"Oh, it's good Scottish weather, madam. The rain is falling straight down."

...I spoke too soon about it being a nice day the other day.  No sooner had I walked down to Holyrood Park and sprawled out in the grass with a book, but it started raining and I had to run for cover into the Starbucks on Canongate.

And now, a brief compendium of Words of Wisdom About Scottish Weather:
- There is no bad weather in Scotland, only inadequate clothing.
- If you don't like the weather in Scotland, just wait 20 minutes and it'll change.
- "Oh, it's good Scottish weather, madam.  The rain is falling straight down."

Yesterday was a drag, because I received some tragic news about the mother of a very good friend of mine.  On top of that, after five days in one hostel, I was getting cabin fever.  The flat-hunt is essentially over, and there's only so many times I can walk up and down the Royal Mile, accumulating fliers.  I can't do anything useful like apply for a bank account or a job yet, because I don't *officially* have an address yet.  Plus, my feet and ankles are sore and I didn't really feel like walking anywhere anyway.

So I took the train to Glasgow.

Glasgow is about 50 minutes from Edinburgh by train.  There's some very nice Georgian architecture around the main square, but other than that, I find it to be a pretty nondescript city.  But it's a nice change of atmosphere from Edinburgh.

The first thing I did was go to the Royal Concert Hall and buy a ticket to the Tori Amos concert on November 6.  This will be only the second time I've seen her live, and the first time since the Summer of Sin tour in 2005, as fate contrived to keep me away from her the last two times she came through NC.  It's a balcony seat, as the only seats left in the stalls are at the very back of the theater.  Then I wandered around Buchanan Street, stopping off at a Waterstone's to buy a book, The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick.

I had taken the train into Queen Street Station, but opted for Central Station and it's slightly longer, more picturesque train route back to Edinburgh.  I was once again caught in the rain, and nixed tentative plans to go see a comedy show with Morven in favor of sulking at the hostel (it was actually a mutual nix, as she had to do some fliering for her own show).

This morning, I checked out of Art Roch, and I'll be checking into Caledonian Backpackers later this afternoon.  The only thing on my agenda today is finding a launderette and doing laundry, as I think my mood will improve with some clean clothes.  I'm looking forward to moving into a space of my own (however temporarily) on Monday, and I'm REALLY looking forward to the Wild in Scotland tour in Tuesday.  I really need several days of being driven around the beautiful Scottish countryside right now.