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Ok, this has irritated me enough to stop me sleeping. See all those reports that say 50,000 people turned up to line the streets of Edinburgh and cheer on the Olympic medal people? Horseshit. Utter cack. I wandered back from work for my lunch and a nap unaware that it was happening and glad that the streets were quite empty after three weeks of politely dodging Festival people. I would estimate there were about 200 people on the Canongate, which is about half the Royal Mile. Yes, the BBC video shows about 2,000 people between St Giles and George IV Bridge, and repeats the same shots of another 500 or so following the bus down from the Lawnmarket, but 50,000? Total toss.
The first I knew of a parade of any kind was the vague sound of bagpipes from about 15 metres away, which sped past at about 15 mph (trust me, I know what the speeds of vehicles sound like when I'm trying to sleep) and a quiet smattering of applause. When I returned to work, I was asked "did you see it?" to which the reply was "see what?". There were two choppers circling for an hour. If there were 50,000, they were either very very small invisible gnomes or in another city. Three, maybe five thousand absolute tops.
Thanks for the space to rant. |
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