Looking Out of a Train Window

I've been away to Edinburgh for the weekend. As ever, it was a great feeling to see the now-familiar streets and buildings. Not everything was the same though - Princes Street is currently closed off while they do work on the new tram lines - this is supposed to be finished by 2011. It should have been started on Saturday morning but it has all gone pear-shaped. The firm doing the work has now demanded an extra £8,000,000 for 'additional costs'. So far, no work has gone ahead.

I was also tempted to go and see 'The Vagina Monologues' on Saturday night. It featured Karen Dunbar (Scottish comedienne who was the main attraction for me - I was intrigued to see what she'd be like in a dramatic role. Interestingly, the theatre it was playing at is a couple of doors away from CC Bloom's where she used to compere the karaoke), Kaye Ward (apparently she's on 'Loose Women'), Gail Porter (the one who's hair fell out and isn't Jade 'I'm going to shield my kids from the news of my cancer by having it plastered over the front pages of every newspaper and magazine' Goody/Tweed) and Michelle McManus (won X Factor and spent the money on pies).

Anyway, I got to the theatre and saw, in huge letters: 'The Ultimate Girls' Night Out!'. I went out drinking instead.

So, I was on the train back this afternoon, looking at the scenery whizzing past (inbetween reading Simon Doonan's 'Beautiful People', which had me laughing out loud). I noticed that, with the odd exception, any particularly picturesque piece of countryside with buildings on, had rather nice buildings, buildings with character. Then we got closer to England. I noticed then a lot of what must have formerly been fairly lush, luxurious landscape had been blighted with identikit boxes with little charm.It's no wonder a lot of Scots don't want to be identified as British.