whiskey, fish & chips, and the not-for-profit 'forest cafe' in edinburgh
the first two of these items are scottish and united kindom institutions respectively. the former, quite rightly, holds a much higher standing in my mind simply due to the relative quality of the whiskey industry as a whole. hundreds of whiskeys, regionally denominated - and some better than the other of course - offer value that far outweighs any of the pre deep-fried items one can purchase in a fish & chips shop. unfortunately one cannot live off whiskey and must succumb to the only reasonably priced food availible in the U.K: sandwhiches from the supermarket, or a pizza.
lucky for me i am only out of the "home" briefly as i write from edinburgh for i have the privelage of a kitchen and a keen cook in the form of scarlet back glasgow way. have unfortunately had to leave her warm abode for a night in incredibly windy but spectacular edinburgh. i don't like going in for the comparisons but it is worthwhile throwing in a few notes about the differences between the two towns.
firstly the former, being glasgow, is considered a very industrial town; a consideration that is not false and the flat streets of glasgow's shopping district, dotted with grungy student packed bars, are surrounded by industrial infrastructure along the river. the exception of the university quarter in the west-end, however, rises above the straight wide streets - protected by emmense spances of autumnal coloured folliage. but it must be said before getting whisked away by the enchanting architecture of edinburgh, that the view from the top of arthurs seat affords an insight into a different edinburgh than that which the 'old-town-royal-mile-only' tourist usually experiences. arthurs seat is a very large hill that sits between edinburgh and the sea and was one that i was obliged to climb twice because vien and joris had my jacket. as one stands with their backs to the sea and their face into the chill, blustering and buffeting wind, the dense low-income urbanisation of edinburgh opens out before your squinting eyes. a valley of grey-blue and red-tiled 3-story town houses and low-rise appartments grid their way into the distance, crowded around the pronounced hill of the old-town which slopes up out of the density; lined with lavish medieval and elizabethan facades and crowned by the castle which sits staunchly beside precipous clifsides down to the new town (under renovation of course!).
anyway i like both towns and edinburgh, in particular, is home of the third item in my title; a should-be institution. the not-for-profit forest cafe is run completely by volunteers and i believe you can get a good rundown at http://www.theforest.org.uk/ . the deal is that food & drinks are cheap, entertainment, art, music, workshops, internet and what ever someone has the insight to try and put on in the venue is free because the profits are distributed to anyone who has an idea (cd launch, theatre etc etc). consequently the atmosphere is super relaxed and very friendly. infact it felt that it was what every good cafe i've ever been in ought to have felt like, and i think the fact that this style of place is unusual is testament to the lack of ability to see past the profit margin. i am sure hundreds of people would have though, somewhere, that it would be fantastic to have a place with cheap food, free entertainment and a great atmosphere... but "pity it wouldn't make any money". technically the volunteering is equivalent to slave labour when it comes to accounting but the point is that the place is lovely to go to and therefore continues to draw people. a far cry from the annonymity and surgical feel of the high-turnover cafe's that are so easy to find these days; and the volunteer aspect removes that horrible "customer-assistant/worker" relationship which really sucks. especially if you're the worker. of course not earning a wage means you can't buy the coffees that you serve but a greater mix of for-profit and not-for-profit would be much cooler. a forest in every town...
one last night with scarlet and her great flatmates before i head to london-town. onward ho!
Comments
looks like you've been internet-less for a few days. And since I've received no reply - and you gauranteed you would reply - to my emails I thought I'd pluck up the courage to post a "comment" to this fine bloggery you've set up here. Am I the sole person reading these damn blogs? Is that how sad my life has become. At any rate I'm about to become one of the few middleclassnomad commentators. Hmm, I like the sound of that single malt whiskey and chicken soup. That would be just the ticket for a bloody cold night out on the town in Ireland. I guess. Without the girlfriend your last few posts seam to have focussed mainly on food. Which is perfectly fucking logical if you asked me. Or is that just me being fecetious? Since I am girlfriend-less, at least at present. So, you hurry up and find an internet terminal and reply to me. I'm busy working on the latter, I assure you.
Oh christ, I'm actually going to send this post.
Cheers mate,
Ruben