Skip to main content

Finding Haddington




So, as many of my loyal readers know, I set off to Edinburgh in search of Haddington because I’ve set my prequel Palindrome there.  You will be pleased to know that after a bit of argy bargy (namely exploring the delights of Edinburgh) I did indeed find Haddington.

Along the way I also found Edinburgh Old Town – a place I now love as much as I love parts of Italy.  I vow to return to this part of the world once I’ve learnt how to speak Gallic so that I may more easily commune with the inhabitants of this fair city.  What the heck, I’ll come back even if I don’t master a single syllable of Gallic.


Yes, Arthur's Seat is up there
 in the distance
I pretended to climb to the top of Arthur’s Seat.  Don’t tell anyone please, I don’t want half the world to know this fact.  Urged by Sheffield best buddy, I went on board my first ever city tour bus.  In all my travelling adventures since I first discovered the art of travel in my early twenties, I’ve never done this activity.  But the commentary by the guides was so entertaining that I did it twice and also because the ticket was valid for 24 hours so why the hell not my lovely Sheffield bud and I reasoned.


Tempted by the look of the newly added wing to the Museum of Scotland, we ventured into its dim halls in search of how Scotland began.  There were Picts and Celts and Romans and Vikings. Then there was woodworking and stone working and weaving and…   Well, I think you get the idea.  I very much wished I’d studied archaeology or anthropology at university rather than English literature but only for the very briefest of moments.





Pangs of hunger forced us beyond the new wing to the original museum buildings and here we found a delight of colour and sound and a glass roof one would expect to find on the tropical greenhouse at Kew Gardens and a catacomb brasserie which served a spinach and potato soup worth dying for.



My one regret is that in the Old Town, I haven’t explored as many closes (alley ways) leading to amazing squares or walkways with vistas of the New Town below as I’d have liked to.  I feel this merely gives me the excuse to return in the future.  Best Sheffield bud is very willing in this possible venture so I will not be alone.


But wait, what about Haddington I hear you ask.  Well, the archive department was closed on the day we ventured there but a delightful lady who runs the museum gave me a very useful card with the number and email of a research facility provided by the local history department.  So, if I think of any burning questions I can simply contact them and hey presto, problem solved.  I took some photos of bits of the town but was aching to get back to Edinburgh to explore it further.  So that was exactly what we did.


Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. It's much appreciated as is the time you take to write a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Faetaera: A Triumvirate

  A Triumvirate Brairton’s minions slipped through a barely noticeable fissure.  The tear would close shortly.  Despite the increase in their regularity the breaches rarely stayed open very long.  To the three insidious spies, the stink of the new world was almost unbearable.  But in time the triumvirate would each become so used to it they would scarcely notice it at all.  That it poisoned them they did not know.  Brairton was not in the habit of informing his operatives of fatal consequences.  Their programming precluded any thought beyond the mission they must complete.  In this Brairton had been exact and had performed the necessary rituals himself. Each had their mission branded into their being.   They would travel together for some time but then slip off to their secret destinations one by one, never to see each other again. The threesome latched on to their individual targets and began their particular brand of individual mis...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guest Post: Creative Recharge

Lindsay Bamfield started writing fiction about 10 years ago. She has written a number of short stories and flash fiction pieces and has been published in Greenacre Writers Anthology , Voices from the Web 2012, The Best of Café Lit 2012, Mslexia, Writers’ News and Writing Magazine.  She has won prizes in Writers’ News , Writing Magazine and Words with Jam competitions and has been shortlisted in others. She is currently re-working her first novel with advice from an editor and has a second novel on the back-burner.  How do I recharge my writing batteries? I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer this as my batteries are still somewhat depleted after illness and debilitating treatment, but my writing activity, although still less than ideal has bounced back to some extent. It was only after being ill that I understood just how much energy writing requires. Exhaustion does not engender creativity. After a frustrating dry-spell when I wanted to writ...
5 comments
Read more

#Indie Intro

#Review: RED DESERT by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli 4 Star reading I must confess a certain attraction to the inhospitable red planet ever since I saw Total Recall . The Arnie version of course. There simply is no other. As many of you know, I’ve even squeezed a mention of Mars into my very own little eco SciFi number. So I was delighted to come across this translation of Deserto Rosso. It is written in diary format from the perspective of Anna Persson, an astronaut landed on Mars together with several colleagues. Together they are hoping to set up a primary colony. The opening is dramatic as use of the present tense and the narrator’s situation draws the reader in. The story line switches between events on Mars and flashbacks, in the past tense, in which we learn a great deal of backstory. I found these details and the relationships Anna has with other characters very engaging. I wanted to read on and in fact finished the book in only 4 sittings. Anna's compl...
Post a Comment
Read more