MenoFest; Where The Fun Is

Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe is world-famous... well... at least to those who are into festivals of arts, music and mayhem. You'll have seen that Bertie's Gail took off for a foray in the festives, such is the allure of the Bonny Land's capital at this time of year.

Met this Leonberger on the bus - gentle giant.

As stated here last Friday, I's hooned across country to be here for a week of it. Whilst the evening concert with Equilibrium was reported yesterday, what was not mentioned was that I had a very full day on the Saturday. Set off at 9am to drop Li'l Ren in at the car doctors... (very sad story that and it will involve a considerable number greater than 87 to get her set free again...) From there, caught the bus down into the 'New Town' for the Photographic Exhibition.

Hmmmm... the definition of photography was well-stretched, IMHO; so much digital manipulation that very often one couldn't actually say there was a photograph at all. There were many fine entries, but as many again of this highly processed type and not to my taste at all. That said, it was well worth the five quid entry, because there was a full, glossy brochure to take away, which is definitely worth the having. Don't get me wrong, am open to manipulation of images and often take to it myself... but declare it as 'art' then and not as photography. Matter of personal taste - and that is how it should be. For those who are interested, this year's catalogue is not available yet, but last year's gives you a very good idea of what is represented.

From there, it was back on the bus down onto Princes Street and there it was time to give Shriek a view of this fair city. He was keen to smell the roses, though slightly shy at this, his first photo-shoot...

We wandered along towards the art gallery to take a second viewing of the RSA Open. As always, there was plenty of interest along the way...

After the gallery, it was time for lunch. As Shriek sat on the table, a couple of young ladies and their cleverfones wanted to instigrab him; a star in the making! I got this long shot of him and couldn't help drawing comparisons with the ice-cream cone on the sign behind; losing all interest in the backdrop of festival tents, gallery architecture and castles...

The seats look empty here... but within minutes they were filled to capacity and lots of other folk were standing around us -not just for the rather tasty and cost-effective offerings of the food hut, but due to the very fine violin-playing busker; a young lady from the Orient serenading us with a large repertoire of modern hits. Beautifully played. Shriek and I donated five quid for our half an hour of joyous listening. Bless her, I hope she gathers a goodly bit for her efforts. Our lunch was the vege-burger and chips. Light and delicious and just right to see us onto the bus up to the Meadows.

Oh yes, you may think that it looks lush and the sun is out. Which it was, at this point. Prior to getting off the bus, there had been a cloudburst and it was dark and thundery and very very wet. But it dried up just for us getting out to walk again. However, what you can't see here is the freezing hurricane of a wind which was blowing! Not that it stopped Shriek from grinning. He's easily pleased.

We were due to meet up with Mac1 and the father for a short musical show of a friend of Mac1s - needless to say there was a miscommunication of location and we ended up for half an hour people-watching in the Meadows... and that was just fine. There was a travelling fair with all the fun behind a wire fence and then there was the 'circus' of the modern kind behind the crazy wall...

Then it was back on the bus to home for a few hours before going out to the concert in the evening. It was tiring but great fun. Day one done.

Sunday was actually an 'at home' day. Today, there are no shows as such on my list, but social stuff in the morning and hopefully will be getting Li'l Ren back home with me, refreshed, renewed, and in full order. She better be, the amount of ransom which is being demanded...

Tomorrow, some of the round and about picz from Saturday - with some of the visual manipulation with is more art than photography!!!