Back from a fantastic long weekend in Edinburgh. My first time visiting the city, and hopefully not the last. I loved it. Pleasant, short flight up there - barely enough time for them to come round asking for drinks orders before the pilot started the descent.

Our hotel was very central - the Balmoral. The doormen wore full Scottish rig, including kilts,sporrans and rather cute little caps perched at a jaunty angle. Practically every time we went in or out, they were posing for photos with delighted American tourists.

The photo above shows me on the bridge with the hotel the very large building in the background on the top left. Unfortunately, our room looked out over the inner courtyard, so no view, but that wasn't too important as we spent most awake time out and about. Although we passed very little time there, we both agreed on the flight home that it seemed as though we'd been away for much longer, say a week. We crammed a lot in. We visited the National Gallery, did an open top bus tour, gawped at the Scott Memorial and the castle, went on an excellent and spooky ghost walk, took a posh afternoon tea, toured the shops (good Harvey Nicks) and walked our legs off sightseeing. What was also lovely was meeting up with Andrew's uncle and aunt, Heather and Terry. We visited the nicest vegetarian restaurant I think I've ever eaten at, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Called David Bann, it's very funky, excellent service, reasonably priced, and was deservedly buzzy and popular even on a Sunday night. H & T are vegans, so they really enjoyed having a wide choice of items from the menu. The photo of Andrew shows him at a pitstop at a really nice little wholefood cafe and juice bar we found off hte Royal Mile in one of the little closes.

A short week at work this week, as I am off today and Friday, as Sarah, best friend's 15 year old daughter is visiting. We're planning some retail therapy in the city centre, a Chinese meal out and some Art GCSE coursework for her to do. I'm sure we'll fit in some other stuff too. Weather is currently atrocious with gales, intermittent heavy showers and much cooler. Fortunately, there's plenty of space and indooor activities we can think of to ensure she (and we) have a really good few days. Have just spent the morning catching up with the housework, and will shortly have a quick bite to eat, a shower then do some ironing before she arrives this afternoon. Unfortunately, the ironing monster has been growing uncontrollably and now growls threateningly at me when I go into the spare bedroom. An hour spent on the board will tame it again!