It isn't often that I get the chance to complain that it's too hot, so I should make the most of it...
Yesterday, we went to the Southside Festival. Truth be told, it was very dull. But we got to spend some time with a very dear friend, pictured here from behind. She claims that she isn't photogenic, but as Imp pointed out, she does pull a face whenever you point a camera at her, which doesn't help.
Here are some Glaswegians having fun
but boy, were they good. Spectacularly good. Quite possibly the best street performers I have ever witnessed. I would very happily have paid proper money (as opposed to a couple of quid in the hat) to listen to them.
It has been a shitty week in many ways, but at least this is a long weekend. We didn't do anything to speak of yesterday, but took a bus into town today. First stop was GOMA. I don't think I have ever visited an art gallery that was quite so devoid of art. And the little that was there wasn't very good: just a handful of thoroughly mediocre video installations.
Second stop was Costa for a coffee and biscuit outdoors.
Third stop was a bench on Buchanan Street listening to these guys. When we came upon them, they were midway through "Take Five"... then a jazz version of "Baker Street" (which was much better than I could have imagined any version of "Baker Street" could ever be)... then some vaguely jazz-funk thing which I didn't recognise but did enjoy.
Fourth stop Sainsbury's, fifth stop the sofa. And I don't have to go home till tomorrow. A very fine weekend indeed :-)
Here are some more from today's haul...
So, the election is over and here in Scotland we're in exactly the same position as we were in 2005. Labour regained a couple of seats they had lost in by-elections since then, so we now have a load of Labour MPs, a handful of LibDems, a smaller handful of SNP and one Tory. As of now, it looks as if Clegg is going to get into bed with Cameron, which means that we are likely to end up with a Prime Minister whose party has just one seat in Scotland. This cannot be a good thing for us.
Alex Salmond has done his arithmetic and figured out that if the LibDems got together with Labour, they could rely on the support of the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the single Green MP and enough Northern Irish MPs to give that lot a tiny majority. That would be much more interesting...
More likely is that Gordon will be gone by the end of the week, the Tory/LibDem alliance will end in tears and we'll have to go through the whole damn thing again later this year. David Miliband for PM, anyone?
Catch a ______ by the toe...
I'm told that one catches a tiger by the toe nowadays. I can understand why nobody uses the version I was brought up with any more, but a tiger doesn't strike me as the ideal alternative. No toes, for a start.
I have to vote tomorrow. Well, I don't have to vote if I don't want to (I think it's still optional) and I am disinclined to do so as I have very little respect for any of our politicians and don't feel that any of them are deserving of my support... But it looks like this is going to be one of the more interesting of recent elections so I suppose I ought to exercise my democratic right. I just wish there was somebody I really wanted to vote for...
Now where did I put that tiger?
If you have seen Imp's blog, you'll know that we hit the charity shops today. Well, she hit the charity shops... I mostly lurked on the pavement outside... Stockbridge is Edinburgh's charity shop district: pretty much every charity that does shops has a shop here; Oxfam has two.
Gosh, we lead such exciting lives...
A sneaky shot. As if I was going to be deterred by a "No Photography" sign...
The exhibition at the Dean Gallery was most excellent. I had seen many of the photographs dozens, if not hundreds of times before and, unfortunately, familiarity had bred indifference; but there were many images I had never seen before, and they reminded me what a good photographer she was. To cap it all, there was a sale at the Gallery shop and I picked up a nice Robert Mapplethorpe book for a fiver.
We had arranged to meet Penny at the Gallery and we went back for lunch with her and Gus. It was lovely to see them again. Now I'm full of sausage and Bakewell tart and incapable of moving.
(For avoidance of doubt, we had sausages and then Bakewell tart, not a tart of sausage and Bakewell. I don't think that would be very nice.)
