I'm not a Dog Person

Being in an ‘escape mindset’, fancied an overnight trip to Edinburgh.  Maybe get a senior railcard, travel first class for a treat.  See the movie costumes at Dovecot, raid the art gallery shops. Check out medieval magical items at the Scottish National Gallery before the Oxford course starts.  (What a swot). Go positively mad in Blackwell’s.  However, an overnight tourist tax recently started, of 5% per night, so have changed my mind.  Even with booking.com genius discount, it’s a scandal.  Plus, the expensive hotel I was looking at ‘welcomes dogs’, so no thanks.  I don’t want to sleep on a pillow some dog lovers’ widdly arse or drooly jowls have been anywhere near.  Nightmare.  I’m saying it; dogs belong in kennels overnight, not hotels. 

Apparently, the Scottish Ballet, can no longer afford the accommodation costs to stay in Edinburgh because of this tax.  Didn’t they give artists an exemption?  I mean, who is running the city?  Possibly the same cods letting dogs widdle and drool over expensive hotel bedrooms.  However, no such tourist tax exists on the new ‘Odyssey Trail’ in Moray where you can stay where Matt Damon and Samantha Morton stayed*.  Hopefully without widdling or drooling.  Edinburgh’s loss could be Cullen’s gain. 

The need to escape, sleekit incidents mostly, and break habits to make way for some new routines feels overwhelming just now.  Apparently, there’s been some cosmic basket shape going on in the sky between the planets and nodes.  That probably explains it.  The partial solar eclipse, ridding us of our past selves.  Aye.  The Scottish ballet is coming to tax-free Aberdeen in September.  There’s the Findhorn Bay Arts Festival too.  Seems the right time to book some creative dates before studying begins in earnest and I settle down to not leaving the house again until spring. 

*For the avoidance of doubt, they weren’t staying together.  Don’t mind getting cancelled for dogs belonging in kennels, but draw the line at getting sued. 

https://dovecotstudios.com/whats-on/costume-couture

https://www.moray.gov.uk/business/moray-film-liaison-service/the-odyssey-in-north-east-scotland/