Got time to kill? A supermarket fast food restaurant does the job

Best laid plans and all that. The other day I was tasked with picking my sister up from the airport. So that’s get in car, drive to airport, find sister, drive home.

Tom Hanks makes himself comfortable during his stay in an airport in New York in The Terminal

Far too simple for me. I decided I needed to buy a piano keyboard on the way with the deluded intention of learning to play. How lovely it would be to hammer out songs by people I’ve forgotten the names of and screech along to them I thought. I messaged a chap who was selling one and arranged to pick it up en route to the airport.

Ah-ha I thought to myself, seeing as I’m out in the world today, why not drop in on an old friend on the way to pick up the keyboard en route to the airport. Three birds, one stone, or so to speak, which made me feel a bit like an achiever. So off I set.

Luckily my friend was in. I told her I had decided to buy a keyboard so I could learn new plink-plonking and screeching skills and she barely even rolled her eyes. That’s how good a friend she is. I bade her farewell and prepared to drive to the piano man’s place.

The piano man was very lovely and it turned out he used to live in a place where I also used to live. Who knew. After a bit of chat, I headed off only to realise I had missed some very important messages on my phone. My sister’s plane was three hours late.

And thus my bubble burst. Three hours to kill and I was somewhere in west Edinburgh. I wasn’t quite sure where but the satnav kept talking about Georgie Road until I shouted at it to up its pronunciation game.

So I ended up at Asda, Chesser and actually I can highly recommend it. There’s a car park, toilets, and a huge amount of stuff. First I purchased a book to read, then I went to McDonald’s. I watched people doing the shopping and nipping in to eat their tea. I saw the Deliveroo and Just Eat couriers come and go, and the workers changing shifts. The light outside faded as the day gave up its hold on the cloudy skies and I felt a bit like Tom Hanks in that film The Terminal where he is stranded at the airport. It was as if I had been there forever. I was sorry to leave.