Gilmerton Cove and Craigmillar Castle - 4/11/2007

Brian and I explored a couple of places off Edinburgh's beaten track. Gilmerton Cove is a series of chambers carved out of the sandstone bedrock in Gilmerton, just off the main crossroads. Unlike the typical old stuff in Edinburgh where the history is well known, Gilmerton Cove's history is a bit of a mystery. Originally thought to be carved out of the rock over the course of 5 years by a blacksmith named George Paterson, people now believe that the work is much older than the 18th Century, which is when he lived and worked there. The pick marks are still visible on all of the walls. Drainage leads into the cove from a smallish tunnel that some theorise leads to Craigmillar Castle. Theories for the Coves original purpose, aside from unique 18th Century smithy, include a drinking den perhaps for the Sabbath, a refuge/place of worship for persecuted Covenanters and a smugglers lair. After Gilmerton Cove, we wandered over to Craigmillar Castle to see if we could find the other end of the tunnel. We didn't, but we did have fun exploring the castle ruins.

Gilmerton Cove is a series of chambers carved out of the sandstone bedrock whose history is not known fully. You would never know it's there just off the Gilmerton crossroads.

I had fun playing with the low light settings on my camera. The method that worked best was to put it on a ledge, turn the flash off, and use the timer so my unsteady hands were removed from the equation.

The "punchbowl" for a wee dram?

Perhaps the guards were smaller back then?

DLL and Chase visit – 21/8/2007 – 25/8/2007

So Sarynna and Chase had planned to visit during festival time deliberately, but by the time we actually caught up with them, I was not convinced that they regretted not visiting at a less chaotic time for the city. The upside was plenty to do, day or night. The downside was people everywhere. They arrived sometime on Tuesday. Brian and I caught up with them sometime on Thursday, with Sarynna and Chase meeting me at my office, following me home and then heading closer to city centre to enjoy dinner at a favourite vegetarian Indian restaurant. Brian caught up with us toward the end of the meal. We finished the night at Dagda.

Their plans had them off to Rosslyn Chapel on Friday and waiting for Aberdonian Mexicans on Saturday, so we planned for our outing to the Sheep Heid Inn for Saturday evening at the tail end of their annual beer festival. Chase is a beer drinker, so at least he would benefit from that.

Mixed up and lack of communication meant we were quite late getting to the Sheep Heid. It was a dark walk there and back. The place was the most crowded I remember seeing it, with both inside and outside jammed with bodies. Rudeness and naivety scored us a table outside and we enjoyed more time to catch up. Two rounds later, we were walking back in the dark and bidding farewell to Chase and Sarynna, with the next reunion set for Thanksgiving in November.

For pictures, see the Wonderful World of Superbabe and the Superbabe photo extravaganza.

Catching up with Renee – 11/8/2007 – 12/8/2007

I found out through North American Amy that our mutual friend from high school Renee was going to be in Edinburgh for the Fringe. A couple of emails, voice mails and missed calls later, we found each other at Renee’s kids’ Fringe show. Brian and I got last minute tickets for their closing night. Essentially, it cost us £12 to find Renee. The show itself was awful.

Renee’s kids did a great job with it, but the show itself was awful. Walt Disney’s High School Musical began its life as a cheesy made for TV movie for, surprise surprise, the Disney Channel. The TV movie begat the stage musical and her school was among the first to get the rights to it. Renee’s Busch Gardens skills qualified her to run the sound board and scored her the "free" UK trip. The price was watching fourteen performances and who knows how many rehearsals of HSM as well as occasional babysitting duties. "Eight year olds love it," she said ominously before running off to do her job. An hour and a half later, Brian looked shell shocked. Eight year olds love it, I wondered, but why? Every character cliché was covered more effectively in Grease. This version was even more sanitised.

Final night meant Renee was quite busy, but at least we were able to make plans for Sunday, her big free day. Later in the evening, Brian and I joined Fraser, Kirsty, George, Jo and a departing Kathryn for alcohol and silly games. Cranium is much more fun with alcohol. Fraser, Kirsty and Jo were victorious. Then came Jenga. Then came sleep.

Sunday morning got off to a leisurely start. We were slightly late meeting Renee for 1:15pm, underestimating the time needed to dodge people and walk the beginning of the Arthur’s Seat walk. We found her outside Pollock Halls. She wanted to see non-festival Edinburgh, so we started with the walk up Arthur’s Seat (2nd that day for her) and down the back to Duddingston Village for the Sheep Heid Inn, Edinburgh’s oldest pub (noticing a theme?). One pint and two juices later, we walked along the road to Newington for another round of drinks at Bierex. From Bierex, we headed to the Royal Mile and Bishop’s Close (?) for the Jolly Judge, another tucked away old pub. The hope was it wouldn’t be too swarmed with festival tourists. It wasn’t too bad, so we enjoyed round three there. The plan was Bann’s for dinner to give Renee one final coup for the trip. She was meant to have dinner with her group at the Hard Rock Café. I felt it important to protect her from that and let her enjoy a nice meal on her final night. Bann’s was fully booked, so we went to Black Bo’s, another vegetarian place around the corner that was empty. Renee had a good experience with veggie haggis and all was well.

After the meal, we walked over to Hard Rock to bid her farewell. It was great catching up. Our spotty knowledge of what others were up to caught each of us up by a few years and perhaps bored Brian a bit. It was great talking to her. It’s a shame her partner hadn’t come across as well. We might get to catch up again in a few months, if visiting with my evil twin ends up being a road trip. That would be very cool.

Renee and I decided to have our picture taken somewhere special.