Day 6 - Edinburgh  - My travelling companion is still unwell so ventured out on my own today. David and Barbara left me with a birthday card and bottle of champagne before they took off for Troon where Barbara lives and David visits on weekends. Very nice of them. Generally sunny day today so walked through Inverleith Park to the shops in Stockbridge and enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine and watched the passing parade.  It is a Saturday so strikingly similar to home, with many frantic parents ferrying children around clothed in sports gear.  As part of the Fringe there is an International Photographic Exhibition showcasing a selection of photos received from around the world. Decided this would be a good thing to see. The exhibition was housed in a lovely Georgian house near the Royal Circus which is very similar to the Royal Crescent in Bath. I loved the Exhibition - huge variety of subject matter from wildlife to people to inanimate objects. Some of the images from China I found particularly striking - the countryside shots were stunning but the poverty was quite confronting as well.  I left the Exhibition inspired to take some of my own photos so started waving my phone around taking shots of scenic buildings - not hard to do in Edinburgh.

I managed to navigate my way to St Andrews Square to buy a present for the wedding we are going to and a Waterstone bookshop to buy some more reading material.  On the way I stopped to listen to a great band in St Andrews Square - very rowdy Scottish rock band essentially. Reminded me of a band from a movie we saw years ago that was about a… Scottish band.  Can't for the life of me remember what it was called but do remember one of their songs - Mustang Sally - which this band also played rather well. According to the show yesterday about the brain, I should not try and remember what the movie was called and it will just come to me when I least expect it.  We'll see.

Still lots of people around.  Meandered back home mid-afternoon to see how the invalid was doing. Invalid is not too good but managed to get him out for short walk and played peek a boo with one of the resident squirrels in the complex we are staying in.  Decided to do a bit of reading today (for some reason) on Stockbridge (where we are staying) while watching gameshows with the sick one. Apparently it was a separate village until a wooden bridge was built over the waters of Leith and eventually this was replaced by the present day stone bridge.  This area is 'only' about 200 years old (!) and was a pretty poor area until relatively recently.  Also a Mrs Doubtfire lived here - a book was written called Mrs Doubtfire based on this woman and apparently the Robin Williams movie was based on this character but the movie bears little relationship to the real Mrs Doubtfire. Relatively useless fact I admit.

Also was musing as I do sometimes, on the comedy we have seen, where the comedians are youngish and concluded that disturbingly they were all or had been struggling with dealing with modern day life. Hopefully  this is just a reflection of a number of comedians generally being manic depressives (which of course is not of itself good) and not a reflection of the younger generation generally.

We went and saw a 5 piece a cappella group from South Africa tonight called Simply Soweta Encha. Was yet another recommendation from our London correspondent and they were brilliant.  Beautiful singing and brilliant dancing - like Diamonds on the Soles of your Shoes type African harmonies and some modern songs like 'Happy'.  The sort of show from which you walk out smiling.