What we did on our holidays, by Bryan aged 52 1/3

I seem to have fallen into a pattern of not posting much when I have taken time off work for any reasonably lengthy period, so here is a quick round up of the past fortnight, together with a few photos taken on my iPhone. I have more on my camera, but seem for the nonce to have mislaid the cable that connects said device to the computer.

We travelled up to Edinburgh directly from work a fortnight ago last Friday and spent the weekend mooching and looking at things, but without indulging over much in the Festival or Fringe. The Saturday was spent wandering around looking at the sights. There is about a day's worth of sight seeing in the Scottish capital. Maybe two days with a leisurely breakfast. We spent one day on it, so there will be something left to look at if we ever go back.

I offer as proof, a picture of the cathedral taken from ellefurtle's sister's flat, where we stayed:



As I recall, there was a huge tapestry in there, depicting the Jacobite Uprising, something the Scots find as hard to get over as the Irish do King Billy. The fact that it was not England v Scotland, but a clash between rival royal dynasties seems to have bypassed them entirely. Oh well.

Further evidence of our trip is given by this interesting (but not so interesting that we went inside) place up by the castle. Sadly the Festival crowds deterred us from lingering over our sight seeing, but who can resist a place called "The Witchery"?



In the evening we went to the Queen's Arms pub and drank rather too much booze in the fine company of fredlums and boroshan, neither of whom I had seen since their wedding some seven years ago. It was good to catch up (and by the by, we will be seeing them in London in November, which is cool).

The Sunday was spent in North Berwick, since we fancied a look at the sea.

I could live in North Berwick. It's only about 40 minutes from Edinburgh and is a very clean, and relatively prosperous little coastal town. We ate traditional fish'n'chips bought from a place on the wonderfully named 'Quality Street' and spent the afternoon lounging in the sand dunes, before investigating the Scottish Seabird Centre, where I grabbed a photo of this little penguin statue:



Sadly, all the good pictures are on my camera, rather than my iPhone.

Back in Ilford, the folks descended upon us for three days. That was a bit of a strain on my nerves, I have to admit. Trying to entertain my 83 year old Mum and my sister and youngest niece proved trying at times, but I think they enjoyed themselves over all. Mum certainly seemed to.



Frankly, this week just passed, we have done very little but relax and it's been great.

As an illustration, yesterday we took delivery of and watched the entirety of "Cranford" on DVD instead of doing anything productive. It was great. Then we spent the evening with our lovely next door neighbours drinking wine, chatting and burning wood.

Today, or last day before returning to the drudge, it is aptly hammering down with rain. We have sieved brown vegetable soup, too. Sturdy stuff...

I'm sure that from tomorrow I shall have more to gripe about as I'm back at work.

Toodles.