seeking inspiration in tartan....

I’ve lived in Edinburgh nearly a month now and have been avoiding the Royal Mile like one of those friends you have a soft spot for but usually cross the road to avoid. Even if you’ve never been to the city you can image what’s like – tartan, tourists and tacky bag pipe music, but lift your eyes above the Scottish hard sell and this famous stretch of road never fails to impress.

I kept thinking of that song about being a legal alien in NYC, but couldn’t make the words ‘English woman’ and ‘Scotland’ fit the tune so started humming Somewhere over the Rainbow instead. I wish I liked whiskey!

I don’t know many people in the city yet, so don’t feel like a local. Pushing against the tide of tourists I felt like someone who walks between the cracks in the pavement. It’s an ok place to be. I’m working on my next play, which, like the riot of daffodils in Princess Street Gardens, is bursting out all over. There’s some inspiration to be had down here in the bits of the pavement that the superstitious avoid.