There is nothing quite like a Palmyra falafel (Nicholson Street, if you're an Edinburgh local) but, because we normally visit before, during or after a night at the pub, the kids are never in tow. But tonight Rudy and I had post Wednesday swimming lesson plans which involved not only the best falafel in town, but also an inner-tube bat walk. You heard me.

We got to walk the inner-tube cycle paths, with bat detectors and a well versed guide who told us lots of bat facts. Rudy was in heaven, not least because we were out until 9 'o' clock on a school night. I learnt that one little pipistrelle bat can eat up to 3000 (THREE THOUSAND!) midges in one night. I loved bats even more after finding out this fact. Although. This evening I have been bitten a lot. Those pipistrelles need to work a little bit harder.

I also got to touch a dead bat (!) and learnt that long-eared brown bats like to eat moths in a very idiosyncratic way - they nibble off one wing and then drop the remaining wing with attached head to the ground. Nice.