Ten Questions: Amy McNeese-Mechan

Published on Monday 14 January 2008 09:21

Amy McNeese-Mechan, 48, from Leith, runs an online Fair Trade shop, www.muirneag.com

1 What is your earliest memory of Edinburgh? In 1991 I was living in Japan and visited Edinburgh with a friend, but as it was January 2, everything was closed! The next time I visited I stopped on George Street and looked out across the New Town and the Firth of Forth, with Fife in the distance, and I thought it was the most beautiful sight. A couple of years on, I left Japan and moved to Scotland.

2 What are your memories of school? I grew up in the American Midwest and went to Abraham Lincoln School, in Oak Park, Illinois. I loved walking to school, especially in autumn when you could crunch through leaves.

3 Where is your favourite place in Edinburgh and why? My first flat was in Mylne's Court on the Lawnmarket – I felt like I was living in the setting for a Robert Louis Stevenson novel. I guess my favourite is my own stomping ground, Leith. Great pubs and restaurants and vibrancy.

4 What are the best things about Edinburgh? The architecture, the history, the natural setting – Arthur's Seat, the Castle Rock and the Firth of Forth. I never tire of looking at it.

5 What would you change about the city? Nothing much, except improve the transport. This city wasn't meant to have cars and you just can't get decent sedan chair carriers these days.

6 Describe a perfect Edinburgh day/night out. There's too much to do in a day! If it's summer and Festival time, I'd start the day with a stroll in the Botanics, then catch a talk from a favourite author at the Book Festival, and sit in the gardens with an ice cream. Then I'd head over to the Cameo, Filmhouse or Cineworld to catch a new foreign film. Then back to Leith and a drink at the Cruz Ship.

7 Which sports interest you? I like sailing and kayaking.

8 What was your most embarrassing moment? All I'm saying is it involved a ceilidh and a female sanitary product that had somehow gotten stuck to my foot in the ladies. Enough said.

9 What is your greatest achievement? Getting my PhD at the University of Edinburgh.

10 Sum up Edinburgh in three words. On a day like today, 'dark, wet, stone'. But in general: 'history, mystery, endurance'.