Back of my hand

I have a feeling that today’s post could be pretty long as I have a had lot happen within the last 24 hours.

I’ll start of with Monday. Craig, Mikoo, Bowl and I left school after second period to go and see the Scotland rugby team train. It was quite difficult getting out of school as it seems that there was a teacher everywhere we went. Luckily, Bowl and I are experts at hiding behind bushes so it was no worries.

We went to Craig’s house, got changed and then went to buy something to eat. Bowl bought some chocolate oranges but I have no idea how many he actually ate that day. We’d be walking along and he’d just randomly pull one out. He must have eaten at least 3.

Pretty soon after that we had to get the train to Carlisle to then go back on ourselves to Edinburgh. It seems quite counter-intuitive but that’s trains for you. We got a KFC in Carlisle and Mikoo gave me his hat to wear. That hat stayed on top of my head for the rest of the day, now I want one. I’ll get one when Bowl and Mikoo pay me back for their extra tickets.

We caught the train to Edinburgh and it was actually quite a nice train. It might just have been me but I’ve never really been on a train that only stops at the final destination. It was a lot quicker and the general experience was a bit more enjoyable than ‘normal’ trains. On the way up there I saw a plaque sitting in the middle of an empty field. It was miles away from anything else but it’s really bugging me. I want to know what it says and why it’s there but I guess I’ll never know.

So, Edinburgh.

I’ve only ever been there once before in my life and that was to the zoo at a young age. I’m pretty new to the place but I felt relative comfort when Craig kept saying he knew the city like “the back of my hand.” We soon found out that Craig doesn’t really know the back of his hand.

We got off the train and headed to a few shops on our way. It’s such a nice place there, all the streets are clean and all the people are friendly. Mikoo was very pleased at the Topman shop but we eventually left there to go to Game. There was a  DJ Hero demo out to play and I stand by my first presumptions of that game. It’s gimmicky and terrible. It was quite funny to see Bowl fail at being a “master DJ” though.

Right beside Game was an HMW, or as Mikoo referred to it – a Humv. We went in and our eyes soon got caught on the signs for gaming. After following them we ended up in a fairly large room with plenty of game consoles around the room. Each person had their little pod to play a game and while I was there I counted five or six games ready to play. It was quite cool for a shop ‘facility’. Since I’m sad I took photos of this awesome place.

Craig and Mikoo racing.

After we left we saw a sign that said you had to pay to enter the gaming area we had just been to. We had practically stolen from the shop but I can honestly plead that we didn’t have a clue on this one, they should make the signs bigger!

After cruising closer towards Murrayfield for a while we stopped off at McDonald’s. It was a really smart place with a contemporary style and what not.  Craig and I were amazed that they had packets of pepper and sauce in taps. It was surprisingly dark when we left there so we went on the hunt for a bus to get to Murrayfield a bit quicker.

Now, busses in Edinburgh are a strange strange business. See I’m just a small town boy when it comes to this sort of thing. Where I come from you get on a bus, tell the driver where you’re going, pay for your ticket and if necessary, get some change. It’s really not the case here, you have to pay the exact change of £1.20, put it in a little box when you get on the bus and then it feeds you a little slip of paper that warrants you to sit there for however long you want.
It doesn’t sound that difficult to be honest but when you’ve never done it before you look kind of stupid. We held up a double-decker full of people for at least 3 minutes because we couldn’t find any change and then when we finally managed to get on board we went on the top deck. It doesn’t matter how old I get, the top deck of a double-decker is the place to be on a bus.

Since Craig supposedly knew his way around we were relying on him to tell us when to get off the bus. After sitting on the bus for a fairly long time a man turned around and asked us where we were heading. It turns out that Murrayfield was a half-hour walk in the opposite direction that we were heading. So we all got off the bus and started walking, we went past the zoo and I know for a fact that’s a while away from it.

After quite a long time of walking (and asking for directions) we found Murrayfield. It’s actually a bit of a ninja stadium as it sits behind some houses so you can only see the top of it. Plus the fact that Craig told us it was on the right hand side of the road (it’s actually left).
We got there with two minutes to spare, sat ourselves down and watched the Scotland team train.

I couldn't fit it all in.

They trained for a while so to pass the time I bought a miniature rugby ball. We threw that around for a while until Craig received a pass that popped his knee out-of-place. It looked painful (duh) but he eventually managed to get back in his feet.
The team started signing things shortly after that so Craig’s agony was soon forgotten about. Craig and Mikoo got a few signatures but we had to leave early to catch the train.  We asked a steward for directions but he ended up sending us in the completely wrong direction. This had the knock on effect of us having to run for the train which wasn’t exactly the best of situations with Craig’s knee. We made it with a couple of minutes to spare but running for train that you don’t quite know the location of is tense.

When we got on the train we realised that the connecting train from Glasgow (the one to get home) left at the exact same time that the one from Edinburgh got in. So after an hour or so of travelling we stood up, pressed up against the door of the train and watched it pull into the station. As soon as it came to a halt we burst the door open and sprinted to the next platform.
I cannot put this any more accurately – we were literally two steps away from getting on the train home when it decided to pull away and leave without us. I couldn’t help but laugh but Mikoo didn’t find it as amusing when he had to tell his mum that the next train was a quarter to seven in the morning.

After realising we had nothing to do for 6 hours in a big city it soon became a scary idea. We made numerous visits to McDonald’s (open until 3AM!) but in the early hours of the morning it became out of the option. It also turns out that it gets really cold at night. At about half past three in the morning we couldn’t take any more of the cold so we went to a small hotel and Mikoo explained our situation to the man behind the reception and he very kindly let us sit in the lounge for a couple of hours. It was an insanely kind act and I just might send him an email to thank him again.

After passing out from lack of sleep a couple of times it was soon time to leave and return to the station. We got there with an hour to spare (5:30AM) and that’s when it seemed most cold. I couldn’t move without shaking violently but I survived so it’s all good.
On the way home we tried to catch some sleep but it didn’t really work. The train got in a 9:07 so I ran to school. Not because I was late, I just really needed to pee. I got there, ran up to the toilet door, locked, next door, locked and when I got to the next one I was faced with Mr Asher on the other side. I was expecting him to scream at me but I quickly explained where I had just been and he seemed to let me off the hook for deciding to come to school.

When I went into registration I was greeted with cheers. It seems that our little escapade has gained attention from a fair amount of people. The whole year soon left for this educational thing after first period (more on that some other time) but I left at lunch time because I was so tired.

I came home, watched Scrubs then passed out for four hours.

So, all in all it’s been a pretty good life experience and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our little adventure. I can safely say that I’ve ’slept rough’ and I never ever want to do it again.

Post later, yes some of you will know what’s coming.
Cheerio.
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