The saint's saga... live from Edinburgh

Thank you, dear reader, for imagining me to be 'saint' in the title of the post. Actually, he is the other saint who was the talk of the world yesterday: Saint Valentine. On popular demand (where one person is the whole of the population who demanded it), this is an account of what I saw happening in the run up to the day and on the day itself. I would have loved to post this one with pictures... but they are unavailable due to various reasons... and so you must see through my eyes as of now.

We had gone sightseeing this Saturday and Sunday... to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Royal Museum, the Edinburgh Dungeon, etc. and it was really then that I realised how much the term 'love is in the air' meant. Right from the supermarket to the footside store, everybody had prepared something special for the Valentine's day. In TESCO, the local equivalent of D'Mart, the entire row selling wines and champagnes (yes, there is an entire aisle with bottles on both sides at some lower prices) had a really huge heart-shaped placard on top. It had blood-red roses in the background and on it, written in flowing cursive white, was written "St. Valentine's Day, 14th February". In front of another wine shop, there was this special offer going for champagne, buy two get one free... any bottle! Offer valid only till 14th February. Marks and Spencers (the local equivalent of Shoppers' Stop) suddenly sprouted a new glass casing looking towards the road displaying red lingerie. There were suddenly bookings going on at restaurants for the special evening... and I think I also saw one sporting a "last 2 tables to be booked" sign. I had the camera along that day... but thought I'd click the snaps on the day itself.

One quick word about the female folk here. There are just so many blondes around!! And brunettes, and the dark-haired fair-skinned ladies! And they seem to have walked out of the hollywood movies! I mean, because I don't see them around my home a lot, almost every time I step into the street, I feel like I am suddenly in a movie. My friends and I even have discussions about why they look so attractive, with case in point examples directly at hand when we walk along the streets. Now, the details are for select audiences, and not for everybody ;)

Along came 14th February. And like most people, I woke up and came to the office. And then, amidst conference calls, function rationalizations, SQL logic maipulations and endless debates as to whether the surrogate key calculations should happen before aggregating data or after, I seemed to lose focus of the fact that it was Valentine's day. Also, the people here were not wearing all red. I dunno why, but the girls appeared as they do everyday, nobody brought any red balloons along or heart-shaped chocolates... nothing of that sort. So when it was finally 6:30 in the evening and I was leaving, the thought came back to me like a sudden wild bolt --- hey, I was supposed to go out today!! It felt like one of those moments when you suddenly discover that one of your bags, umrellas, etc is missing when you are travelling --- it was a horrible sinking feeling. One of the friends readily agreed, and we set off on a trot for the streets.

Alas, it seemed that the action was over. Actually, most of Edinburgh's shops close by 7:00, and this day was no exception. The only places that looked geared up were the restaurants. One of them which I examined closely seemed to have dressed for the occasion. Dimmed candle lights and red heart-shaped balloons making canopy covers over little tables where you had to huddle together even if you didn't want to. And there were a cheery lot of people inside all merry with the wine, cakes and desserts. And again, I could not take the snaps, because it was dark and because you don't take snaps of unsuspecting couples sitting cosily in the restaurant. But the caveat was a message put outside one gift shop that was closed: "Men, take home a gift now and make it appear that you did not actually forget that it is Valentine's day today". Yeah-yeah, we do forget... but it is your responsibility to keep us informed :)