My parents were visiting for the weekend to get a taste of the Festival experience.
Friday evening we had a very nice meal at L’Escargot Blanc, but chickened out of the £20 “surprise” menu. It really was a surprise, only the chef knew what we would get, the waitress wouldn’t give us any hints, and the whole table had to opt for it. Given the name of the establishment, there was a good chance it might be snails.
Saturday we wandered around Bristo square before picking a random matinee show to go and see – Kate Fox News. Mostly an auto-biographical show based around the major news events in her life, her slightly bizzare up-bringing and, sprinkled with some poetry. Browns on George Street for lunch, very busy, great burger! Then off to the Book Festival to browse the books and people watch the odd mix of grizzled book fanatics, families eating ice creams, gin soaked publishers and people hoarding spare chairs on the lawn. We had tickets to see Rhapsodies in Red, White and Blue at 7pm so we went home to smarten up before heading to the newly refurbished (in a frantic hurry just before the festival) Usher Hall. Great performance, I don’t think I’ve ever since something with a a full orchestra and choir before. I loved the Copland and Gershwin, but some of the Ives was quite challenging. Back home for an excellent (and promptly delivered) takeaway from Zen Kitchen.
Sunday we had a bit of a lie-in and then got a bus over the Foodies Festival in Holyrood Park. I wasn’t quite sure what the expect, they had seemingly been giving free tickets out left right and centre. I was pleasantly surprised though! It was a good size, lots of different exhibitors and we signed up for a free rum tasting class – which amazingly wasn’t a complete sales pitch. Scorching weather by this point which just brought even more people out to the festival! My only nitpick was that they needed more seats, people were sunning and drinking all over the place. We saw my parents off on their train back south and then I joined Ria and friends at Reel to Real. Which was pretty schmaltzy, camp musical goodness with some clever interactions between screen and stage.
Great weekend.
A couple of weeks ago we had a long weekend in London with friends. Went to Borough Market, The Design Museum, had afternoon tea at The Athenaeum and dinner at Arbutus Restaurant. Also caught up with some old friends from university which made for a fun evening.
Pretty clunky I know.
What I really want is a way of tweaking my photos online and getting those changes mirrored back locally. Slightly hampered by the fact that my local photos are on my desktop PC, which gets turned on monthly at the moment. Ideally I would have all my photos on some kind of NAS which I could then edit and upload from via my imaginary Macbook Pro and access the NAS remotely from work, pub etc. Oh and NAS should backup into the cloud. For free.
How does this compare to your workflow dear readers?
January: My Dad turned 60 and retired, great weekend in a National Trust property.
February: Ria and I had a few days in Krakow including Valentines Day at Auschwitz.
March: Had a weekend near Helensburgh at Strone Cottage – outdoor hot tubs are one of mankind’s great inventions.
April: Saw Honda’s Asymo, destroyed my website, went to a huge 50s themed charity party.
May: Spent a long weekend in Arran, travelling there on the train and then the ferry. Did some nice but very, very wet walking. First round of redundancies at work.
June: Lovely wedding, lots of warm evenings drinking outdoors, saw numerous films at the film festival. “Our” birthday picnic.
July: Went to Whitby and visited my parents at home including a day trip to York. Began the great flat hunt.
August: fringe, fringe, fringe and found a nice flat! 2nd round of redundanices at work.
September: Moved in with Ria, had a weekend in London, rounded off the festival, re-designed my website.
October: Had two weeks in New York, Boston, Chicago and New York again. Amazing trip – wanted to return immediately. Numerous halloween parties.
November: Finally had our flat warming party, my cousin in Kansas got engaged.
December: The Jackson & Phillips families went for a weekend in St Andrews together.