Flew up to Edinburgh from Birmingham. Good day in Edinburgh. I did little in the evening. I had to work for another customer, so spent my time dialled up at hotel phone rates. Ate in the hotel restaurant, chose the tuna. They love to serve it raw. Cooking it means to place the tuna on top of a hot vegetable.
More wood
Morning spent sawing the wood up into fireplace sized pieces. What did people do before chainsaws? Should have enough for a very cold winter.
Cutting wood
Sunny all day. First started work on the spare room, moved the power sockets and removed the radiator in preparation for the dry-lining, due to start on Tuesday. Also filled the gap between the window frame and the wall with expanding foam. Caused a little grief to Rosemary. She thought I had not prepared adequately. The foam would not stop coming out of the nozzle and it has to be admitted, it went everywhere.
Mowed the lawn and the borders of the field. Then spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out the wood shed.
High Wycombe
We drove to High Wycombe to John Lewis where I admired the huge TFT and Plasma displays showing a BBC HD trial channel. Yes, you can see all the wrinkles and spots on the actors’ faces. Popped into Asda, where we bought really cheap petrol, as well as the Fired Earth shop.
On the way home stopped off for lunch in a small hotel, The Rose & Crown, between High Wycombe and Princes Risborourgh. Good – Rosemary had two starters (Thai fish cakes & stir fried duck), while I went for a fish main course.
Cafe Royal
Lunchtime at the Café Royal, leaving presentation back in the office to Ed Aldridge. Evening quick meal in the Olive Branch, where I ate Sea Bass. The meal was very nice, then it was back to the hotel for an evening in.
Paul Sinha
Supper tonight was at the Olive Branch, a Mediterranean style restaurant. Did the three courses. Afterwards met Ed to see a show on the Royal Mile. It is called the Free Fringe. Four comedians performed, unfortunately missed hearing the first, because of the poor sound system, and also we were standing by a fan. Very good show by a very young black comedian, and finally an excellent stand by Paul Sinha, he is an Asian Gay comedian who loves football. He has a show at the Pleasance Courtyard.
Andy Parsons
Back to work today, a shock to the system. Ate a curry at Zest. Tried to keep the quantities down by not eating rice. Good meal though. Met up with Ed Aldridge after the meal, and visited the Stand, where we can some standby tickets to see two hours of ablib stand up comedy by Andy Parsons and another Scottish comedian. They were commenting on all the events of the world, and took turns. First I heard of the Asians being thrown off the flight from Malaga. That is how topical their show was.
Saltire
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.
Ravi and Maggie
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
Rude Girls
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.