22 July - Edinburgh

Stephen spent this afternoon cooking his last venison stew for this trip.  Unlike the last 3 times, we managed to avoid setting off the smoke alarm by preemptively opening up all windows in the flat.  We are also racing through some of the series we are watching on the BBC, although no doubt they will arrive in Australia.  Just finished The Turkish Detective.  Sparked an interest in visiting Istanbul.  Also the Olympics start this Friday so will enjoy watching it for a week in a more manageable time zone.

Caught Stephen weighing some fishing gear this morning.  He is looking at getting it stored with a friend for his next fishing trip.  Apparently they weigh a disappointing 3kg so not sure is enough to make up for the whisky we are hoping to pack and take home.

Took Stephen to see the new wing in the National Gallery.  It's all Scottish art.  He too thought it was pretty impressive and I then took him to see my new favorite Monet.  Fortunately for Stephen, he too thought it was pretty special.

Still hoping to get to the National Library for a return visit.  I can't imagine the tourist hordes will have that on their list.

I picked up some brochures for the Edinburgh Fringe as we are here for its first few days.  We had no difficulty agreeing that we will see no shows featuring puppets, Improv, earnest young male comedians, anything to do with the Ukraine, Palestine, US politics.  I think we have narrowed our selection down to middle-aged female comedians having a laugh at being middle aged. We might try and include a bit more variety in our selection process.

We re-visited Princes Street Gardens to see the finished floral clock.  They do this every year and it's very impressive.  A flower clock that also functions as a clock.

Have come to terms with the fact I will not be bringing back a hoard of books.  Given the Aussie dollar, it is actually not as inexpensive as it once was to buy books here so probably a good thing anyway. 

We saw that there was a new exhibition on at the National Museum.  It is on the Cold War.  We decided we didn't need to see it.  Things bad enough politically wise in the world that we really didn't need to be reminded about the Cold War at the moment.  We did watch the first night of the Proms which I have previously dismissed as rather dull and just featuring eternal re-runs of Land of Hope and Glory.  I was wrong.  We saw the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by a delightful young female conductor (Eli Chan) and not only Beethoven's 5th but a stunning piano concerto by Clara Schumann played by a young female British pianist (Isata Kanneh-Mason).  Would happily pay to see either of them again.  We were rivetted. A very good diversion and much more cheerful than an exhibition on the Cold War as worthwhile as it may be.  I have added a night at the Proms to my ever expanding list of things I'd like to get to one day...