Shine and Shadow

With the nephews going to Dynamic Earth with their Mum, and J at home with his Dad, my niece and I hit Edinburgh City Centre so that she could go shopping and I could exchange an item that Ken had bought for me in the Dundee Blacks on Wednesday and which was completely the wrong size (oh how I wish I were I size 10!). Decided to text my friend Alex to see if she wanted to meet for lunch as it had been ages since we'd had a chance to get up to date with each other's news. Luckily she was free, and with her being a local I was happy to let her decide where we should go to eat.

She took me to Browns Brasserie which, despite it's British first name, lived up to it's second as it did indeed have a very French feel to it. We'd arrived at 11.45am and were asked if we wanted menus for breakfast (served till 12) or for lunch (served after 12). At the same time, I said "Breakfast" and Alex said "Lunch", so we got menus for both but in the end we had lunch (Steak Frites for me because I felt it appropriate to have a French dish in a Brasserie). Whilst waiting for our food Alex suggested that I take a photo of my Earl Grey paraphernalia (I wonder now if I subconsciously ordered Earl Grey for the "Browns" part of the restaurant name?!) to blip for today. "I forgot my camera" I bemoaned (I had got it ready earlier to take with me but must have left it behind at the last minute in my haste to get out of the house). "Take it with your iphone then" she says. Now Alex is a cracking photographer (and I am going to shamelessly plug her website - www.alexinthewild.com) and actually she was absolutely right to encourage me to take a photo of this set up, for I am really pleased with how it looks - with it's shine and shadows. I don't think I would have thought to take a picture of this if she hadn't said to, so thanks very much Alex not only for today's blip, but for a convivial lunch catching up with your company!

As we left, our waiter gave us a card to enter a draw for a free case of sparkling wine by completing an online survey about our experience here. As Alex doesn't drink, she gave the card to me and I did the survey this evening. One of the questions was about the staff, who I felt were excellent, and I clicked that category on the survey. This then lead to a page where I had to say what they had done to make our visit so enjoyable. There were two staff in particular who had impressed me - the front of house and our waiter. I felt that they were both charming and attentive so I wrote this down. But then the next question asked me to give either their name or a description of what they looked like! The waiter was easy as he had written his name on the card, but I had no idea what the front of house was called. However, I did think at the time that he looked like James McAvoy so that's what I wrote down on the survey. He also had a very pert bottom in his tight raw-silky-looking trousers and I was tempted to put that down too as part of my description of him but in the end I refrained.