Easter Saturday, Edinburgh

Years ago, when I first lived in Edinburgh, I temped in a bank. It was a horrible job, but it was located near Edinburgh's Waverley Station. Soon after I started work a friend of mine, also from Ireland, came to work in the same office building. We both had to wear suits to work and lunchtime took us to Gregg's for pies or sausage rolls. Then we would wander across Princes Street to watch the coming and going at the station.

I find Waverley Station exhilarating... same as, say, Grand Central or King's Cross: they represent escape, the inexorable escape of the GNER pulling out of Waverley Station, bound for beyond. The 2pm train to King's Cross would sit at platform 19 from about 1:20pm, being loaded with passengers and goods. Soon, my friend and I took to having our lunch in one of the carriage, leaving it to right before the doors closed and the whistle blew, before getting off and wandering sadly back to St Andrew's Square for the afternoon shift.