Edinburgh

Number One Restaurant

On my most recent visit to Edinburgh I had the pleasure to again visit the Number One restaurant at the Balmoral Hotel :-) This place is far and away my favourite restaurant anywhere in the world with amazing food, good atmosphere and friendly unpretencious staff.

I ate

� Saut�ed Foie Gras with Buttered Poached Guinea Fowl, Celeriac Mousse, Apple and Tarragon Salad

� Fillet of Halibut with Lemon Pomme Mousseline, Brown Shrimps and Asparagus

� Apple Tart Tatin with Spiced Apple Jelly and Vanilla Ice Cream

and my dining companions and I shared a cheese plate.

It was really a lovely evening; nice ambience, great cuisine and the best company. It makes me smile to think of it. I love that place! The Palm Court bar upstairs does a wicked 'Mojito Royale' as well.

Visiting Edinburgh

I'm looking at flights to Edinburgh at the moment. I have some work do to out at the Gyle and so I'm planning to spend 3 or 4 days in the City. I was planning an Edinburgh visit a couple of months ago, but in the event I didn't get round to it.

Any recommendations on new good food places? I heard that the Jools Holland jazz place is supposed to be good, and I've been keen to eat at the Kitchin for a while. Any up and comers anyone can recommend?

Academicus Miraculous

I've been an exceptionally bad student this year and I've been lucky with exam results and I feel guilty. Well ok, I don't feel guilty but I do feel a bit stupid. To know that instead of tooling around doing nothing very productive or useful I could have instead applied myself just a little and would have felt at least that I had attempted to achieve something near to my potential. Which would certainly be a nice thing to achieve. I don't deserve to be allowed anywhere near 4th year, but unless I make a sharp turn sometime soon then that is I guess where I'm heading. This is all going by pretty fast.

Forthcoming holidays and speed essay writing

Almost unbelievably it is almost the end of term and my tardiness has once again caught me up. Three essays over 30 pages totalling some 15000 words in, urm, 6 days... So I'm semi-working on the first one now. Semi.

And then, more interestingly, on Friday I'm going to Val d'Isere. Well, actually, I'm flying to Grenoble and then making my way to Bourg St. Maurice for the night before meeting up with uni. people in Val d'Isere. Conditions look pretty good at this distance, hope it holds up. And then, the week after, me and sister Sarah and friends Gemma and Bryan are going to Argentiere for more boarding. w00t.

I'm totally excited about the latter, totally annoyed at myself for the former. These essays could have been finished weeks, nay months, ago. But it is a challenge and it is worth putting in a bit of effort now I suppose. I'll never learn if it's the last thing I do.

Peace.

Me and MySpace

This is a kind of nonsense entry, if you aren't just wasting time reading this then be warned, you are just wasting time reading this.

So, I finally bothered to figure out what makes MySpace tick as a community (uber versatility), and perhaps with further reflection this will help me to rationalise its $580Million price tag. I made my MySpace page - check it out and, if you are a myspacer, add me as a friend.

I'm still a non-smoker. Today is day 19. I ditched nicotine patches at day 13 or 14 - they make me have *very* weird dreams which usually involve people dying or me falling out with people. And both times I've stopped before I have used patches and got to the end of the patch programme and fallen at that hurdle. So, no nico-crutches for me. I'm pretty pleased with myself I have to say. I'm not happy that I am now addicted to Extra sugarfree chewing gum - Cool Breeze, Extra ICE and even the odd one Mountain Frost.

According to some web site i just found the following has happened by now

Your circulation starts to improve, and the extremities return to normal temperature.

Your blood pressure comes back down to that of a non-smoker

Your heart rate returns to normal

The level of oxygen carried in the blood goes back to normal

The likelihood of coronary problems start to diminish

The level of CO in your blood drops to virtually normal levels

Waste products are expelled from the lungs through increased coughing

The blood is virtually free of nicotine

Food will taste better as the tastebuds recover

Nerve fibres damaged by smoking begin to mend

Less effort is required to breathe, as the airways begin to open, and the lungs become more efficient

Energy increases as more oxygen is made available to the body

As you have more 'get-up-and-go', you may feel hungrier than before.

If smoking caused your sleep to be disturbed, this should return back to normal by now

Now, if that isn't a lorry load of great news then I don't know what is. Also, a little equation for you,

19 * £5.10 (pack of smokes at Margiotta) = £96.90
£96.90 / £2.90 (pint of Budvar at the Wally Dug) = 33.4

Slam d(r)unk.

A deadline for 3 essays is creeping up, and I haven't started any of them. I know what I'm writing one about I think - a functionalist analysis of software agents as parties in private law transactions. w00t.

That's it for tonight hombres. Have a good one.

The Wash

Went to The Wash tonight, up the top of the mound. I haven't been there in years. Since it was the Car Wash. It is nice. Very chilled. Very quiet though for a wednesday. Is today wednesday?

Excerpts from the Fringe

Got an email from Gemma with some funny excerpts from the fringe, not sure where to attribute it to. Here are my favourites:

My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in Customs.
Patrick Monahan at the Gilded Balloon
My mum and dad are Scottish but they moved down to Wolverhampton when I was two, 'cause they wanted me to sound like a tw*t.
Susan Murray at the Underbelly
I saw that show, 50 Things To Do Before You Die. I would have thought the obvious one was "Shout For Help".
Mark Watson, Rhod Gilbert at the Tron
Employee of the month is a good example of how somebody can be both a winner and a loser at the same time.
Demetri Martin at the Assembly Rooms

Pixies Gig at Meadowbank Stadium

The T on the Fringe Pixies gig last night was amazing! Since their reunion was rumoured a couple of years ago I've been fairly keen to see them - though not keen enough to force myself along to T in the Park. Yesterday was a more laid back affair, a gentle saunter to Meadowbank stopping at a couple of bars en route followed by a couple of hours of Pixies classics in a pretty relaxed atmosphere. Every tune a winner, it was neat to see up close and personal. The weather was a'right too, bit windy at times and some intermittent light rain but on the whole ok, Stormy Weather it wasn't.

Alarming buses

I was walking on Princes Street yesterday, somewhere close to the Galleries, when I heard an very calm announcement being broadcast from a First bus across the road,

"This bus is under attack. Please call 999"

I didn't have any talk time on my phone and it didn't occur to me that emergency calls are probably free. Others looked on, most just carried on with their business. Nobody ran away and the driver didn't look too bothered. I assume therefore that he hit the wrong button.

I think the message might have to be changed to something more panicked and urgent like

This bus is really under attack. Call 999. Run away. Very fast. Now.

But that probably wouldn't work either.

Feels like Fringe spirit

I've been back in Edinburgh for a little more than 24 hours now and have so far been to Phat Cave at the Gilded Balloon, Robin Ince's Book Club, Adam Buxtom's I, Pavel and the recording for Scottish TV / Paramount's Live at the Fringe - the Happy Monday Show. Adam Buxtom (of Adam & Joe) is an especially good time. Robin Ince himself was quite funny though the quality of showcase performances was variable. At Phat Cave there was a welshman called Rhod Gilbert who was good and I would quite like to see his whole show.

Not bad going I feel, though now I need to spend some time doing a little resit revision and studying the various festival programmes to see if there are hidden nuggets which look unmissable.

Been away again.

I've been up in Elgin and haven't posted for a while for two reasons. Firstly, the computer at my folks house runs on steam and secondly I've been way too busy having fun! Highlights include volleyball in the back garden, starting with 4 of us and gradually increasing in twos until it was 6 aside and a little cramped. And of course mountain biking at Fochabers which has opened me up to a whole new world of fun. Went to the beach too and drank too much wine and coffee overall.

I got exam results also, pleasantly surprised to see that I passed 4 out of 5 with good marks. Criminal Law was a bit of a disaster, worse than I even thought possible! But hey, it'll be cool. Don't you guys go worrying youselves about it ;)

I came back to the 'burgh today and the weather says it is going to be getting hotter which is *great news*. It's been supercrap for the last few days. I'm going to try to be really disciplined and get some programming work done tomorrow and friday so that I can visit the borders sometime at the weekend...

Jolly Pizzeria

The other night I had dinner at the Jolly Pizzeria on Elm Row. It has recently reopened and is, I am led to believe, unique in Edinburgh (perhaps Scotland?) in having a wood fired pizza oven. The smell of burning wood reminded me of holidays in the highlands with open log fires. Apparently the great advantage is that it cooks a pizza in 3 minutes rather than the 10 it takes in electric pizza ovens because they can't get hot enough to do it properly. I don't know if that is true or not but the scottish spruce it burns naturally imparts a very cool smokiness to the taste of the resultant pizza. Well anyway, the pizza I had was damn good and I definitely commend the place to you. It was monday night and was 10ish but with only 6 people in the restaurant it did feel a little lacking in atmosphere. And with only 6 covers out of 70 the service could have been prompter but still it was good and I will be back for the awesome pizza. Wine was cheap and ok too.

Strangely quiet around here...

It's strangely quiet around here. You see the ferocious reader has gone to Palm Springs to help her sister look after her brood of babies. She's back on the 20th of June. It's going to be boring around here until then. So, here's a list of things I miss or will miss about my flat mate Anna-Lisa:

Tuneless singing of her "Entertain me" song ("Entertain me, entertain me, entertain me, entertain me now" with slight variations in tune each time).
The Nothing Happening Conversation -
P: What's happening? / What ya doin'? / Sup?
AL: Nada
P: Ok
AL: What's happening wit you?
P: Nada
Both go back to ignoring each other.
The Food Conversation -
AL: What you cooking for me?
P: Nothing, what you cooking for me?
AL: Nothing
Both ignore each other until Stu comes round and AL makes him cook something nice. Or someone suggests Kebab Mahal.
The dishes in stagnant water strategerie. We have wildly different dish washing philosophies; I wash dishes the way my 1st year Home Economics teacher taught me to (like they did in the war) whereas AL embraces the possibly more hygenic method of using water like it's going out of fashion. Yet, she piles up dishes in the sink in dirty water; I pile them up by the sink. You might think this is a small thing but...
The seemingly endless stories of seemingly endless new mexican's being created by her sister Maria (and her sister's husband, Hector).
The pronunciation-fascist who "corrects" my English into American. And that of the people on TV who really should know better.
The way that pretty much anything can be laughed about. Especially other people not nearly as funny or clever as us...

The New Maharajah's Indian Restaurant

Last night I ate at the New Maharajah's Indian Restaurant on Forrest Road. I'd suggested Kebab Mahal but my dining partners did not like the look of the place, and more especially the fact that it doesn't sell alcohol... My Chicken Madras was nice enough (not a patch on Kebab Mahal!) but the whole experience gave me a headache!

Edinburgh was pretty busy yesterday for a Sunday, the Heineken Cup Final was happening at Murrayfield, Rangers were playing Hibs at Easter Road and improbably ended up winning the SPL and today it seems we are celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday with a local holiday.

Anyway, some of the rugby crowd were indulging in good humoured singing in the restaurant and after a while the management tried to calm it down by putting on some background music. This ill-fated strategy led to a battle of who could be loudest; the singers or the cd. At first it seemed the singers were winning but then in a shifty wee manoeuvre the cd volume was upped considerably. The singers refused to admit defeat however and managed to persuade a couple of other tables to join in the bonhommie. A rendition of Amarillo followed and much standing on chairs. The CD volume is hiked again. Why? I've no idea. The table of ladies behind me gave angry glances. The waiters let their efficiency drop totally. This was now damage control; keep the singers spending money, don't let everyone else get too annoyed.

The restaurant then played its trump card. It didn't work but how were they to know that nobody would appreciate Shakira at 140 decibels?

Mothers Day Gifts

It is apparently Mother's day on Sunday and so might be too late to buy by mail order. You could therefore do worse than making a visit to my friend Jen's shop, Perjink, on St. Stephen's Street, Stockbridge, Edinburgh. She also does mail-order so you can buy all of the necessary unusual or novel gifts by mail order.

[Number two in an occasional series of pimping out my friends businesses :-)]