I thought it would be busier

Whatever they had heard about the legendary Royal Mile was evidently greater than it turned out to be. Maybe they were jsut taking a little rest from the constant hop-on-hop-off-pavement tour-group dodging required during any journey along the Canongate in the afternoon during the summer. Those board things which shops insist on placing across a good third of the pavement aren't much help either. Much better to go somewhere nice and peaceful and much less busy like Cramond although after the ¾-hour journey there and extremely slow trundle along the Almond walkway I had to swiftly scuttle along the prom to Silverknowes to get another bus back to town to get to the McParliament in time for what turned out to be a fairly dissapointing talk by Harry Benson and Kieran Dodds who didn't really say much about "the changing face of photojournalism" as the latter is new to it and the former seemed a little vague on remembered details from his own era.

Between the gig at the parliamentand Weirdsville at the Cameo two hours later I took another trundle along the high street to try and han dout at least one blipcard to a complete stranger; it is, after all, what they are for. Lots of other photographers about including a couple of the same people as yesterday but I was disinclined to invite any of them after they all scuttled off their perches en masse when a woman dressed in the usual corset-and-pants combo wandered past dragging a thin presumed-bloke in a gimp outfit on a string. Some people even stopped trying to sneak a photo of the cleavages of the girls in the group advertising their Twelfth Night show in order to try to sneak a picture of the gimp-woman's mostly-uncovered breasts. They may indeed have been attempting to line up a shot where the afternoon sunlight glinted prettily off the gimp's shiny head but they certainly didn't give that impression by their demeanour. Instead I went via a few quiet and peaceful alleys and the college of art to Lothian Road where there was a gentleman crouched by a lamp-post. I initially thought he was taking a picture of the couple in the middle of the pavement but they eventually skipped past behind him. Then I thought he was taking a picture of the bloke in a silly hat at that Lavazza bar thing or maybe the tired-looking waitress cleaning up some old cups. He seemed to be filming the advertising screen thing but the frequent shutter-button movements meant he was either taking stop-start video or a series of stills rather than just filming the whole thing (an advert for La Redoute at the time). In any case his dedication to his cause and willingness to adopt a vaguely odd-looking position for a prolonged period meant that he was awarded a blipcard.

Weirdsville was most excellent; even my mother laughed and was able to ignore the swearing to concentrate on the film. It has a few famousish faces in but most of all has a nice quirkiness and sarcasm which might be to do with being Canadian. Very much worth seeing when it comes round on general release, whenever that might be. After the Q&A and a little rest in the bar (and a little sneaking) we went to Magda for a meal which was also rather good. I think I've had the same thing on both visits but I didn't want to make the same mistake I made in Phenecia and spoil a visit by ending up with something I didn't like.