During my daily power-walk up the hill to the train station (because I'm always running late), this was the view on Princes Street. A whole section of the street had been cordoned off, and within the cordon was about ten fire engines of all shapes and sizes along with 15 cop cars, and a fireman atop a big ladder!

Fire had broken out on the third floor of a four-storey building above Romanes and Paterson, a renowned shop selling kilts, tartan items, and other Scottish paraphernalia. By the time I arrived, the action had been happening for about an hour. There's more info about it here, including a good video shot by BBC Scotland that shows smoke and flames billowing out of the roof that I completely missed. I think the video was shot after I'd been and gone, but I had to get to work and so I couldn't stick around :(

I was kind of surprised by the immense turnout of emergency vehicles to a seemingly routine fire. There were a lot of folk just standing around having a chat, and this ambulance officer looked like he'd fallen asleep standing up hehe. Must have been a quiet morning.

Parts of Princes Street remained closed off all day. I went into town earlier today (Saturday) to check out the aftermath. The roof is mostly covered but the parts that are exposed are looking pretty well barbequed.

Hahaha!

Princes Street was closed off again today but not because of fire, but because the festival is in town :)

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (aka The Fringe) is the world's largest arts festival and takes place over a three-week period every August. The Fringe has been going since 1947, and coincides with several other festivals in Edinburgh around the same time such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Jazz and Blues Festival, and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in the Castle Esplanade to name a few. It's a bloody busy time of year with no shortage of entertainment that brings everybody out in droves, regardless of the shitty weather!

The Fringe primarily attracts events from the performing arts, particularly drama and comedy, however there is no 'selection committee' to approve entries so any type of event is possible and the Fringe is well-known as a showcase for experimental works (one of which I saw today). It also attracts a few nutters, such as these guys above handing out event flyers hehe.

And never a shortage of street performers doing the same old shit we've all seen before - juggling fire and swords on unicycles and so forth.

Be that as it may, I'm never shy to participate hehe. I got stuck into to some fire dancing, followed by being a makeshift stage along with one other guy for the performer's grand finale which was 'diving' through a wire coat hanger being held up by the kid in front (long story!).

Early on in the festival, many shows are free or heavily discounted to encourage people to come along and then spread the word around. A mate and I got into a couple of freebies today, the first of which was a comedy about a guy who tried to convince Sting to remake all of Nick Nolte's films (another long story hehe).

The second was a bit weird for my taste. There were some pretty abstract concepts in this one but it's one way to kill an hour :) I've got tickets to see Simon Amstell later in the month, a comedian who hosts Never Mind the Buzzcocks (which I don't suppose too many people back home will have heard of).

I realised today that there's seems to be a common theme to sunny days in Glasgow - weirdoes! I don't know what it is but the sun just seems to bring out more than usual. It's like a full moon!

You get the usual squirrels and the usual sight of half naked Scots whose skin hasn't seen the sun in over a month...

But for whatever reason you also get the nutters as well! This guy impressed no one by breaking out of his jacket...

(Except the Mohammads - for some reason they were really intrigued, especially the goofy-looking one on the left)...

Elvis and friends handing out free bottles of water...

And this - holy Jesus in Heaven! This woman or whatever it is was high on something - and it wasn't life! 'She' and another chick were (trying) to sing something, but all they succeeded in doing was freaking people out - including me! Welcome to Glasgow!

No I don't want a hig - get away from me.

The World Pipe Band Championships (aka 'The Worlds') is held in Glasgow every August and has been since about 1930. The whole thing takes place in Glasgow Green and several hundred bands attend, travelling from all over the world. The weather was typical, but place was still really packed out.

For competitive bands, The Worlds is seen as culmination of a year's worth of blood, sweat and tears, and the title of world champ is highly coveted. The competition basically works like this: bands perform in a qualifying round in the morning, and the top bands out of that perform in a second event in the afternoon to determine an overall winner based on the playing of both pre-arranged music, and music chosen and arranged by the band. From what I could see, each event involves the band marching up, and then congregating in a circle while some old coot with a clipboard marks them from the side. They then win prizes and go home.

There were heaps of bands scattered around the park, practising under the trees to get out of the rain, and being a Scottish event it just wouldn't be right without an oversized beer tent hehe.

The pipe bands were only half of the attraction. For me, I enjoyed the Euro Highland Games more! The size of some of these guys is amazing; you wouldn't want to make a comment about their ladyfriends within earshot ;)

These had been going on all day, but the first event I saw was the old Scottish sport of hurl the big heavy stone over the pole.

Another event I saw was pick up the big heavy log and hurl it over there (aka 'caber toss' :)

The idea here is to pick it up, balance it, go for a bit of a jog with it...

...and then hurl that sucker! The object of the toss is not just the distance thrown, but also the angle at which the caber lands.

Aside from all the action there was the usual round of markets selling random paraphernalia, and food stalls including a Mexican fajita bar in the middle of a Scottish event.

In the end I got some candy floss and went home hehe - yum yum!

If anyone is really interested (for whatever reason) in a set of pipes for themselves, bagpipe.co.uk :)

I've been collecting these shots over the last couple of months from outside the news agency round the corner that I pass every morning on my way to the train station. There seems to be a common theme here.

Burglars, thieves and vandals spared jail; half of killers are out on bail, and yet we need seven new jails?!

Dear oh dear.

The Pentland Hills are a 35km hill range running southwest from Edinburgh. I've heard there is some good mountain biking in the area, and I've been meaning to get out there for ages. After doing a lot of overtime during the week I got the afternoon off work today, and so thought I'd head out for a few hours to get a preview before hopefully making a full day of it at some stage.

The Pentlands are about a 20km ride from my place, with the last few being a big uphill battle! Good views back over the city though. I shot this from somebody's driveway; it forked off the main road and had a road sign with a name on it, and it headed uphill so I figured I was on the right track until it ended around the corner at somebody's house hehe. I had to ask two girls up there for directions after they came asking why I was taking photos of their paddocks from their front lawn.

I eventually found some road signs pointing me in the right direction and I was there - phew! I didn't have a lot of time to kill but I found some bloody great tracks weaving in and out of forest and along lakes (lochs) and around wheat fields / barley fields / something fields etc.

There were a lot of people out fishing for 4pm on a Friday. It's one way to kill a day I suppose - kill some fish.

I'd clocked up 50kms by the time I got home, and I'm bloody glad I got it out of my system because the forecast for the weekend is another stunner in the burgh. I had this link forwarded to me a while ago, which sums it up pretty well.