Treats and disappointments

A day in Edinburgh with oldest friend Jenny. first stop Balmoral Hotel for coffee - but there was a function on so we were directed to a poky wee place upstairs which had the painters in, so we decided to go up the the George. Horror, it has been revamped and morphed from a classy squishy sofa place to Trump Towers. They said they also had a coffee shop which had hard chairs squashed together like Starbucks. The meet and greet man was most amused and said he'd bring coffee to the Trump Towers/Fawlty Towers section which had a few comfy seats. However they didn't tell him our coffee was ready. When we asked what had happened, he found it had gone cold, so after half an hour he appeared with coffee and said there would be no charge. Oh, and the shortbread was "off".

But the Joan Eardley Exhibition was all we'd hoped and more. In fact we could have done with longer than the 2 hours we'd allowed. Two women before us in the queue heard me tell Jenny I was going to visit Catterline in the summer - they live there so told me how to find places in the paintings.

After a delicious vegetarian lunch at David Bann, I suggested we wander up to the Dovecote Gallery, having read in the Guardian today that Offili's watercolour had been woven into a tapestry there, and was being shown in the National Gallery in London. We found out that it had all been under wraps and very secret, and it wouldn't be shown in Scotland. Very disappointed about that.

I don't know what will happen to our economy after Brexit. Every customer-facing person we dealt with today was from Europe - apart from the bus driver. In the Nationsl Gallery, in Modern Gallery Two, in the restaurant and in the Dovecote. And all the hapless indiduals in the George Hotel, apart from the old retainer who decided our coffee would be free.

The weather this afternoon in Edinburgh was positively balmy compared with the 3 degrees back home. The morning snow had gone though.

The blip is a piece of Joan Eardley.