Child

We girded our loins and got a no 35 bus up to the Parliament building (the route now includes a diversion round the Abbeyhill triangle). As usual, I'd been thinking that we would of course visit the photography exhibition (World Press awards) at some point.....then suddenly realised that today was our penultimate chance.

Many superb photographs - some aesthetically pleasing (that tennis player!), many harrowing in the extreme. There were several that I'd seen in the news through the past year, but many were new to me. The images of little children, lost, injured and frightened were the hardest to look at. This one, by Laurent Van der Stockt, of a terrified little girl in Mosul whose house was at the time being searched by soldiers for IS sympathisers reminded me strongly of a Blip-child, although I've never met Amelie. It haunts me still. Although photography was permitted, it wasn't easy to get a good shot given the conditions - but you can see all the originals in the gallery here.

Fair puts the hairt across ye.