Castles and rooftops

I haven’t seen John for 3 years and really just bumped into him in different parts of the world for much of the last 10-15 years. He was a logistician with Oxfam working in some of the hardest and most dangerous places. He quietly retired during lockdown.

Today we met up and spent a good couple of hours looking round Edinburgh Castle in a biting wind. John hadn’t been there since childhood. After lunch we we headed to the National Museum of Scotland which is fabulous - and what a gorgeous building.

In the evening I’d promised Josh a nice meal out so we headed to The Outsiders on George IV Bridge and were lucky enough to get a window table with a wonderful view of the lit castle. Stephen - whom we’d not seen for 12-13 years joined us. He’s in Edinburgh for 6 months as director of special effects on a new Amazon series being filmed in Leith. So a good start. But just as we’d settled on what we wanted from the lovely menu, the power went out in the kitchen. So we had a full bottle of wine, olives, bread, and managed to get a cheese board instead of our hot 3 course dinner. Let’s hope we have better luck on Wednesday with our taste of Scotland tasting menu,