It’s already the longest day of the year – hard to believe when it’s not really been at all warm.

In fact my loveliest days so far this year – apart from being in Ibiza with my son and Nice with my friend – have been in Edinburgh. I will have a nice relaxing morning there again on Monday upcomng. This will be my third week in Edinburgh so far this year and as long as you arrive and the journey doesn’t kill you stone dead then once there it’s fabulous. I was watching David Walliams’ It’ll be Alright on the Night (random) last night and they had a celebration happening at Edinburgh castle which appeared to be farcically comical – I think I’ve figured it out tho. People who live in Edinburgh (or Scotland in fact) don’t really want the rest of us to know how good it is. Meeting a gorgeous girlfriend of mine up there this year basically confirmed this.

We met at Hey Palu on Bread Street which is a definite best-kept-secret of Edinburgh and she started shushing me when I was saying how much I had enjoyed the amazing weather and culture in general of Edinburgh so far. She was PLEASE DON’T TELL ANYONE because the amount of tourists up there is mental. My June has been full of Edinburgh.

Shall I tell you about Nice then? It was so lovely. I had not until this year realised that Nicoise actually meant from Nice. So a Niçoise salad – yep that one they do in Pizza Express and some other restaurants – means that it started off in Nice, France. Its a bit like Londoner from London. So I met my spiritual guru who had spent the previous week finding out all about the public transport and places for us to go to. Public transport – amazing! We spent lots of time on buses and trams taking us all along the Côte d’Azur 🙂 but it was exhausting. Remembering my time in Krakow with my sister in 2023 when we used lots of apps for taxis and those little scooters to take us all around the place. Nice was a different experience. But of course the COST of things – almost as bad as Edinburgh! One day I bought a bottle of water from a man in his shop near St Jean Cap Ferrat and I thought I used my BEST French but he realised immediately I was English and replied in English to me happily telling me that his son was currently living in London. But oh dear he said the COST of everything! Hahahaha – like here says I. And then of course like in Edinburgh.

So yes our favourite beach was at St Jean Cap Ferrat and our favourite experience was in a hidey hole restaurant/hotel which housed the most amazing swimming pool which we used illicitly and the sauna. Such glorious memories that will remain and whenever I get stressed at work or home now I can just transport myself back there to the stillness of that day and the birdsong and the swimming.

Men, men, men, flipping men! Friend zone is the word for sure this summer. Although I have had some offers of dates I can’t really get excited about them. Not sure about my perfect man any more. Who might it look like? Certainly not what I first thought my perfect man would look like.

Anyway I would like to leave you with another memory of some stillness amongst madness which was the Old Fashioned that I had at the Great Northern Hotel bar in Kings Cross station whilst waiting for my train to Edinburgh last time. I am going to attempt another visit at some point. Maybe this weekend……..