A busy day at the festival

We had an early night as we had to be up at 6am to get everyone ready for our various commitments today.

Mr C first dropped #3 daughter and me at Alnmouth for our train to Edinburgh. Then he drove the children to Chimney Sweep theatre company in Newcastle for their week long summer club. After that he took their case, football and basketball to their house. Next he went home and picked up the van to take it to near Morpeth for its service. Then he’d walk a mile to get the bus home. He’ll be ready to chill out for the next few days while I’m away!

Daughter and I met Jenny and headed to the Barmoral for coffee before Jenny and I went to the Queen’s Hall for a string quartet, Chiaroscuro. Formed in 2005 they are an international ensemble comprising Russian, French and pSwedish players. They played Hayden and Beethoven very spiritedly but we had to dash from the standing ovation as we had to get to our next event, James O’Brien at a very full McEwan Hall. He was in conversation with Gary Robertson. He was as entertaining and passionate as expected. Daughter and her Edinburgh friend joined us for that and went to do their own thing while we went to the new Edinburgh Futures Institute for Mishal Hussain who was talking about her book about the history of her family, Partition of India and a very enlightening explanation of how her grandfather, an Indian army assistant to Auckenleck who was not on the same wavelength regarding Partition as Mountbatten who needlessly to say wasn’t interested in advice from those with local expertise. I knew Mountbatten had rapport with Nehru but not Jinna. I have read a fair bit about Indian history so found it really interesting. If the book appears in paperback I’ll buy it.

Our last event was Kezia Dugdale in conversation with Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham. They talked a lot about devolution to regions and the need for proportional representation. They also said they’d be putting pressure on Rachel Reeves re taxation. (More of it).

We have had a brilliant day and are ready to get back over the Forth to put our feet up. Tomorrow is less busy so we don’t need an early start.