Sunshine on Leith

Was away last week on romance related duties, hence the lack of an update. It was me and the missus's two year anniversary so she took the high road and I took the low road and we were both in Scotland before ye. We didn't get to the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, but we did make it to Edinburgh, which is - as I'm sure you're aware - plenty bonnie itself.  I've been to Auld Reekie before, but more in a go there, get shit done, leave again capacity so it was nice to see the place in a more leisurely context. If you've never been, go there now, it's beautiful. Also hilly, but that's not really relevant. Thanks to the wonders of deal-of-the day-voucher websites we stayed in what was quite easily the swankiest hotel I've ever been in. The restaurant served food on unconventionally shaped plates, so you knew it was legit posh.

We also went to the zoo, because nothing lets a girl know that you love her and cherish the years you've shared together better than taking her look at some incarcerated animals. We saw pandas and penguins and bears (oh my) and I have now decided that squirrel monkeys are the best monkeys. A good time was had by all, save perhaps one melancholy chimp whose mate nicked one of his carrots. I would recommend it to anybody reading this and thinking of going, although would advise you to allow for more time than the few hours we set aside as it's deceptively large and, as with everything else in Edinburgh, hilly.

Closer to home the above image is a bit of a homage to Get Carter. I've recently finished Ted Lewis's Jack's Return Home, the source novel for the film, which in turn inspired me to watch Michael Caine's Geordie western, which in turn inspired the above doodlage. While I've written previously that Billy Wilder's The Appartment is my number one film of all time, Get Carter has a quite comfortable berth in my personal top ten, mainly because it is one of the most insanely quotable films of all time, think Philip Marlowe by way of Mike Leigh. The film is also notable/notorious for being the number one factor in prolonging the life of Gateshead's Trinity Car Park one of the locations in the film and a building notable for being a) completely and utterly fuck ugly, and b) a car park which, thanks to the somewhat acute angle of its entrance ramp, was inaccessible to cars. There's a Tesco's there now, which is also fuck ugly, but at least you can actually access it to buy some dairylea and toilet duck.

Also, to make amends for the lack of words, there's another page of Rag and Bone below, inform the people.

Love and Fishes

Dave Denton