edinburgh's weird, pretty, fun.

it all started on the way here from durham.

see, we left robert and laurie and the wee ones, thinking and feeling all this gooey lovey family stuff. then we’re relaxing at the train station, me falling asleep on vin (getting a cold), then…

we’re on the train. vin discovers strands of windy hair (not ours) on our headrest napkins.

then, i’ve got a cold--raw throat, head like a haggis-stuffed chicken. i sprawl, drooling asleep on the seat. the announcer: “edinburgh! next stop!” vin lauches for the bags. attached to his arse is a string, no, gum (not ours). he drags it across the train car before untangling himself, then we have to scrape up $1.20 so i can use the public loo (before i had "a accident" as june star said). we fall into the hotel. vin tests the ol’ ice and a knife trick on that gum. it works!

we hit the streets before anything else can go wrong.

maybe the girls in the u.k. have it right—take OFF the coat and shoes when temps drop from a gorgeous 68 degrees to a frigid late-night 40. they don't cough or sneeze or blow noses. we (vin and i) share an amontillado after dinner at this little tapas place [la tasca, 9 south charlotte street] with music pouring out the door and windows. but first vince inflicts his homemade joke on our spanish-cum-scottish waiter who has, of course, heard of edgar allen poe. “ever read him?” says vince. “oh yea,” says our waiter. “when i was quite young. something about a crow.” vince forgets to tell the joke. here it is:

Q: what did the raven say when he crossed the road?
A: nevermore.

anyway, our waiter suggests we check out cervantes and neruda. then vin and i walk around in the late night, the castle and the war museum lit up on the hill above us like a reminder of christmas.
[we leave you with a quote from billy bob thorton’s character in the movie we fell asleep to last night, Daddy and Them]: “It was the best time I ever had. It was the worst time I ever had. I believe that was witten by Dick somebody.”