Chasing images

First thing, I submitted my paper (hurray!), and then popped out for a quick blast on a spinning bike (good for the soul as well as the body). I also booked some flights for Finland, having clarified a number of obligations and tasks.

At lunchtime, we headed into town by bus, and I got my first sighting of the **enormous** buses (see extra). It was good to have some other buses in the photograph for scale. Over to Glasgow, and to the Glasgow Women's Library, where Artemisia Gentileschi's Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria is on tour (see second extra). Wonderful to see it in such a setting. It's a really good initiative to take that sort of painting "on tour".

More wrangling with the Glasgow public transport system got us to the Mitchell Library, where we had a coffee and a bun, and waited for P and H who were joining us so that we could attend an Aye Write event. It was supposed to be an "in conversation" with two writers, but sadly one was ill. However, as far as all of us were concerned, the main event was still on: Raynor Winn, author of the Salt Path. It was amazing that all four of us had read the book and all loved it for different reasons. I guess it helps that we all had some sort of connection to the South West of England, where the "path" was located. But I think we all had connected to the searing honesty of the narrative of loss and finding. Raynor Winn was as honest, open and straightforward as she comes across in the book, and listening to her I reflected on the importance of learning to live in the moment, as a way of overcoming adversity and obstacles that life sticks in our way. An important message right now...

After Helen and I had got our copies of the book signed, we headed off to the Bon Accord almost next door for a couple of pints and some pub grub before returning to Edinburgh. A long day, but definitely worth the effort to see both the painting and the literary event. And of course to spend time with friends, living in the present.