Whoops!

Well apologies for that little blip - I accidentally posted a cycling blog to my family blog! First time I've ever done that in approaching 2,000 blog postings. If I ever do it again, please have me tested for early onset.

So, having had to do another post I may as well carry on. Let's start with a cute picture of little Asher:

Now a couple of late photos from our Fringe visit:

These were taken as we were waiting in line for the Henning Wehn show. The next one was from the Royal Mile:

In some ways, the Wicker Man above reminded me of the first time we were in San Francisco with Lucy when the Bush Man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Famous_Bushman) made me jump. He died in 2014 unfortunately.

It's been a busy week - took a walk up Scolty on Sunday and then we had two solid days of walking round Edinburgh on Monday/Tuesday, followed by 3 consecutive days of golf on Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. My car went in to have its MoT on Thursday but the work wasn't finished until Friday - it's getting to that stage when it's starting to cost money to keep it on the road, and it's not like I do a lot of miles in it nowadays. I now walk far more than I drive - the golf course and the village are very close, fortunately - quite a reversal from my days at work when I spent so much time in my car up and down to Fraserburgh and in and out to Bridge of Don.

Anyway, I told them I would pick up my car this morning (Saturday). I had 3 options - I could cycle in (20 miles) and pick it up, or I could catch the bus, or perhaps Jo might take me in in her car. It was a beautiful morning and I felt fine, but I decided it might be best to have a rest day after the hectic week, with more to come next week, so we opted for the latter choice.

Tomorrow morning is the Rotary Charity Golf Tournament at Banchory and then it's the Banchory Beer Festival in the afternoon. We have 4 tickets for the event close to Woodend Barn but Lizzie's working so we've got a spare one now.

As I write this, Ross is busy transporting their stuff down from his flat to ours - tonight's the night when he and Lizzie move in to Arbor Court. Our lives will never be the same again! At least until October. Jo will love to have somebody to natter away to again. I'll find a quiet corner somewhere.

Today cousin John Kelly is getting married to his partner Joanne (Sahal). We wish them well - we couldn't manage to accept their kind invitation to the wedding, but I'm sure they'll have a great time and we look forward to seeing them again at the next Family gathering - hopefully this year.

To close, I saw this article in the press recently - thought it might give our Lucy some pointers:

Back from the Fringe

It's Wednesday evening and we're back home after two days of pretty solid Fringe-ing in Edinburgh. It was all go from the time we arrived late Monday morning. Most of our shows were in the Bristo Square area - Gilded Balloon, Pleasance, Assembly etc. Our first show was a "taster" Best of the Fest, where we got 10-15 minutes of half a dozen very different shows - a nice introduction.

We moved on to a musical tribute to Otis Redding - Movin' Melvin Brown was pretty good vocally and very nifty with his tap shoes, although his backing band left a bit to be desired.

Hardeep Singh Kohli was next. We'd seen him before when he was doing his celebrity chef thing, but this time it was supposed to be his mixed tape - definitely a throwback to the '80's. He rambles a lot and never gets anywhere near through the script he's apparently prepared - and there's extensive use of the F word - so much so that an old couple (yes - even older than us) walked out halfway through and the man turned to the stage as he was leaving and said in a loud voice - "there's no need to use that kind of language - you're funny enough without it".

We had just enough time before the next show to walk back to our hotel and dump our bags and then we headed to the tiny Stand Comedy Club to see Shappi Khorsandi - using the new Edinburgh tram system for the first time - and having to pay cash for the ride, horror of horrors. An ethnic theme was developing and it was no surprise that all of the comedians we saw spent a fair bit of their acts talking about immigration and Brexit.

Between shows we only had time for a quick beer - finding the time for a proper meal was difficult. We'd shared a pizza for an early lunch but that was about it. Come 10 pm, we were hungry but we didn't fancy going to a restaurant for a meal this late, so settled for a shared fish supper. Still the beer we'd consumed would provide us with plenty of calorific input.

Jo and I had an early light breakfast at our hotel on Tuesday morning as we knew we were meeting up with Ross and Lizzie for brunch. A random Google search led us to choose Loudons (http://www.loudons-cafe.co.uk/) and what a great choice it was. Ross and Lizzie had been flat-hunting yesterday and there was more to view today - and we had another Best of the Fest lunchtime show to attend anyway.

We didn't have much time between our first and second shows and we had to hot-foot it over to the Assembly Hall on the Mound for the Glasgow Girls show. It's on tour just now, so it was good to catch it at the Fringe. Immigration was yet again the theme.

For me, our best show by far was Henning Wehn. His voice and accent make him a bit of a comical character anyway, but he was exceptionally sharp, quick-witted - and very funny.

Our last show was Bookends - a Simon and Garfunkel tribute act. Their harmonies were wonderful and the acoustics in the hall were excellent - a lovely end to the evening.

We met up with Ross and Lizzie for a quick drink afterwards and they took us to a pub that specialised in White Russians so that was our nightcap:

We caught a fairly early train this morning so I was back in plenty of time for golf this afternoon - and there's more tomorrow and Friday. My car's in for service and MoT tomorrow as well - busy day.

Going back a few days, I did manage to get to Ellon on Saturday afternoon for the CAMRA meeting - courtesy of Jo, who volunteered to come with me and drive home.

Sunday was intended to be a rest day, but it was such a nice morning that I thought I would take a walk up Scolty. Pretty windy at the top but it was a lovely walk. As I got near home again, I passed Bill & Fran Aitken's house and noticed that they'd erected a flagpole with a Union Jack fluttering away. No, they're not forming a local branch of the BNP or National Front - I think it's to do with the Olympics!: