Bartimaeus

My friend Louise got in touch to say she and her husband were passing through Edinburgh on her way to a family visit. Louise started work in Fife on the same day as me, but she has been living near Vienna for many years, since her husband is Austrian. Any time she is passing this way, she gets in touch with a group of therapists (and their spouses) with whom she worked back then. Last time we were on Bartimaeus and not in Edinburgh. Graeme suggested the same restaurant as last time, so it was a first for us! Off we went to First Coast.

Louise had booked the earliest time to maximise our time together and, after Louise and Georg, we were first to arrive. Nara and Paul were flying up from London, Georg and Louise had flown in from Vienna, Graeme and Gillian had come from Fife, by train and we had walked. 

I am so glad we were in Edinburgh this time. We had a lovely time and as we left I said to Louise we had no plans for the next day and would she like to meet again. She seemed very keen. Recommendations for the day had been discussed during the meal. Louise was interested in The National Portrait Gallery so next day we arranged to meet them there. They had never been and it is beautiful. We were happy to revisit the exhibition of the aerial photographer, Alfred Beckham. A second trip allowed me to read bits I had missed and watch the video on his development process that I had skipped. The section on aerial shots in the Americas is fascinating and was of added interest to Louise and Georg who recognised a photo as where they had travelled recently to Mexico. Georg showed us an almost identical photo to the one on the wall, of the Teotihuacan, in Mexico!

The travels in the Americas were due to an increased interest in travel and magazines wanted him to write articles and produce photographs that would reach and excite their readership. 

Buckham's passport is on display and his wife is on it. She may have been travelling with him, to America, though I think not on his photography flights, but it seems she couldn't travel on that passport, without him.

We had lunch and a look at some other galleries before travelling on foot to the museum. Rainy weather was promised so indoor plans were safest but we survived a dry walk through Princes Street gardens. Georg was regretting not having a photo of the assembled company from the night before, so he took advantage of the scenic backdrop to take one, of the reduced group.

We enjoyed the international and Scottish highlights of the museum: a lighthouse lantern; early aeroplane or glider attempts; Inuit waterproof parka made of seal intestine; the orrery; a giant sloth, Stevenson's rocket. Shane took us through the Scottish section to the large steam engine. Around the corner was the twisted girder from the Tay bridge disaster, where the new elegant bridge failed to withstand the wind of a winter storm in 1879. Six months earlier that year Queen Victoria had travelled across the bridge and the engineer Thomas Bouch was knighted. But the disaster, where the bridge collapsed with strain on it killing all aboard, changed his popularity and his designs for the Forth rail bridge were abandoned. 

As we emerged into the rain we agreed to go back to our bases and reconvene for dinner. Georg and Louise fancied a curry. Austria hasn't so many curry houses. I selected one that was easy to get to for all of us and had lots of smaller plates to provide variety. I thought it might be a chain, but it turns out to have only three: two in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh. It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night but we got a booth and tucked in to a delicious meal, and some tasty drinks too.

I was so glad they had agreed to see us a second day. Georg enthusiastically entreated us to come to Vienna. I have been three times but over a pretty wide time period. I have arrived by train (from Munich), tandem (from Paris) and plane (direct from Edinburgh). We joked about arriving by boat! 

On the Thursday we attended an afternoon ceilidh. As we were learning an unknown dance, Shane described one part as like "Strathspey travelling step". This brought memories flooding back of a tricky term of advanced lessons with a strict teacher, where we were asked to "warm up with Strathspey travelling step round the room" and I had no idea what that was. I left each week with a headache. This was a much more forgiving environment with a few experts to demonstrate and a mix of familiar and new dances. Indeed people were keen to help. Shane and I are very familiar with strip the willow and we headed the line for it. He burled me round at high speed and I  felt my headband slide back. Then as I made my way down the line it flew off completely. I carried on swinging but was aware of a woman who had been next in line picking it up. As I swung back towards Shane she handed it back to me. There is no time to pause in an Orcadian strip the willow, you have to travel the length of the hall swinging left and then right, but somehow I slipped it on my head between Shane and the next manacouple of turns further on.

It was a day of exercise for me, having been a walk with my sister in the morning then hotfooting it back after the dancing as I had left a bag there. Staff thought I had had a wasted journey because they knew she was out, but so did I, and assured them I was just collecting a bag. But I was pleased to meet her and her son on my way home.... definitely worth the journey.

 At the weekend I had a hastily put together plan to go to Aberdeen. My brother had put a poster up about a concert he was in. To my surprise, the poster was based on the same painting that the prize winning quilt in the art section of the exhibition I had in recently seen in Glasgow.

I had been indecisive about going, but when my friends' sons joined the orchestra at the last minute, I realised I could go with her to it. It was bright and sunny but cold on the way to the Haymarket where I was getting a bus, not a train.

I got there in time for dinner, after a late start from Edinburgh pleased to have managed the transfer to a city bus and remember the way from there since route finding is not my forte. Their household had had a hectic day with the park run, a birthday visit and afternoon rehearsals. It was going like clockwork.

My brother Rod, was delighted that they had arrived to swell the brass section and at rehearsal  was surprised to learn that "the very nice lads" knew his sister and thought I was on my way! It was great to see them play, next to my brother, and to catch up with more relatives afterwards, as some of Rod's family were there too. Rod was proud to tell me also that he had designed the flier.

I had a great wee trip with the impeccable hosting from Margaret as usual, but it was a flying visit. I was travelling back the next day. The weather was very variable but there were some cracking views out of the bus window just outside Aberdeen, across to the sea.

As we came into Dundee we come right past the Discovery and the V & A gallery, so close it doesn't fit into the picture and yet from being inside, it didn't seem all that big. What a voyage that was!

The bus route goes past the Tay bridge, with it's sweeping curve, very different from the Forth bridge.

The weather was deteriorating as we left and there was a great deal of rain in the next leg of the journey. When we arrived at Haymarket the sun was emerging but the rain was lashing too. The dark sky, shiny roads and rainbows made a dramatic sight.

I had my hood up and hurried across the road. The new buildings shone, reflecting the nearby crane.

I was hurrying back, not just because it was cold and rainy but also I was invited to Kenny and Helena's to celebrate Kenny's birthday, a week late, but I didn't want to make the celebration any later. Nye and Shane might be there already. I dropped off my bag and arrived while nibbling had started but the main meal was still to come. Helena had organised a cake with 'Congratulations' in Portuguese on it. It looked likeI had travelled out of Scotland altogether!