A weekend with my life :: Saturday

I have to say the view from our room on Saturday was gorgeous... especially with the wee cheeky teaser of a view of the castle.

Had a lovely breakfast with Olly on Saturday morning then headed out into Auld Reekie in some unexpected sunshine.

We walked through a fab farmer's market at the carpark at the bottom of Lothian Road with some tempting food on offer... and some stunning views of the castle.

After some serious windowshopping where we checked out Paper Tiger & Studio One, Habitat, Wesley Owen, Mappin & Webb, and Schuh; we grabbed a cup of tea at Costa at the Waverley Centre. I have to say the Waverley Centre is looking really shabby with its ongoing refurb. Its not the place it was.

Afterwards, we headed to the Fruitmarket Gallery where they were showing an exhibition by an artist called Trenton Doyle Hancock - his work is supposed to pack a powerful visual and imaginative punch and the technique with words is impressive but his illustrations and subject matter are not to my taste and, to be honest, rather nonsensical in a rubbish kind of way. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics to prove my point - I wasn't allowed.

We then headed up Cockburn (pronounced Co'burn) Street for a browse. Cockburn St tends to be more bohemian and alternative... it was the place I got my clothes when I was a wee punky grunge kid way back in the day.

There are more interesting boutiques there now... with a super Fopp for all your music needs.

We checked out Dan Holdsworth's At the Edge of Space photography exhibition at the Stills gallery which was simply stunning. Again, didn't get any pics... but this time I didn't want to mess up his beautiful work with reflections from the glass. His work shows...

the European Space agency’s spaceport at Kourou in Guiana; the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope nestled in a jungle landscape of collapsed cave systems in Puerto Rico; and stunning landscape images of the Aurora Borealis taken from both Iceland and above the Arctic circle in Norway.

Truly awesome!

After Cockburn Street... we headed up the Royal Mile and down George IV bridge... and grabbed some soup and tea in The Elephant House - the place made famous as the cafe a struggling writer wrote a famous book... the writer is JK Rowling and her book has something to do with wizards and has been condemned by right wing Evangelicals (who all went to see the films... no doubt). It has a fab atmosphere - bustling with students and ordinary folk enjoying some down time. Lovely.

Suitably refreshed... we checked out some more shops... like the watch shop near the statue to Greyfriar's Bobby and Odd One Out on the way to the Grassmarket.

We stopped into Analogue Books thinking we'd catch the Jon Burgerman exhibit but were too early. I did like Marcus Oakley's work, however. I love Analogue... and wish I could get some of their wares... but they are a wee bit expensive for me. So I gaze from afar.

After that we headed back to the flat for some down time. Something kind of decadent about having a jacuzzi in the afternoon... but who cares?

At night... we headed out to La Rusticana for a lovely meal. We have fond memories of the restaurant having enjoyed a couple of romantic meals there before.

We then took a lovely stroll to the Beanscene near the Parliament for a wee night cap. We were the only ones there... and the staff didn't throw us out at 2100hrs... but let us chill for a wee while longer... which was great.

A rather brisk walk followed back to the flat. Good times!

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