Lifted

Brisk walk over to the Botanics this morning to meet up with annejohn and hazelh for the regular blipmeet. Although a lovely day was promised, and the sun was tantalisingly glimpsed, the haar meant it was tricky to get the perfect conditions for photographs of the spring flowers which are pushing through everywhere. Next month there will be a lot more too…so many shoots are through that haven’t yet flowered. Chatted about hazelh’s tricky refurbishment experiences, family history (how do the levels of ‘removed’ work when looking across and down the generations of a family tree?), the national library and the plants.
It was warm enough to sit out on the terrace with our coffees and DF and JF arrived…they’re spending a few days up here although in an apartment in the West End and our plans for this afternoon together got messed up by me having other appointments but it was nice to see them for a chat. Gave some tourist tips, talked about theatre options and books D is reading, then I had to go to meet CW for lunch in Stockbridge. Good chat about fundraising and got underneath some of the issues that seem to be blocking things, and enjoyed a club sandwich and chips as we chatted. Spent longer than I’d expected so then had to fair motor my way up to meet FG. She and her colleague were really interesting and fun to meet….we not only chatted about what we’d planned to (connecting filmmakers to potential producers and financers), but also family history, the Western Isles, PhDs and collaborative practices. Hope to meet them both again before too long.
Realised I’d left my bus pass at lunch but having phoned the restaurant I couldn’t face walking back for it so called and asked them to keep it for me and just walked home in the sunshine that was now bathing the city. Bit of a chill in the air, especially when walking in the shade, but gorgeous and the city looking its best. So I couldn’t resist a cheesy shot.
By the time I got home I felt very weary so had a lie down but didn’t actually sleep (should have done!). A called….wanting to read me the last paragraph of her MRes application. Had lots I should be doing…so much busier week than last…but just felt whacked out so very slowly crawled through various emails and prep, then chatted to MT’s friend Sa who’s staying here for a couple of weeks til she gets her own place in May. She’s struggling to get research funding so we talked about academia, science, mentors, yeast, disease, Sicily and duolingo. I said she should only talk to me in Italian but she was saying that as a Sicilian that would be hard, not only since she has her UK head on here and can only think in English!