Christmas

TMI. My new camera shows my snotty nose and nose-hair. Don't look at the close-up.

Gotcha

I need to get blogging because the photos are mounting up, even though I don't have anything to say.

Christmas eve came around. It was good to be off work. It was blowing a very cold hoolie but the light was nice. I'm enjoying having a new camera with more lens power.

Falkos was closing at midday and we weren't going to make it, so in a change of script we got coffee and pastries out of the Scotmid across the road before setting off. I was a bit worried we would peak too soon - somewhere on the bypass on the way to the beach - and by the time we got to Gullane we'd be spent. I was half right. A heated argument sprang up on the way there in the car. Peter was going on about wars and religion and I was saying IT'S NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION, IT'S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE HAVING NO TOLERANCE FOR THE OTHER PERSON'S POINT OF VIEW.

It was good to escape out into the open fields and the biting wind and the landscape. We saw an orange Fatbike coming towards us and were delighted to see Jason atop it. We chatted as long as we could stand the knifing wind.

Pretty much as soon as we were on the beach we had the strong wind behind us, which was the plan, and we had the place to ourselves. Very good to have a wind-assisted fly along the beach and have the only footprints be ours.

We ran just shy of 11 miles and then headed back into Christmasdom. We literally didn't have anything in for Christmas tea so we had to stop at the Tescos. Tesco Leith had introduced some crowd control measures in the form of queue guards. I think our queue guard was a bit giddy from being there all day. He told us he hoped a fight would break out because it would be exciting - and then he caught himself - and said "and that it would be over in just a couple of minutes without anyone being hurt of course" with a big smile on his face. We quite enjoyed the queues up the aisles, admiring all the different kinds of cereals and noting that quite a few people had ditched their chocolates and drink on the shelves. The queuing seemed to be giving people the chance to have their buyer's regret early. Tescos take note.

This was actual Christmas. It was warm!

On Christmas day I had to run more than 8.4 miles in order to reach 30 miles for the week. And I had new Inov-8 X-talon 212's to try out, so I wanted to run off-road mostly. We ran the perimeter of the park and then went into the park proper and ran over the Crags and then up to the summit. I haven't been doing much in the way of hill running for ages and my legs were still wazzed from the day before, so it was kind of a slog. An enjoyable slog, but with burning legs. I am so used to wearing Hokas, I think, that shoes with thin soles are hard going. The X-talons were very nice and grippy in the mud though - and - well - they look so lovely. I got them at a bargain price of £45 on Wiggle. When I took them out the box and saw how they looked I tried to buy another pair right away. They were the most beautiful shoes I have ever seen. Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, there were no more at such an extreme discount. 

Later, to mark Christmas day we augmented our normal tea with sprouts. I love sprouts always but am kind of forbidden to have them, or Broccoli, because they "stink up the flat". Of course I'm not forbidden to have them. It's not some kind of Draconian regime I live in here. I just have to be ready for a bit of arguing. I often give up just to keep the peace - which is a shame for my colon. One's colon loves cruciferous vegetables. Peter augmented his usual dinner with whisky and Port and declared these a wonderful antidepressant. He had suddenly had the revelation that the filthy mood he'd been  in for some time was in fact depression. Alcohol was in fact the cure. Kind of a dangerous revelation that. We'll see how it plays out.

I don't mean to be rude but this lion above the Queen's Gallery doesn't bear too much scrutiny.

I didn't intend to run today as the weather looks better for tomorrow. Peter's going on a longer run. I'm planning on going a shorter longer run, tout seul, so I thought I might take the day off today and rest my legs. But then it was today and there was no way I was staying in the flat all day. And there was no way I was going to any Sales. And I'd thought about taking my bike out but the gusty wind would have made it difficult - so off we set up Arthur's Seat again.

We had lots of clothes on as sunny spells were interspersed with nasty, sleety squalls. It turned into a lot of high energy fun; trying not to be hurled by the wind off the slippery rocks at the top of Arthur's Seat and broken on the hard ground,  far below.