Edinburgh Festival

Never again will I go through to Edinburgh for the Festival, on a Saturday, on the train. My younger daughter, a friend of mine and I, had to stand for the whole journey Glasgow to Edinburgh both there and back.  On the way there the carriage was ridiculously crowded leaving Glasgow then we were joined at Falkirk by a group of loud, Buckfast wielding football supporters who made the journey quite awful. The journeys were also longer than normal due to the amount of passengers trying to get on at each station, no controls seemed to be in place at all.
Things got better once we arrived to a lovely warm sunny day in Edinburgh. We popped into The City Cafe for a comedy show, Aiden Jones ‘Stories’, before having a lovely lunch in Chaakoo, then headed to the EICC to see Miriam Margolyes in her show ‘Margolyes & Dickens’, she was an absolute delight. At 83, she has an incredible memory and gave us her interpretation of some of her favourite Dickens characters before answering questions about herself. Then to the McEwan Hall to see Alan Cumming & Forbes Masson talking to Jackie Kay about their new book, ‘Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Companion - A Meander Down Memory Close’. This was a Book Festival event rather than the Fringe and felt a bit sedate for a Saturday night, mid festival, and it was a bit of a disappointment after Miriam, but never mind. 
The other highlight for me, was an unexpected fly past by the Red Arrows. By the time I got my phone out they had gone out of sight behind the buildings on the left but you can hopefully just see the coloured trails they left behind in the sky. Apparently they were performing at the Blackpool Air Show and popped up to Edinburgh, I’m sure it didn’t take them very long, not like us!