Back from a hot sunny day in Embra. Yes hot but not hot enough to melt the rails this time. First day of The Festival-
tout Japan there and half of Dunbar. Huttonian and the wife turned out of our seats by an official after Dunbar as apparently our seats were reserved from there and the ancient couple booked on them were too terrified to tackle the wife and had to involve a uniformed member of the 'Train Team' to have us removed. Awkward as I was talking to Australia at the time (as one does after Dunbar station) and in the haste of our ejection dropped the Fringe tickers all over Coach C-luckily the wife was behind and retrieved the contents of the plastic bag that I was carrying upside down. Irritating-one assumes when boarding at Berwick that all reserved seats have been vacated further south and who would ever think of rerseving a place from Dunbar, for goodness sake.
Anyhow the Fringe was brilliant and once you escaped from Princes Street heaving with
tout Japan and half of Dunbar the going was good on the sun drenched streets. I saw our favourite mendicant and his wee mongrel looking very natty in the their post make poverty history march glad rags-he was in his Scottish gear as was the wee dog. He had surrendered his usual pitch to one of those aggressive mendicant kilted pipers who play a quick tune and then milk the surrounding crowds who had only stopped because the pavement was blocked with other crowds trying to go in the opposite direction-both lots of people desperate to get out of earshot of the piper. The artist of last year was not around. He had an interesting technique:-give him a good handout and he will very sweetly play 'Will Ye no Come back again?' in gratitude. Ignore his outstretched pillow case and you will get the same refrain with the emphasis on the
no and forget the question mark. He probably made his pile last year and is vacationing in foreign parts. Possibly Japan (or Dunbar)
