Edinburgh

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Another week at the bank has been completed.  The highlights of the week were.

The Flybe flight to Edinburgh was cancelled, and we were put on a BA flight, which was meant to leave 15 minutes earlier.  Rather a rush to catch the flight.  In the end we did not arrive in Edinburgh any earlier.  Did have a breakfast though.  Other than the breakfast, the BA flight was not fun.  Long queues at the Check in, which I had to jump, crowded aircraft, it took a long time to get on and off, and we were parked miles away from the terminal.

Yura was in town on Monday.  The result was an expensive meal at Thai Me Up for Ed, Yura and I.  The meal was very nice indeed.  Yura who is the expert on Thai restaurants in Edinburgh was heard to say the food was very good.

Tuesday I ate at the Petit Paris, having my usual pichet of vin rouge.  I ate a prepared crab followed by the fish of the day.  Afterwards I had a couple of pints of beer at the Bow Bar on Victoria Street.  The Bow Bar has a massive whisky collection.  I estimated there were 150 bottles of malt with well over 100 different malts.

Wednesday I took a walk around Arthur’s seat taking a stop at the Sheep’s Heid pub.  This pub is meant to be the oldest pub in Scotland, and resides in the ancient village of Duddingston.  The walk I did was basically along Queens Drive, which is a road used by joggers and cyclists circumnavigating Holyrood Park. The walk was quite a pretty walk, which takes you past a couple of Lochs.

Thursday, Ed, Mary and I had a few beers after work at the Guildford Arms.  When I got back to the hotel it had stopped serving food and did not even do snacks.  Not really very happy about the Mount Royal Ramada Jarvis, it has seen better days.  It is though on Princes Street and does have some actual Scottish staff.  Happy days next week, I will be back in the Apex on Grassmarket.

Friday, I ate a big breakfast to make up for the lack of Supper.  Flight left on time and arrived early into a nice warm Birmingham evening.  Of course no point landing early, the busses are never ready.

Broadband has arrived

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We are now broadband enabled.  Today we plugged the computer into the fast lane.  What a difference in speed.  No long waits while Peters emails with pictures download.  Not having to dial up to connect.  I can now download large files and not be that much older when they have finished downloading.

I am just going up the road to take down our campaing boards and thermometer.

I signed up with a company called Plusnet.  The install was easy, their website showed where the current status of the install was.  Click and the image below and get a broadband connection with Plusnet.  You know it makes sense.

Curry at 9 Cellars, Edinburgh

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Tonight was curry night.  Joe Zamir, Ed Aldridge, Gordon Chrumka,  and Joes son Jason Zamir and I tried a new curry house called 9 cellars on 1 York Place, Edinburgh.

Not the usual type of curry house, the menu was quite short, but had unusual dishes. There were none of the usual Madras or Vindaloo dishes.  I thought my lamb hock was pretty good.

The Indian curry house was below ground in a number of cellars.  I believe we were seated under the pavement.   Despite there being a large party, we were able to sit in our own little room.  Service was a bit odd and slow, with the odd fast patch; like being asked what we wanted to eat within a couple of minutes of getting the menu.  Not the normal efficient waiter, but a pretty fit continental girl. 

Other than the big party and us, there did not appear to be anyone else, though that could be hard to tell from all the cellars.

Edinburgh

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Another day completed.  Decided not to take a walk, weather looked like it could drench me at any moment.  So had an unusually quiet evening watching the box in the hotel.  Eventually went out for an almost alcohol free evening mean at the Petit Paris.  Yes I know, how boring, two days in a row.

Very nice starter of thinly sliced scallop marinated in olive oil, lemon and chervil, followed by pan fried Monk fish with a few mussels in a Saffron cream sauce.

Good news, have heard that the ADSL line at home is now active, and the modem/router should have been delivered, except Selina did not hear the delivery man, or was still asleep.

Edinburgh

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After months of on time flights, FlyBe has reverted to late flights.  This morning the flight was over an hour late leaving Birmingham for Edinburgh.  Edinburgh was quite sunny today, but rather cool.

Supper was at the Petit Paris on Grassmarket, now open on a Monday for the summer season.  Amazing the number of tourists now around, back in the dark months the Petit Paris barley filled its upstairs dining room.  Now even on a Monday at 6.30 both upstairs and downstairs were full.  As proven last week, my regular appearance at this small French eatery does not guarantee a seat.  Today they were telling the several people to come back in ten minutes.

I started with a spinach and courgette soup. It was very nice and thick.  Main course was from the low cost plat de jour menu, and was sausage, bacon and lentil casserole.  I think I might add that to my repertoire of weekday meals.  Finally I had their gorgeous crème Brule.  All this was washed down with a half litre of vin de rouge.  They have a web site at http://www.petitparis-restaurant.co.uk

Afterwards met up with Ed and had a pint at Bannermans on Cowgate.  Although there was a band playing, I think we watched the music videos from Kerrang on their TV screens.  The we tried the Bo Bar which had rave reviews.  Definitely an arty student type of bar, though as a student I am not sure I could have afforded the prices.

Selina back from Liverpool

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I was determined I would not be caught in any traffic, so up at 5.00 and arrived in Liverpool at 7.40 for Selina.  Packed and way by 9.30.  Now the problems, accident on the M6 delayed us by 30 minutes, than another accident on the other lane of the M40 caused our side to be stopped while the air ambulance took away the injured.  Arrived back just after 12.00 

Calton Hill

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After work I took a walk up Calton hill.  Quite a good view of Edinburgh and the castle and The Crags.  On Calton hill is the Observatory where the signal for the castle one o’clock gun originates from.  There are also a number of monuments, including an incomplete Classical style folly.

You will all be glad I was away before sun set!

Arthur’s Seat

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Well I am still commuting up to Edinburgh every week.  Now the clocks have changed, and the evenings are lighter, I thought I would take the time to visit Arthur’s Seat.  I was well impressed with the area.  The walk to the top was a bit of a scramble towards the end.  After the seat I walked down and then along the top of the Craggs.  The view of Edinburgh was magnificent, though rather hazy in the late evening sunshine.  I shall make an effort and walk up there every week, and visit the seat after a cold front has just passed through.  (That should be when the view is at its clearest)

One big disaster though, my favourite restaurant, Le Petit Paris, was unable to seat me for supper.  They could have taken my later, but I was on a tight schedule for drinks with Ed, so ate at a Tapas Bar.

The 150th boat race

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Rosemary and I visited the London Wetland Centre run by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.  This is a 40-hectare area converted to wetlands on the South Side of the Thames by Hammersmith Bridge.  It is remarkable because of its location in the middle of London.  The trip had been organised by the Berkshire branch of the Cambridge Society to coincide with the 150th boat race.

We had a guide tour round the centre and saw many birds.  I think Rosemary was pleased to see a couple of Avocets.  There was supposed to be a Bittern in the read beds, not spotted.

Afterwards we watched Cambridge win the boat race from the South Bank at St Pauls School.  A nice supper had been laid on after the race.

Big Fat Repack

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Went to the Big Fat Repack at the Reading Rivermead Lesure centre.  I arrived at around 12.45 hoping the ZIP queue had died down.  No way, so I helped Brian Hickman pack his reserve.  He had been the first down at 11.30.

I then joined the queue to practice my reserve deploy.  Success it opened with no problem and was not inside out or with crossed lines.

Then I packed the chute with the help of another Brian from the Annecy trip and Brian Hickman.