Missing friends

It was the first time for a while I've been able to sit down by myself and think, between the office and friends my days have been unusually full of sound and action. My break from the world was taking place in a restaurant in the Royal Botanical Gardens' building, a beautiful modern structure of wood and stone, very Nordic and very functional – save for the excellent but useless wooden staircase, which was closed for repairs, its harmonious structure being supported by crude wooden poles wedged comically under the normally free-hanging steps, basically ruining the whole idea, making it into an unplanned mockery of modern eco architecture.

Royal Botanical Gardens building and the beautiful but useless staircase.

Royal Botanical Gardens, the building's ceiling.

It was nice to sit there, munch a scone, sip tea, look up on the ceiling (which was very nice as you can see). Paristoes and Corsicatoes were exploring the gardens, the Polishtoes team was in town, and I could smile upon them benevolently in my silence.

It's late now, and I can hear my friends stirring in the darkness, settling to sleep. They are going back home tomorrow, and I will miss their company, we've had such a good time, days really packed with being alive. And such nice foods, too – twice I was treated to a ready-made dinner upon returning home from work, and twice it was the Polishtoes' amazing beef goulash, thick and tomatoey and generally mmmmmmm. Friday night, when we combined it with tortillas, sour-cream and beer, was a feast.

Friday munchings - Polish bigos and sundries.

We all took the train to South Queensferry to look at the bridge today. The little town which nestles in between the two bridges - the Forth Railway ridge, and the more modern Road Bridge - was a nice surprise. The majority of the buildings were from the 17th century, and the place breathed the air of suburban affluence, and was generally pleasant to look at. The receding tide uncovered the pillars of the structure, making the bridge look even bigger. We walked all around, admiring it from this point and that, listening to the song of the trains as they entered the network of steel beams.

Forth Railway Bridge, curtesy of Polishtoes.

The bridge, a boat and a train.

The calls echoed through the bay, followed by thundering as the trains went past and above us. Sections of the bridge were clad in plastic, perhaps for restoration, making it look like and unfinished Lego construction. It was a good place to see, with the expanse of the water, and the grey clouds playing above and again mirrored in the silvery bay, the construction harmonising somehow with the landscape, a good place to see.