Chicken & ham panini, small latte with an extra shot, and Craigleith
Some of the best things are free, to be sure, but others need a little help. For me, there's something wonderful about consuming nice food and drinking good coffee in a location (this is the free bit) which is simply wonderful. Even the location isn't truly free, of course, as most of the time it still costs a little to get there.
So there's something special about a flask of coffee and a chocolate digestive biscuit – preferably a good quality plain chocolate one, I think – on a cold winter's day. This is January, so there are plenty of cold winter's days around, and they're free, too.
But today Katherine and I lashed out a little. There's a little café called Zanzibar in North Berwick which sells simply wonderful toasted paninis or, if you prefer, lovely tarts and cakes; it also happens to sell quite the best coffee in East Lothian. Put it together with fabulous scenery and you can't lose.
And that's what we did today. I had a small prima latte to go with an extra shot together with a chicken and ham panini. Then we took our lunch along to the picnic tables at the east end of the beach at North Berwick – under the Glen Golf Club – and sat and watched the busy turnstones and manic oystercatchers doing their thing so close to us that we didn't need our binoculars to see what they were up to.
Many good things in life might be free, but for a small amount extra – less than £10.00 in this case for the two of us – the combination of the best mankind can offer and the best of nature can be truly sublime.
So there's something special about a flask of coffee and a chocolate digestive biscuit – preferably a good quality plain chocolate one, I think – on a cold winter's day. This is January, so there are plenty of cold winter's days around, and they're free, too.
But today Katherine and I lashed out a little. There's a little café called Zanzibar in North Berwick which sells simply wonderful toasted paninis or, if you prefer, lovely tarts and cakes; it also happens to sell quite the best coffee in East Lothian. Put it together with fabulous scenery and you can't lose.
And that's what we did today. I had a small prima latte to go with an extra shot together with a chicken and ham panini. Then we took our lunch along to the picnic tables at the east end of the beach at North Berwick – under the Glen Golf Club – and sat and watched the busy turnstones and manic oystercatchers doing their thing so close to us that we didn't need our binoculars to see what they were up to.
Many good things in life might be free, but for a small amount extra – less than £10.00 in this case for the two of us – the combination of the best mankind can offer and the best of nature can be truly sublime.
