Early



Was I really at work by 7smeggin30 in the AM today? Ah, the Waterstone's way of life - fuck up budgets and staffing levels then make the remaining staff suffer for it, so there I am at 7.30am because obviously my day doesn't suck enough with ignorant Xmas shoppers, endelss queues, endless lists of work to do and no staff to do it. Thank goodness for new Chewable Prozac for Booksellers.



Still, I did notice the 19th century Bank of Scotland building on the Mound has installed a new floodlight system which cycles through various colours, always with the top dome in a contrasting colour. Set against the long hours of glorious darkness and the plain, white Xmas lights on the bare winter trees in Princes Street Gardens it looks great. And the person who does the series of excellent pictures on the big board outside of the mock-Gothic Saint John's church in Princes Street has surpassed themselves this time round. It features a giant George W Bush as a traffic cop, holding everyone else up while he lets through a car with Halliburton and Enron on the side :-). These pictures they put up are usually bang on the money - some of those during the war were very effective, being both humorous and thought-provoking and something which has been well designed to appeal to agnostic cycnics like me as well as the faithful. It's also a gorgeous church and at this time of year it is dark a lot and the stained glass windows are lit from within giving a lovely image to look at on the way home of a winter's night. In the summer there is a Fair Trade shop and cafe downstairs and you can sit outside with you coffee or tea and cake - right in the graveyard! Eating chocolate cake over the crumbling grave of some 19th century worthy, sheltered by leafy green trees is something I very much enjoy.