Today's post was going to tell you all about my trip to Edinburgh to have my first lesson on my new sewing machine ..... but things didn't quite go to plan. We had a good trip up, and after we got over the cost of parking (almost all parking in Hawick is free!) we popped into Starbucks - as much to have a toilet stop as a drink! Malcolm then headed off to have a potter round the shops and I went for my lesson. I'm not going to name the shop (I don't want to be sued!) ...... but lots of you will know where I went. I met the woman who was going to give me my tuition - and then it all went rapidly downhill. She waffled on about completely basic stuff concerning needles and threads and showed me how to switch the machine on(!). I said I knew all of this, could she perhaps move on a bit. She said she didn't know how experienced I was, so had to cover the basics ... I said I hardly thought my machine was an entry level machine (perhaps she should have asked how experienced I was and then pitched the lesson to that level?) She then finally got round to demonstrating a stitch to use ..... at which point it became clear that she was unfamiliar with the machine - I was telling her what to do!! At that point I gave up, complained somewhat vociferously to the shop owner and said I would arrange with Janome to have my tuition elsewhere!!
Never mind, things got better after that! Thank goodness for mobile phones ..... I was able to get a hold of Malcolm and we went for a quick sandwich for lunch. Then of course the camera came out ...... this was our first glimpse of the castle (sorry, it was a bit grey, and I only had the small camera, so not the best of photos!)
Those of you who have been to Edinburgh will know that the castle sits high above the main railway station. There is a frequently told joke about a tourist (I'm not going to put in the nationality!!) who asked why they built the castle next to the railway (perhaps it was the same tourist who asked why the Queen built Windsor castle under the flight path to Heathrow Airport!!) I took this next photo to show you one of the beautiful wrought iron balcomies - it was only when I looked at it on the laptop that I realised that there is a pigeon perched on it!
This magnificent building ......
...... is home to the national Archives
When we looked up the lane at the side of the building, we saw this quirly little building (it turned out to be a restaurant)
This next magnificent building belongs to the Church of Scotland
I was puzzled by the lighthouse on this building, until I saw that it is the offices of the Lighthouse Commission!
Do you think we should have a sphinx put on our roof (except it's probably bigger than the roof!)
Another glimpse of the castle
It is often said that we Scots have very bad eating habits, and that we eat too much (deep) fried food, and too many sweet things. So you can indulge in both with one of these ....
Of course we would never eat anything like that - our tastes are much more sophisticated, as you can see from this 'plate to share' that we enjoyed with a cuppa at a garden centre on the way home ...... oh dear, that was a lie, these were all sweet and sticky and gorgeous (but just small pieces, honest!!)
....... the one at the back on the left had bits of Turkish Delight (the chocolate covered kind) in it - that made up for the rotten morning!!