Just back from holiday, visited Etna, Stromboli and Vulcano. Back a day late due to thunderstorms and Alitalia. Will never fly with them again. I have added the pictures to the website at http://www.blasdale.com/pictures/2006/Sicily/index.html
Continuing theme of Alitalia, Chris came up with the following meanings for Alitalia
Always Late In Transit, Always Late In Arrival
Airplane Landed In Tokyo And luggage In Alaska
A Little Italian Tit And Lotsa Italian Ass
A Little Italian Tradition And Lotsa Italian Attitude
Up again late, had a cup of coffee and a croissant in a nearby café. One event booked for the afternoon, and that was a Russian Clown Mimes from St. Petersbourg. The show was called the family. It is basically about a family of four children, their mother and alcoholic father. The father was always trying to leave home, only to be reconciled with his family. The children were always playing tricks on their parents. I won’t say any more, because I would not want to spoil the fun, though expect plenty of audience participation.
The evening was spent at the Saltire, and a meal in the nearby pizza establishment.
Bit of a lie in today. It is amazingly quite in Ed’s flat. The only sound being the seagulls outside. I walked up to the Royal Mile, and sat outside the Jolly Judge pub drinking coffee and posting my Blog entries. After this period of reflection, I went to the Art Gallery and viewed the Scottish pictures, then onto the Royal Scottish Academy to view the exhibition by Ron Mueck. The exhibition was of larger, and smaller than life sculptures of people. They are all modelled with great detail, including skin pores, hair.
After this amazing exhibition, I went to the National Trust building, The Georgian House, in Charlotte Square. Amazing house, and very chatty staff. One was rather to chatty, and I was not sure if this was her usual way of talking, or whether she was acting the part.
Met up with Ravi and Maggie at the George Hotel, where we had a meal in the Tempus restaurant with his Indian family. Very nice setting, we sat on a rais! ed platform at the head of the restaurant. After the meal, we visited the Saltaire pub for a drink, and listened to a one man band. He played very well. At throwing out time, I went back to the flat, except as I passed the Stand Comedy club I popped in to see the last three acts. I saw Eleanor Tiernan, Brendon Burns, and Boothby Graffoe. Excellent acts, and Brendon was very funny
The weather was still wet; think it rained most of the day and evening. Started of with a drink and lunch in Tiles to say a final farewell to Yura. At the end of the day, I popped over to Millets to buy a sleeping bag, I was going to stay up in Edinburgh and was staying in Ed’s flat.
At around 6, met Ravi Kanbur, and Norman Housley for a drink and a meal. Absolutely masses of family started to turn up. The meal was rather a rushed affair, service was slow, Ravi was desperate to go and pick up his family from the airport, Norman was desperate to go to get to the show on time.
I accompanied Ravi to the number 100 bus, and then I went on to Whistle Binkies to see a couple of bands. First band was a goodish rock band, enjoyed them, no idea who they were. The next might have been, good, but were not my style.
So left there and went to the Underbelly to see a show, Not really sure what to see, decided to see Rud! e Girls ay 11.50. Rude Girls were a number of women stand up comedians. No very good, I would not recommend them.
The walk back through town was an experience for us country bumkins. The streets were buzzing with people, the police were out in large numbers controling the drunken hordes.
Back to Ed’s flat, rain has now stopped.