It’s the penguins that tickled me the most.
So is the Taylor Swift fever that has taken hold Edinburgh last week that the penguins at the city’s zoo – including Major General Sir Nils Olav III, who serves as Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Kingsguard – are wearing Swiftie friendship bracelets.
Sir Nils’ bracelet is – in case you were wondering – purple.
It’s become quite something to see our sometimes tidy capital pulling out all the stops for the world’s biggest pop star, who last night embarked on three concerts in Edinburgh, her first in Britain, as part of her spectacularly successful Eras tour .
Shop windows all over the city are decorated with sparkles and sparkles.
Hooray for Tay Tay! Mrs. Swift helps cheer us all up
A pipe band plays her songs outside Murrayfield in sequined kilts.
The Scotch Whiskey Experience offers drams themed around Swift’s music.
And so many restaurants have done their part by changing their names and menus to offer Swift-inspired dishes and cocktails that a specially named ‘Taylored Taste Trail’ was born.
Even Perthshire is joining in and renamed Loch Tay Loch Tay Tay this weekend.
And why not? It’s all very strange – and actually very beautiful.
Who wouldn’t want to enjoy Steak It Off with Miss Ameri salsa while sipping a Lavender Haze cocktail (if you’re not a fan, these are all nod-and-wink references to Swift’s vastly extensive song catalog)?
Of course, there is also a lot of money to be made. Barclays estimated in a special ‘Swiftonomics’ report that the star’s three nights in Edinburgh will inject as much as £185 million into the economy.
Exactly what the city needs after Covid, the cost of living crisis and the recent introduction of LEZs.
You can’t blame Edinburgh businesses for making money.
Especially when Barclays says fans will be happy to spend hundreds of pounds on accommodation, travel and food, which, given Edinburgh’s notorious prices, seems a conservative estimate at best.
Tourism expenditure in the city alone is estimated at £76.5 million.
I’m not sure there’s another star on the planet right now that could create such excitement, that could inspire an entire city to change everything from the menus to the zoo animals, in an effort to to get into the grip of the thing.
This is the kind of city-wide fever normally only associated with major sporting events like the Olympics or the European Championships – or perhaps the Eurovision Song Contest.
But that’s Taylor Swift’s power. Far from being the kind of cotton candy pop star who has all her songs written for her, follows the record company’s line and never has a hair out of place, Swift got where she is by being resolutely herself.
She writes all her own songs and has a real talent as an artist, which matured as she got older.
When entrepreneur Scooter Braun bought her record company and the masters of her first six albums, rather than accept that she had lost control of her own music, she re-recorded them all, this time under the name Taylor’s Version.
She makes mistakes (her tangled love life is often explored in her songs), has public fallout (her feud with Katy Perry lasted several years), and has such a strong work ethic that while the rest of us were messing around with sourdough starters in the In she wrote and recorded two albums in the early days of the pandemic.
Over the course of the Eras tour, she has become one of the biggest artists of her generation and has become so powerful in the entertainment field that Time Magazine named her Person of the Year in 2023.
Oh, and she’s only 34. Talk about a role model for our young people.
This morning, thousands of Swift fans will wake up in Edinburgh having had one of the best nights of their lives, while thousands more wait with the anticipation of it all happening tonight or tomorrow.
I hope they have a ball. The world is bleak and times are tough.
Thank goodness Swift can weave a little magic, cheer us all up and give our capital a much-needed boost in the process.
It has always been a bugbear of mine that the SNP at Westminster insists that it speaks for ‘the people of Scotland’.
They do not. They never did that. And after this general election, they may never be able to claim it again.
New polls show the SNP could lose as many as 41 seats in the upcoming election. Sounds like the The people of Scotland want to speak for themselves.
It’s heartening to hear that despite the cost of living crisis, Scots remain loyal to their favorite local brands.
Irn-Bru once again topped the list of best-selling food and drink products in Scotland, followed by Stirlingshire-based dairy company Graham’s, Tunnock’s in third place and Bells Pies in fourth. Talk about all the essential (Scottish) food groups.
The image of the week is undoubtedly that of two runaway cavalry horses, Vida and Quaker, sniffing each other in a field after being startled during training in April.
When images emerged of them running through the streets of London covered in blood, we feared the worst. What a relief to see them recovered, happy and away from the noise of traffic.
Stephen Flynn, leader of the SNP at Westminster, says he will not support Britain in the euro.
To be fair, given that Scotland is actually in this tournament, I suspect many Scots will say the same.
But unlike the ‘anyone but England’ crowd, I will also be cheering for England. As long as they don’t play Scotland, of course.
Thanks to Joe and the boys
So many incredibly moving moments during the 80th anniversary of D-Day this week, all grim reminders of how much was sacrificed by those brave young men, some barely out of their school uniforms.
Of all the lectures, speeches and performances, it was the words of Joe Mines of the Second Battalion Essex Regiment, who landed on Gold Beach on D-Day aged just 19, that touched me most.
Veteran Joe Mines pays his respects
Mines returned to France this week at the age of 99 for the first time since the invasion and watched as his words were read out by actor Martin Freeman.
“I was 19 when I landed, but I was still a boy,” he said. ‘I don’t care what people say, I wasn’t a man. I was a boy and had no idea about war and murder.’
Mines said he chose to return for “the last and only chance,” “because of the guys – I want to pay my respects to those who didn’t make it.”
Thanks for your service, Joe. To all who fought, and to those who did not return home: we are forever in your debt.
Last week I lamented the lackluster nature of the election campaign so far. Oops.
Now Nigel Farage has taken over as leader of British reforms, is running for a seat and even getting a milkshake thrown in for good measure.
Speaking of which is a long week in politics…
Snow in June? Serious? So much for Billy Connolly’s old joke that the only two seasons in Scotland are June and winter.
Now it seems like it’s just winter…
