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When was the last time you looked properly at this place – the long, rather leisurely York Buildings facing the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street?

The frenetic, sandstone fiddliness of the Gallery opposite tends to absorb one's attention like a hyperactive grandmother with too many anecdotes, but we think its neighbour over the road has calm charms worth relishing. It now covers an older building of 1801 which fronted Dublin Street. This 1878 addition introduced an arcade of ground-floor shops, with offices above.

Scottish Gas has recently opened its 2014/2015 Warm Home Discount scheme and other large and small energy suppliers will be following suit soon.

Mark Lazarowicz MP (Edinburgh North & Leith) is urging his constituents to apply, particularly pensioners – many of whom find energy bills extremely costly.  He is distributing relevant information as widely as possible, and we have used his helpful factsheet for this report.

I have a confession to make. It may make you change your already skewed impression of me, but I’m done with hiding my secret. I'm excited about the trams. 

If last night's rearrangement of the political landscape left you scratching your head, prepare yourself for another bemusement.

The LeithLate mini-festival is this year extending to 2 days, and spreading beyond its Leith Walk origins to pastures new, including parts of Broughton.

From 5.00pm till 10.00pm on Saturday 21 June, and 12pm till 5pm on Sunday 22 June, an eclectic 'smorgasbord of arts, music, film and spoken world' – including painting, video, sculpture, illustration, photography, collage, printmaking, performance, textiles and jewellery – will play out between Calton Hill and the Shore.

Yesterday and today, St Andrew Square has played host to Spa in the City – a weekend of free taster beauty treatments from Edinburgh's allegedly 'top beauty retailers, specialists and luxury spas'. In tents.

Unable to compete in this year's Edinburgh Marathon owing to a long-running sports-related lack of condition, Spurtle made do instead by witnessing the start from a traffic island dramatically situated at the heart of the action.

The weather this morning was cool and misty. The runners were, by the time they reached Abbeyhill, already getting hot and sweaty.

There was ample evidence that Edinburgh people have warmed to their shiny new trams when enthusiastic crowds attended a 'roadshow' (trackshow, surely?) in St Andrew Square this lunchtime.

A short-lived but interesting Twitter conversation last night revealed that some Edinburgh voters feel uncomfortable attending polling places in more or less religious buildings. The tweets are copied below this article.

Churches (rather than church halls) and denominational schools were mentioned.

Broughton residents who visit, live or work in the City Centre have one day left to complete a very simple online questionnaire.