Alba Flamenca

Some excellent tapas and then a roughly 1 hour show of music and dance. As always very powerful and engaging.  

Harvest Moon Half Marathon

A very chilly morning but clear blue skies with East Lothian coastline looking its very best. A delightful course of trails through pine woods and runs along the short and several miles along the beach with views to Bass rock in the distance. Well marshalled and marked route. Form was pretty good today and whilst I was slowing in the second half was still running the whole way. I think the course was slightly shorter than 2 years ago and a bit less than 13 miles. Time was 2 hrs 2 mins and about 10 minutes quicker than a slow run 2 years prior.

 

Two Sisters at Royal Lyceum

Saturday night at the theatre. Both enjoyed this one. A new play written by David Greig.

MTB Rides

A quiet couple of weeks as far as work concerned so planned a sequence of 6 MTB rides. Inital though was for 6 consecutive days but given weather conditions the better plan was to spread over 2 weeks as conditions allowed. 

Ride 1 was to Little France Park taking my time to explore as much as possible around LFP, Craigmillar Castle and Jack Kane Centre.

 Ride 2 was Glentress - the blue course. Fun as usual.

Ride 3 was out to the Far Side of Balerno. With weather still cold feet and hands pretty frozen by the end.

Ride 4 was South Queenferry. A very nice route and destination.

Ride 5 was a circuit from Melrose with a hike to summit of Eildon Hill added on.

Ride 6 was Glen Finglas at Brig O'Turk. A rough, tough, remote climb.

None of the rides terribly long - generally 2 - 3 hrs duration but all pretty good fun.

Transatlantic Sessions

A nice trip to Glasgow for a meal with Max and Kasha at Ask Italian and then on to Transatlantic Sessions as part of Celtic Connections at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. A good show featuring as usual a number of artists; Carlene Carter, Lindsay Lou, Joshua Burnside, Kim Carnie being the headliners with a good mix of our musicians getting their turn including the ever present Ally Bain and Phil Cunningham.

We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn express. The bed was a bit small, the room a bit hot and breakfast not great. Probably a good idea to stay over as the show finished at 10.45 pm but find a bigger bed!

Jekyll and Hyde at the Royal Lyceum

First visit to the Royal Lyceum in quite a while to see a 70 minute solo performance by Forbes Mason. An impressive performance rather than particularly enjoyable for Colin whilst Cherry found the lighting and use of strobes very unpleasant. 

Vogrie 10k Trail Race

A busy race schedule booked last year before my heel problems re-emerged. I was feeling pretty confident after the good showing at Feel The Burns. Sadly after just 1 km the heel became sore and was quite unpleasant for the next km. It eased a bit thereafter helped by the greater variations in gradient. Decided to finish the run but to take it really slow and easy to minimise any damage to the foot. Lucky with the weather and a really nice course so still enjoyed the run. 

Feel The Burns

My fifth time running in this lovely long winter event. Assembly is at Selkirk Rugby Club with the start a short distance away. Temperatures very cold but thankfully clear blue skies. Confidence was low as running volume has been very low recently as I give my heel time to recover.

It is a good long steady climb towards the 3 Bretheren and the Southern Upland way for a lengthy undulating run at a decent altitude. Eventually you reach a long gentle downhill slope over a couple of miles. The hardest and roughest bit is the approach to and ascent of Foulshiels Hill. I arrived there in pretty good shape and stormed past many runners on the steep ascent. A final pleasant descent of around 15 minutes or so. Finished in around 2 hrs 30 minutes for my 3rd fastest time of the 5 outings. Very pleased with that and to be still feeling pretty good at the end.

Haggis pie, soup and tea back at the clubhouse.

Greenmantle Dash

9th time I've run the lovely wee race in Broughton in the Borders. A short sharp run with a bit of everything. Wet cold river crossing, muddy field, very steep climb of around 200m, tricky descent, fast run on muddy field then along a 400 m section of road to finish. My slowest time by a good margin which I can blame on the Triathlon yesterday.

 

New Years Day Triathlon

Second time I've done the Edinburgh NYD Triathlon (last time in 2018). A glorious sunny day - just a bit chilly.

Not quite sure how they do the order of the swims but certainly not the fastest first. I was 76th off the start of around 400 competitors. Felt like a pretty solid swim - passing some getting passed by some. 

Took the softies option for T1 with a visit to the changing room to dry and dress properly for the cold outside. A short run on the freezing tarmac in bare feet to get to the bike.

A good bike ride passing many on the way up the hill. Taking things very carefully on the descent.

The run didn't feel good after the bike efforts but that is always the way in triathlon. Finished quite strong.

Overall time was 1 hr 39 mins 43 secs - 161% of the winning time. Bike and run were both pretty good at 149% of the fastest time in each. 

Christmas Day

Christmas Day with Colin, Cherry, Max, Hannah and Les. The normal routine with Turkey at 2 pm. Very nice!

 

Alien Bloc

Colin and Max drove down to Alien Bloc for Colin's annual go on the climbing wall. Working on the Bumble Bees it was a fairly decent effort from Colin. Max did endurance work on Level 3 climbs.

 

Wicked at the Playhouse

With all the family home for Christmas we had a family outing to see Wicked at the Playhouse. It was a general thumbs down to greater or lesser extent from all of us. 

China Crisis at the Queens Hall

Hannah, Colin & Cherry went to Queens Hall to see China Crisis. 40th anniversary of Working With Fire and Steel. A run through of the album then a short interval then another 45 minute set finishing around 10.30 pm. Nice set and lots of chat from Gary.

 

Arab Strap at Summerhall

A good performance. Started with a run through of Philophobia celebrating 25th anniversary then a few other songs to complete the set. Summerhall again a pretty nice venue.

 

Orienteering at Bush Estate

A local event at Bush Estate in the rain. An Agatha Christie theme with various cards to complete in score format. Didn't go at all well as I missed one of the 9 controls on each card thinking I had done them all. Bit of an accident clambering over a barbed wire fence - luckily just getting some bruising on the arm. Right heel plantar fasciitis also started playing up quite badly from half way. In spite of all that was great fun. Sadly I'll need to keep off the running for a while limiting myself to just the races I've already booked in 2024. 

Billie Marten at Summerhall

Another concert at Summerhall. One of Hannah's favs Billie Marten with a nice mix of folk/rock/pop.  

Hermitage of Braid Trail Race 10K

A cold but clear Sunday morning and a fabulous well marshalled route around Blackford Hill and the Hermitage. Felt on reasonable form and was slightly faster than 5 years ago and came in with a time just under an hour at 157% of the winning time. Don't like the photo though!

 

Hamish Hawk - Summerhall

After ferry and drive back from Northern Ireland we had tickets for a show at Summerhall in the evening. Cherry had stuff to catch up on but Colin went along to watch Hamish Hawk do a gentle acoustic set. Quite a busy standing room only venue but a nice sensible volume and not too long. A very pleasant show.

 

Funeral

The arrangements were progressed quickly and the funeral arranged according to Maxwell's wishes for Friday 24 November. We visited the family grave site at Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church for the interment and then the memorial service at First Bangor Church. This was following by nibbles and drinks at Bangor Golf Club.

RIP Maxwell Ledlie

Maxwell sadly passed away in hospital on Thursday night shortly before midnight. His last week was peaceful spent in almost continuous sleep. 

Northern Ireland

Sad trip to Bangor by car and ferry to see Maxwell in hospital. A combination of Covid and Alzheimers has left him in a very bad way. I arrived on Sunday and left on Friday with daily visits. Mostly he was sleeping but when awake in a very disturbed state.