"we don't have control over much else"

Pleasantly, for the last day before some time off, I didn't have to stay until stupid o'clock to get everything finished. I do have a little bit of stuff to be done but as it's for the benefit of someone who's not back in until Monday it was far from necessary to do anything about it this evening. Seven days of holiday with a normal weekend in the middle; a nice large gap filled with films and possibly a short break on Monday morning to plaintively F5 the Book Festival booking website unless they've taken the unusual step of making it able to cope with demand this year. Perhaps that's why it opens at 08:30 instead of 10:00.

Although the Filmhouse was being assailed in a relatively low-key way by the odd limo and small flocks of the belanyarded there was only one film showing today, albeit thrice semi-simultaneously. I assume the Cineworld is employed for this purpose as its hospitality zone is larger than those of the Filmhouse and Cameo or perhaps just because it can supply three medium-large auditoria at once rather than just one big one and two small ones apiece. Even taking into account the fact that my watch and phone are set five minutes fast I really hadn't left myself very much time even though it was the latest of the three screenings to which I was heading as both the prémière and deuxième were fully-booked by the time I got round to doing my first booking-sweep, though twenty minutes is quite reasonable for the 1.8 miles required (even when lightly-impeded by a red carpetful of fancily-dressed poshos heading into Teviot for this homecoming thing) without breaking into a run. I'd forgotten about there being a gig by the Oasisband in the west but luckily there were no large crowds of people with appalling taste heading east along Fountainbridge to slow me down.

As for the film: Away We Go, directed by Sam Mendes (present, along with the primary man-actor and tertiary woman-actor): very much worth catching.