The Macheté and the Chancellor

It was 2 o'clock on Dumbarton Road and the promise of summer we had seen on Saturday morning was now hiding between a huge veil of drizzle. It was certainly a hangover Sunday. I got on the bus, marvelling at the £1.75 cost and went upstairs where a guy at the back starts shouting me. "houw, big man, how's it going?" He's fidgeting a bit and bangs on the window at one point. Everyone else has white buds in their ears. He comes down and sits behind me for a chat - I'm really fighting the fear and any company isn't that welcome - the guy starts showing me his hand, the thumb was hanging off last week when he went to the Royal to get his machete injury sewn back up.

A deep cut with a lot of stitching. It's brutal and I tell him - asking if he's cool - he shows me some scrapes and near misses on his torso and behind his ear. His face is scarred from long gone injuries as well. We have a frank chat about Drumchapel, rape in Edinburgh and freelancing and get off for his connection to Duke street and mine to Edinburgh. Walking at speed to Queen Street, I slacken off the pace after saying goodbye and before sitting beside a well off family with kids at private school who are just back from Australia. I breathe heavily from my previous evening.

When I get to Edinburgh the sun has come out and my neighbours are all in yellow vests tidying our area and helping with people's gardens. I forgot about the annual 'Keep Scotland Tidy' event and so chuck my jacket in the house and paint out some graffiti on bollards. There's a table with tea and cakes and, I notice, the guy with uncoordinated hair who lives at 11 downing street and remember he's our MP - it's hard when you know the previous day he was meeting with the IMF and he's now chatting about flowers and cats. He tries to make eye contact with me before he leaves, I think because I'd been dingying him earlier for a neighbour's toddler. He seems friendly and I ask if he's stressed but apparently he's just busy. Very busy. I guess you get used to it.