Museum Last Day

My Kiwi handyman did the first coat on the door. The plumber came and had a look at the job. He was very polite and helpful, gave me a price, and emailed the estimate promptly. His email began, ‘It was lovely to meet you this morning…’ I like good manners, he got the job, and he’s coming tomorrow to fit new thermostats on the radiators. The chap came to measure up the path and estimate. For a house that was ‘perfect’ when we bought it, there seems to be rather a lot of things needing done!

Between tradesmen, I got to know my new phone. I mean, I tried to get to know my new phone, but it doesn’t want to know me. When you only get a new phone every 10 years or so, there is nothing familiar. What a puzzle! I will have another prod at it this evening if I feel up to it.

Museum visit. Last one. I learned several interesting facts, many of which I’ve forgotten.

I learned that Burke and Hare, the Edinburgh body snatchers, were Irish navvies working on the Union Canal.

I Iearned that the International Exhibition of 1886 was held in The Meadows. Huge wonderful buildings were built, of which nothing much (a few pillars and a sundial) remains because of an Act of Parliament which forbade all permanent structures in the park.

I learned that the Tay Bridge disaster 1879 was caused by errors by the designer, Sir Thomas Bouch. The tutor said this was the origin of the phrase ‘a botched job’. I don’t see any reference to this online, but it does seem feasible.

And I discovered a whole new level that I’ve never been to before - A Changing Nation hidden away on Level 6. Marvellous!

We went out to the rooftop terrace and I asked the tutor why they had planted trees on a terrace which was built for the view over the city. She didn’t know, but agreed it wasn’t a brilliant idea. A letter to the Director of the Museum is in the offing. Somebody must know.

I had fun with long exposures in the Great Hall. That’s my group assembling waiting for me to stop mucking about and get down there.