Livingston

Today I took an excursion to the nearby town of Livingston to meet a recruitment agent. There are a number of jobs on offer here. So it was an opportunity to also get a glimpse of the town.

The bus ride out there was interesting, approximate 1 hour duration. Much longer than the train ride but more scenic and took me closer to my destination. And being a double-decker, I got to sit up front on top for good views. Once outside Edinburgh, the bus meanders its way through country back roads to a number of small villages, each is obviously a really old small village of very old shops and houses, surrounded by more modern houses. Certainly an interesting journey. It was fun seeing our large bus squeeze down narrow streets and sometimes cars had to reverse up to let us through!

Livingston itself was brief for me, the bus jumps off the motorway and almost straight to a giant shopping complex which is still being extended. I think it's the largest I've ever seen including some big ones in the USA. I had street maps to find my recruitment agent which weren't useful, the town is built for cars and not very pedestrian friendly. I got lost and luckily had left myself plenty of time. Once I found where I was going I realised it was right next to a mall exit, so once I knew the way it was about a 5 minute walk back to the bus termainal.

My walk took longer than expected because I witnessed two guys having a serious punch up in the mall, everyone formed a big circle around. It was pretty violent and one guy was covered in blood, once security broke it up everyone moved on and as I was further away two policeman were on their way. They would have been too late though.

With that excitement out of the way, I had another bus ride back only this time it was raining and the bus windows were all steamed up so not as scenic.

The train would definitely get you to Livingston quicker, but getting to the mall would be another challenge. I'm sure to figure that out for next time.