I never fail to be surprised in Leith when you see kids who look older than their years. There was a kid standing outside the newsagents this morning. I’d say he was only 14 but the look in his eyes made him look about 40. His trousers were all manky and looked like they hadn’t been shown an iron in months. His jacket was about 2 sizes too big and his hair had that “just got up” look. A timely reminder that poverty and poor living haven’t necessarily been removed even in 21st century Scotland.
You see so many wee scumbags in Leith but this kid looked like a good kid. Just neglected.
Back to scumbags though. The other night I was walking up the Kirkgate (having just been to LIDL) when this bloke came hurtling round the corner at Woollies like the hounds were on his tail. He was one messed up looking dude. His running style was just mental and was probably not helped by the fact that he was trying to straighten his baseball cap with one hand whilst holding a roll up in the other.
For a second, I expected to see the Polis coming after him, full pelt and shouting. I was almost tempted to trip him up just in case. I mean, he was running like he’d nabbed an OAP’s handbag.
Hi running style, as I’ve previously mentioned, was totally wierd. He ran like you’d expect a shop mannequin to run. Like some junked puppet. A pinnochio in Adidas in training for the Junkie Olympics.
He shot past me and carried on towards the banana flats. I don’t know why he was running or who was chasing him, but I’d bet a “tenner bag” was involved somewhere in the equation.
“Love Leith?” as the sign says. Well, it’s never dull.
on Jan 27th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I was down that neck of the woods today (picking up my car from my favourite mechanic) and saw a few specimens of the type you describe. But Leith at least feels like a place people actually live. I know people who live in the West End and it is just…..sterile by comparison.
Oh and are you going to explain “banana flats” to the non-Edinburgher readership?