It's been a dreadful 6 months again. When I vanish from Hive for these periods you can confidently guess that shit's hit the fan. After a bout of homelessness, I am back in Leith living with my beautiful 4 year old Son and our Indian street dog. Alas the marriage is over and everyone is a bit happier. I think it's time to get back into the groove. Forget about sadness and market crashes and just share images, what we were born to do. Unfortunately I don't see Mr Sulley (pictured above) too often, my beloved puppy lives with his Mum, my ex-partner as we feel two dogs is quite the task for anyone one person.
What too say about Leith, in Edinburgh. Home of Irvine Welsh's and Danny Boyles 'Trainspotting' (we won't talking about T2 because it was a heap of corporate money making nonsense). Leith is a broth of European culture, on top of us Scots, we have the English, The Poles, Romanians, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Latvian, Sikh, Pakistanis, Afghans, you can find anything and everything here, I haven't looked but I wouldn't be surprised if a North Korean defector lived round the corner. It is a wonderful mixing pot and everyone (99.9% anyway) get along like a 'hoose' on fire. The man above is Chris-cross, a Bulgarian magician.
Leith is home to one of Edinburgh oldest all-night 24hr bakeries and boy does the food suck. Below is Kooba, a Polish man who worked at the bakery during the day. The place serves a terrible collection of frozen pies and cakes which are only palatable in the dead of night after the zombification of booze has spread to your major organs. You've been warned.
Authentic Pizza at Origano? Sort of, it's owned by two Polish men and two Scots, not really very Italian but I promise you, they know how to make a pizza. Pasta is rotten though I wouldn't bother. Restaurants in the UK tend to pointlessly accommodate the people by always supplying at least one of every type of dish. How dare you consider a Pizzeria that exclusively sells Pizzas, you must throw in a sad pasta dish so the punters have something to complain about.
(Punk drummer Billy Duncanson/ Delivery Driver)
(One of the chefs/ owners of Origano Mariusz in his whites)
The wonderfully incompetent Edinburgh City Council is expanding it's ambitious and pointless Tram project through Leith. Presumably for rich American tourists who have somehow been convinced Leith is a no-go smackhead haven not safe to outsiders... Leith is about as friendly as it gets. It's a shame public funds are spent on improving the visitation of tourists when the poorer areas of the town are in need of a boost.
Well I hope you enjoyed my spraffs, it's great to be back at it. Hopefully I can keep going with this blog as the funds it provides is always a lifeline, I love you all.
Cheers,
Cotton.