lovely dinner at Hotel du Vin.

Sandy Bells was too busy to fulfil Pensioner's prophesy so we walked down to the Malt Shovel, where the music was, strangely, supplied by the reformed Take That! Then Tiles, where the music was equally dreadful but at least did the job of almost drowning out the cackling witches across the bar. That place closed at 12, which was a blessing really so we went to the Cafe Royal, which didn't turf us out until after one. By this time, Mandy was hungry again so we went to the disco chipper - the Picante - and wandered back to bed, taking some snaps of Leith Walk by night and some of the shops, especially the Bethany shop, with its half-full fish tank, complete with floating fish.

A lie in until 8! On a Sunday! Clodagh reported that the bairns were up at 6.30am. Haw haw.

Afternoon at East Links Farm Park, ice cream at Luca's and then home.