Baby shower presents

One of the members of my research group - Gemma - is about to go on maternity leave. Another - Debbie - has organised a surprise baby shower on campus for Gemma on Wednesday. Unfortunately I probably won't make this gathering, so today Mr hazelh and I popped up to town in the middle of the day to buy a present for the new baby and Gemma. The idea is to pass this onto someone who will be there. While we were shopping Mr hazelh spotted these beautiful suede booties. Aren't they adorable? Beneath them in the gift bag are some very soft, comfortable socks for Gemma.

The middle man in this plan is my colleague David, who will be going to the baby shower on Wednsday. He invited us to dinner at his flat in Morningside this evening. We had a very jolly time with him and his other guests Bruce and Annie. It was interesting to meet Bruce again: we calculated that we last saw each other at a conference about two decades ago!

With five extremely outgoing people at the dinner table the conversation was wide-ranging and very entertaining. Amongst other things, we covered: non-car ownership; the whereabouts/health of Barry Cryer; travel; politics of the Middle East; Shuggie Bain; running; birdwatching; the recipes of Yotam Ottolenghi; replacement hips and knees; selling property in London and buying in Edinburgh; the dotcom boom and bust; ex-pat life in Singapore; singing in choirs; house renovations/conversions; post-lockdown zombie (or Zoombie) social lives, mushrooms, including the magic variety; proportional representation; devolution; mistaking two different foreign secretaries for (a) the TV repair man (Sir Malcolm Rifkind) and (b) a librarian (Robin Cook), Shostakovich and the future of live classical music performances...

We returned home by bus, looking forward to an extra hour in bed thanks to the clock change.

Exercise today: walking (18,693 steps).