Doyle M For Murder!

A few days ago we had a meal at Heller’s Kitchen, which is where Fenwicks used to be in Salisbury Place… A bit more upmarket than I had expected, as it appears to be serve coffee/light snacks through the day like the Petromole does round the corner.  Very designer, very clean lines, with some softer chairs mixed with the dining chairs. And a wall of wine at the rear! I noticed that Hotel Du Vin also has a wall of wine visible from the street, so I guess assuring prospective customers that you’ve got lots of wine is a good marketing strategy!
Anyway, very nice food, and very close to home.

Last night we returned to Mother India for an early meal – we really should remember to order fewer dishes next time! Very good, and once we were done, we strolled round to our evening’s entertainment:

Last night was the latest Writer’s Bloc event – a change from previous venues as it was in the Caberet Bar at the Pleasance – which was probably better than any previous venues…

The key story of the evening was Andrew J. Wilson’s reading (in 3 segments) of the final chapters of his new Professor Challenger story, Out of the Depths, set much later in his life as he returns to Maple White Land and re-visits the scenes of The Lost World. Much had gone before, and I’d suggest reading the earlier chapters, linked here at the City of Literature site as they’re good fun! (The shop’s also mentioned on the site as a ’specialist bookseller, btw.)

His readings were punctuated by several other pieces from other members of WB, including another Aileron Smith mystery and another concerning the relationship between Dr. Watson,  J. M. Barrie and Daphne duMaurier, among others! Also a fishy tale from Steph Pearson concerning the demise of the Scottish fishing industry and global warming.
Good show, even it it did start late and over-run and the chairs got uncomfortable after a while… compensated for by student prices at the bar!

Witch Hunt in a Teacup

Wasteland between Johnston Terrace and Kingstables Road

Originally uploaded by miketransreal

So on Monday evening I had an invite to what I thought was going to be a Council sponsored presentation/discussion on how to improve the untended strip of scraggy trees and bushes, etc. between Johnston Terrace and Kingstables Road. Not of any great significance to me, but I thought it might be of some interest, as it’s not that far from the shop and anything to improve the look of the area right now would be good.

As I got to The Lot, where the meeting was going to be, I glanced along towards the area in question and saw that it had been pretty much stripped of all vegetation!
When the meeting started it immediately became clear that the residents were up in arms and the meeting had been called mainly so they could berate the council rep for letting the tree felling happen. Apparently, the plan was to clear the ground (i.e. leave the trees for later discussion/removal) but this had been altered along the way to an instruction to clear fell the site and level everything. There had been no consultation with the residents, many of whose flats overlook the site, so the extreme action suddenly being taken shocked them, who had been used to the view for decades, in some cases.

Hence the witchhunt looking for people to blame and humiliate, and the council rep’s staunch, although sometimes clumsy defense of his department. As it’s a steeply sloping piece of ground there’s not really much that can be done with it and many of the trees that had grown up over the years were recently deemed dangerous both to public safety and to the integrity of the slope (and, indeed, various branches, etc. have fallen onto the pavement below recently) and any plan would have had to call for their removal.

Eventually some minds turned to the future of the site and some useful discussion emerged but, really, it wasn’t really a very edifying slice of local democracy in action, whose ever side you took.

A storm in a teacup that could have been handled so much better, and an hour & a half I wish I had spent more usefully… Another meeting to take the council’s prospective plans forward is planned, but I shan’t be there.

And they didn’t serve coffee.

(there’ll be a bigger version of the picture in my Flickr photostream, and another picture as well)

Prehistoric Creatures Day!

It’s Friday the 13th again!

We celebrated this morning with a light breakfast; I think they all enjoyed it!

Pictures were taken, but not yet made public…they are rather shy dinosaurs!

Nicholas Crane

A cold February thursday evening, so it has to be a talk hosted by the RSGS!

This year, they’ve moved them from a hall almost on the way home across to one near Holy Corner, which is a minor discouragement (there’s not a decent pub nearby, nor really time for a pint beforehand!)  but other issues have intervened to ensure that this is only the 2nd one of this season that I’ve been to… and it was back in George Square Theatre anyway!

Nicholas Crane is now a well-known presenter of ‘geographic’ travel documentaries and his talk (sadly not illustrated) was mainly an overview of his most popular programmes, with emphasis on the recent Great British Journeys about significant explorative expeditions made within the UK over the last 1000 years or so! And I had completely forgotten that it was him who made the ‘2 degrees west’ series, where he walked in a straight(ish) line due south from about Berwick to the south coast…

Excellent talk, split into two parts by the showing of some out-takes from his tv stuff, mainly of him tripping, or falling off walls, etc! No time for any q&a at the end; he had banged on too long and the hall needed to be cleared fairly quickly!

Although not referred to, I think my favourite programme of his is one of the walks he did across Europe, where he walked across the Pyrenees, discovering some truly spectacular scenery on the way…

Anyway, good talk, and I’ll be across at Napier in a month for the final event of their season, about the genesis of the Canadian fur trade…