Videos

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

A couple more videos from last weekend at the Fringe are now on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=976VOeBuGus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkKHE57aUnc

What a beautiful day today - pity I have to face the long drive back from Fraserburgh - and Jo's out tonight as well.

The tale of the badly located parliament

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Sunday morning - breakfast 8:45 am, then pack our bags and off we go again. The plan this time was to head straight for Holyrood Park and go to Foodies at the Fest again. Our train home was at 4 pm so we had plenty of time - the only problem was we were carrying our backpacks - and it's all uphill from our B & B.

I was wondering if there might be a shortcut to Holyrood Park which didn't involve going all the way up Broughton St and the Bridges then down the Royal Mile. Jo jokingly suggested we should climb Calton Hill and have a look from there. We laughed the idea off at first, but then thought - why not? It was going to be another nice day - misty start, but clearing, so up we climbed - two old fogeys with cardiac conditions, puffing away.

The views at the top were great - across the Firth to Fife in the north and across the city to the west. There's a bit of a Greek temple style folly at the top:

and this one is taken with my back to Princes St:


Round towards the north west, Jo sat on the edge looking down over the Glass House where we had stayed on our last visit to the capital a few months ago:

South east towards Salisbury Crags/Arthur's Seat, peering through the early morning mist:


then looking directly down Princes St with the zoom:

South east overlooking the Scottish Parliament, which, to me, is the wrong building in the wrong place - what was wrong with Calton Hill? Donald Dewar is no longer around to face the music on this one:
Holyrood Palace is a different matter altogether - a graceful building in what was a fine and natural setting:

We even stopped to have a cup of tea at the Palace after we came down from the hill:

Then it was the Foodies Festival. Jo opted for the rum tasting - what was wrong with the gin one, Jo? By now it was a glorious day and we sat in the sun and listened to a few of the performers, including the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Oxford Belles female accappella group. Time to grab some grub - pig in a bun was the order of the day:

Took this snap of the Palace on the way back:

Walking back towards the foot of the Royal Mile, I looked up and saw two walkers in the far distance on top of Salisbury Crags - it must have been at least half a mile away, but the air was clear so I zoomed in as best I could:


Then it was the train home and we were back in Arbor Court well before 7 pm. Lovely weekend - but much rest needed now.

I bought a blue car today

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

No I didn't really buy a new car - that was the title of Alan Cumming's show late on Friday night/Saturday morning. Apparently, this was a sentence he had to write when he became a naturalised U.S. citizen a few years ago to prove he had a grasp of the Queen's English!

Saturday morning was a very slow start - hardly surprising - and we would probably have stayed in bed for a while longer had we been staying in a hotel, rather than our usual B & B. It's very nice and homely, but breakfast was at 8:30 am sharp and we were out of the place, pacing the streets again just after 10 am.

We strolled up to the west end of George St and the Book Festival in Charlotte Square - a regular stop for us. We were able to relax, have a cup of tea, read the papers and buy some books. We had tentatively planned to do the 10 am walk down the Royal Mile, but our late night scuppered that.

I read about the Five Guys Named Moe show on at McEwan Hall at 5:15 pm - it's a show I've tried to see a few times, but kept missing it, and this production had Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon from The Wire) in it, and we had time between shows if we could get tickets. So, off we wandered to the Udderbelly complex and we were lucky enough to get a couple of tickets.

OK - now some lunch, then back to the Gilded Balloon for the Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury - and very good it was too. (More photos etc on my other music and ale blogs, and also on Facebook and You Tube).

Jo wanted to have her photo taken in front of the Udderbelly - a giant inverted cow:



Later on, she insisted on taking one of me right inside the complex:



There was only a short break between shows - a total of 4 today, all just a few yards away from each other. Five Guys Named Moe and Danny Bhoy were both inside the McEwan Hall:



Both shows were terrific - Danny Bhoy was another I'd been meaning to see, but hadn't got round to until now.

So now, we had time for dinner before heading back to the Udderbelly for the late night John Cooper Clarke show. After a bit of huffing and puffing, we finally chose well - Maison Bleue ( http://www.maisonbleuerestaurant.com/).

JCC was pretty good as well - Jo was prepared for the worst, but she was, I think, expecting some kind of ogre - and he's certainly not that nowadays.

So we got back to bed at the relatively early time of 1:30 am - just one day left!

Hit me with **** ****** *****

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/





Here's some more of the Fringe weekend story. Our first "show" on Friday was the Ale Tasting at Leslie's Bar. It was a little confusing at first - we thought we were early and bought ourselves some beer before we noticed a small group sitting in the corner with some jars of hops etc in front of them. Never mind, we sat down and joined in and tasted three half pint samples. At the end of the talk, we were astonished when we were told we could have another two pints free plus a commemorative glass - all for just £10!





Then it was on to see the Paul Robeson story - small, intimate surroundings and a Nigerian singer (Tayo Aluko - wonder if he's a relative of Aberdeen footballer, Sone?) with a deep rich voice. The story itself had Jo in tears and the occasional song was very good. The one by which he'll always be known - Old Man River from Showboat - has been uploaded to You Tube - watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUc1yCh6Hs




From there it was off to the Royal Mile where we grabbed a bite to eat at a nice little bistro - Lazy Lohan's and saw the most awful show:

There has to be one at every Fringe - and this was it. The cast numbered 10 and the audience just out-numbered them at the start - by one! - but, by the finish the cast were definitely greater than the remaining audience. Frankly, we expected a play going by this title to contain at least some music, but, apart from the odd snippet of miming, there was nothing.

The late night show was Alan Cumming's opening night. I wasn't sure what he'd do, but it was mostly musical with a few tales in between. He developed a pretty nice rapport with the audience, many of whom were obviously big fans, but perhaps on reflection he slightly over-did the gay thing and there were one or two, not quite awkward moments, but you could sense some uneasiness in certain sections of the audience.

So to bed - 2:30 am and another 2 days to go!

From Beasley Street to Chicken Town

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Don't have much time just now to post all the photos of our weekend at the Fringe - but it was fun, although pretty tiring. It was 2:30 am on Friday night/Saturday morning when we got back to our B & B, and just an hour earlier the following night - we're too old for this nowadays. Glad we got the train down so at least I didn't have to drive.

Just one quick photo of Jo for now - at Stonehaven station on Friday:


Spare a little thought for her today - it was exactly 19 years ago that her Dad passed - William Lincoln Sowerby never properly recovered from the heart attack he suffered.