Home is where the art is

One of the events we look forward to each year is the Edinburgh College of Art degree show.  It cunningly coincides with our wedding anniversary, and we’ve had some successes finding items to buy over the last few years. This year, we couldn’t settle on anything we really liked, and left empty handed. Thankfully, in …

Rock and men from Microsoft

No, it wasn’t my joke, but our other Festival treat was seeing Bill Bailey, the comedian, in concert at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.  The EICC tends to be used for big conferences, and Bill started his set by asking whether we were expecting a PowerPoint presentation… Having seen Bill on TV in Black Books …

Ballet and the silent screen

The Edinburgh Festival comes round faster every year, and it’s hard to fit in seeing shows with work. This year, however, we made an effort, as the Nederlands Dans Theater was back in town.  We managed to see them a few years ago, Dan’s first time to see a contemporary dance show.  That time, they …

Half an hour in front of Guernica

We’ve been lucky on our holidays that we’ve been able to see some great buildings, paintings etc.  One particular treat this year was being able to visit Madrid, on a work trip in May. Dan was able to come with me, and we stayed on a couple of days afterwards.  The agency where the meetings …

What do 12 magpies stand for?

Our garden gets a funny mix of birds.  Being not too far from the coast, seagulls are fairly frequent visitors.  The area also has quite a lot of mature trees, so we hear wood pigeons too.  Probably the most noticeable are the magpies, which strut up and down the garden regularly. You may have come …