And now we are in our new accommodation in Edinburgh. A week in Paris, a week in Liverpool, a week of dog-sitting, and now we are in a clean, tidy flat with a lovely housemate for the next six weeks. Time to breathe, stretch out a bit and relax (and also time to properly unpack our suitcases!)

Duffy was a dream – sweet as pie, very well-behaved for a puppy and always eager to play. Also, taking a dog for a walk in a public park makes you a people-magnet. We had so many great conversations with fellow dog-walkers about travel and Edinburgh and Australia and received many good tips for the next couple of years. We caught up with an Australian girl we met on the walking tour and spent the day trawling up and down the Royal Mile, breathing in centuries of whisky, history, hot tea, tartan, and cobblestones. I found out that a house J.K Rowling used to live in was a twenty-minute walk from our flat, so I took Duffy and Sean on a Rowling expedition to glimpse the place that utter greatness once inhabited.

The flat we moved into today is further out from the city – about a half-hour bus ride – and the neighbourhood is lined with fields and is a stones throw from the Pentland Hills. I am yet to find a corner of Edinburgh that lacks charm. To top everything off, I’ve opened another envelope in a package given to me by my two best buds, a packet full of surprises that I am trying to make last, and discovered a USB with a whole bunch of my most favourite films on it. Every day, I have to pinch myself and marvel at how lucky I am.