Water of Leith

I have been hearing of the water of Leith for quite sometime now and it was always described as this walk that you had to do if you were in Edinburgh. It was supposed to be quite something. So when I had to go over to the NHS to get myself registered and I found that the water of Leith was close by from the NHS and the place I stay, I decided I needed to give it a try.

It turned out to be this walkway right beside a river and it didn’t look all that impressive on first glance. However, as I walked down the path, it suddenly felt as if I was in one of those Jane Austen novels and I almost reached out to straighten my bonnet. :)

The walkway is quite secluded; I did see, an old uncle bicycling, one jogging and one fishing. Although the walkway ran parallel to a busy street I could barely hear the traffic, it was as if the walkway was in a world of its own. This walkway is around 20 kms long and cuts across Edinburgh, its called the silver thread in a ribbon of green. How poetic! :) It’s called the water of Leith since the river runs right up to this place called Leith.

I just need to figure out now, how to rope in Shaiwal to walk if not the entire length then at least a good part of it. There is even supposed to be a water of Leith visitor centre in the middle which has an interactive exhibition on wildlife and the heritage of the river. It would be nice to see it, don’t you think?

By the way I did finish my registration with NHS- National Health Services. Everyone staying in UK is eligible for and mandatory needs to register with NHS and the nearest General Physician under it. You are entitled to free medical treatment under the NHS, however the catch is that the treatment is available only during weekdays from 8 am to 6 pm, so we need to fall ill during that time else call 999 and go in for emergency care!!! :)

We got our landline connected yesterday. It’s been a sore issue with us, since we put in our application last week of March and got the connection only now and it will take another 21 days to get our broadband connection for which we need the landline. I must admit though that the British Telecom Engineer who came to connect our landline impressed me. There was a slight disturbance in the tone, once he got the landline connected. Something which I didn’t notice on first hearing coz you are used to such cracks in voice. He spent almost 4 hours getting it corrected and was fully satisfied only after the tone was crystal clear. In between I felt a little sorry for him, so I mentioned to him that we were having the landline installed only for broadband so if the crackle didn’t hinder that then we had no issues as we weren’t planning on making any calls through the landline. He replied, “oh but I just can’t leave it like that, it’s not right!”

So now we have a landline installed and I thought this is cool, only to be informed that BT does not provide you with the telephone instrument and the earlier one which was lying in our house was not working properly. So I need to get a new phone. I was also given a lecture how faulty equipment if used could create trouble with the line and then having a BT engineer out to rectify that would cost me a bundle! Boy what a dipper!

Well am off now to the market, need to post a letter, go to the Norway embassy to enquire on Schengen visa formalities and do a spot of comparative shopping in a few Indian stores. I also need to renew my bus pass. Lots to do people, catch you tomorrow, have a great day. :)