"The lifts are dodgy as fuck!" people often say. The squeaks; the rattles; the "OUT OF SERVICE" scroller appearing every now and again. You can't blame them really. Indeed, I believed they were poorly maintained 60s dinsosaurs too, but in actual fact they turned out to be recently modernised and in good running order. Sure, the runners are well worn resulting in a slightly bumpy ride, but ignoring the archaic PC that makes up the despatcher unit, that's about all that's wrong with them really. However, the lifts are only part of the story (although quite a key one, literally).

The top floor of the building is infamous for having allegedly housed a bunch of monkeys that were experimented on, resulting in a bunch of evil bastard monkeys that remain locked up there to this day. Something along those lines anyway. Monkeys there ain't though, as many a student who's dared to take the lift or stairs to the top floor in the past has found out. Something changed though. In the last few years a lock appeared on the stair door, and the button in the lift was replaced by a key switch. The roof was no longer a free-for-all. Were the monkeys back?

Less fuelled by that idea but more with the idea of getting on the roof, on a complete spur of the moment, we headed to the building. Sure enough, the lock was firmly in place and the lift still wanted a key. Some may be inclined to take a more brute force approach to this problem, but that's not how we roll. Also, why bother when you can have fun riding upon the previously stubborn metal box that is now your bitch? I'd been meaning to put into practice this security vulnerability that many others have exploited elsewhere for some time - and this was a perfect opportunity.

Someone once said that the view from this building is the best in the city because it's the only place that you can't see it sticking out like a sore thumb on the skyline. It's not bad for sure, but whether you consider the building to be ugly or not, the view from nearby Arthur's Seat is superior.

It was a bitterly cold night of the -10°C sort. At one point I went to use my camera and found that I had lost all feeling in my fingers. I very quickly came to the realisation that my gloves were shite. I hurried back inside into the warmth where with excruciating pain the feeling slowly returned. Whether on your doorstep or up some mountain, you don't mess with the cold.

It also turns out that my Sigma gets upset in the cold and won't autofocus accurately.