It's much more exciting over here than it is at home. I don't think I'll ever be able to top the story of the building across from work in London spontaneously collapsing into rubble onto the street below or the related experience of looking up from my desk to see a motorbike flying past the window. Two more things happened recently that aren't quite as exciting, but worth mentioning.
Two nights ago at around 5.30pm, one flatmate and I were at home when the power blacked out. Luckily I wasn't in the electric shower with shampoo in my hair as I was the first time the power (and hence the water supply) ran out. Assuming it was our fault for not charging the electricity key, I wandered out and noticed that the safety lights were on in the stairwell, meaning the whole building must have lost power. When I poked my head out the window I saw the entire street had blacked out, and house alarms were wailing out into the black night. And just to assure my southern hemisphere readers, the Edinburgh night is indeed already black at 5.30pm.
I read in the paper that about 15,000 properties blacked out because of a fire at an electricity substation. And the best part is that once it was switched off, another substation overloaded and a huge fireball exploded through the pavement into Morningside Road. What I wouldn't give to have been Nick Rees, 23, who witnessed the fireball.
So that was the night before last. Last night I was walking home through the Grassmarket just after 9pm when a police car screeched past me. It was quickly followed by a fire truck and as I rounded the corner I could see lots of gawping people gathered around a bus that was on the wrong side of the road and appeared to be parked against a block of flats. As I got closer I could see that it wasn't actually parked against the flats but had run smack into them, demolishing a bus shelter in the process. There was glass strewn all over the road, lots of excitable people on mobile phones, but nothing really interesting going on. Nothing short of dead bodies could have convinced me to join the crowd of onlookers. Not that I'm morbid or anything, but it was too bloody cold to stand around staring at broken glass.
After the adventures of the last two nights I'm primed for more excitement now. I wonder what fascinating happening tonight will bring? Maybe Edinburgh's extinct volcano will inexplicably erupt again, or a UFO will be spotted hovering over Arthur's Seat. I'll admit it's a bit of a leap moving from a substation fire and a bus crash to concrete evidence of extraterrestrial life, but you never know your luck in the big city. Stay tuned.
Two nights ago at around 5.30pm, one flatmate and I were at home when the power blacked out. Luckily I wasn't in the electric shower with shampoo in my hair as I was the first time the power (and hence the water supply) ran out. Assuming it was our fault for not charging the electricity key, I wandered out and noticed that the safety lights were on in the stairwell, meaning the whole building must have lost power. When I poked my head out the window I saw the entire street had blacked out, and house alarms were wailing out into the black night. And just to assure my southern hemisphere readers, the Edinburgh night is indeed already black at 5.30pm.
I read in the paper that about 15,000 properties blacked out because of a fire at an electricity substation. And the best part is that once it was switched off, another substation overloaded and a huge fireball exploded through the pavement into Morningside Road. What I wouldn't give to have been Nick Rees, 23, who witnessed the fireball.
So that was the night before last. Last night I was walking home through the Grassmarket just after 9pm when a police car screeched past me. It was quickly followed by a fire truck and as I rounded the corner I could see lots of gawping people gathered around a bus that was on the wrong side of the road and appeared to be parked against a block of flats. As I got closer I could see that it wasn't actually parked against the flats but had run smack into them, demolishing a bus shelter in the process. There was glass strewn all over the road, lots of excitable people on mobile phones, but nothing really interesting going on. Nothing short of dead bodies could have convinced me to join the crowd of onlookers. Not that I'm morbid or anything, but it was too bloody cold to stand around staring at broken glass.
After the adventures of the last two nights I'm primed for more excitement now. I wonder what fascinating happening tonight will bring? Maybe Edinburgh's extinct volcano will inexplicably erupt again, or a UFO will be spotted hovering over Arthur's Seat. I'll admit it's a bit of a leap moving from a substation fire and a bus crash to concrete evidence of extraterrestrial life, but you never know your luck in the big city. Stay tuned.
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