So, I went to Edinburgh at the end of September on the Caledonian sleeper, and let me tell you to pull off what is essentially a daytrip is nothing short of a shocking undertaking, considering i both arrived in and left Edinburgh the same day. Let me tell you, there's something really wonderful about eating a proper, cooked meal on a train as your whisked through the English countryside - the rolling hills and all.
Although when I got to Edinburgh things were not hunky dorie, for i, in a twist of ironic fate - had a panic attack and projectile vomited in the first class lounge bathroom at waverly station. oh what fun. Once I got to my senses I set off on my quest - to obtain a University of Edinburgh Library Card through the SCONUL Access scheme.
For those of you that don't know, the SCONUL Access scheme allows members of participating libraries to join all the other libraries in the network, it's quite cool really - and it is also the reason why i have a collection of library cards from different universities, I ended up having to go to the law library to get my card printed - and when I was leaving I ran into a group of staff and students protesting against job cuts, apparently that's quite a big thing in Scotland at the minute, especially in education - and the strikes are national across the entirelty of scotland.
After this interesting revelation, I headed to the Scottish Parliament both to raid the gift shop for pin badges, and also to see if there was anything going on there - turns out, the Scottish Parliament does not sit on Monday, and I was a day early :( - this was rather sad. From there I went on to a cinema, where I watched Stanley Kuberick's Artificial Intelligence - it was an interesting film but not on of his best works
Before I left though, I did make sure to stop by a radical bookshop where I picked up a book on non-monogamy and group dynamics and a few stickers for the laptop - it was a very cozy place and i would recommend it to anyone whos into radical political theory or anyone that's queer who's visiting. I do want to make the sleeper trip at least once a year, I think it's important to travel - although next time I may go on the Night Riveria all the way to Penzance.
- blue
Edit: This one was imported from the old blog too.