Monday 21 March 2016

There are lots of lifts in Edinburgh.....

I've just got back from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival with friend Ann (coffeecake on Rav) - fabulous time, but isn't Edinburgh hilly, I don't think I have ever been in so many lifts in such a short time.  The most nifty one was in the Hotel, it came out of the floor when called and disappeared when not in use - a sort of now you see it, now you don't sort of thing.
No lift and magically it arrives

So much nicer than the bog standard hotel lift for wheelchairs...

But back to my trip to the EYF - we flew up on Wednesday afternoon with Easyjet, here I have to say that the service for me was extremely efficient.  my chair was the last item into the hold and the first item out - very reassuring.

Wednesday night we ate in a lovely veggie restaurant called David Bann - nice food, portions were large and tasty, but every time one of the waitresses passed my chair they knock it - this is painful and unnecessary and for me completely spoilt what should have been an enjoyable evening.

Thursday morning we did the tourist thingy and browsed the shops on the Royal Mile (going down hill) before catching the bus to our class on Two-Handed Colour Work with Carol Feller.  Finally I discovered what I had being doing wrong - you scoop the stitch, when you see it demonstrated it seems so simple, that I can't understand why I didn't see it before.  Anyway I managed several rounds of what will be a head band - don't do hats...


Friday was the first day of shopping - as we had taken a class we were allowed in an hour early ahead of the general public.  It was really great to be able to shop without having to fight for space and of course, there was no one to step back without looking and then blaming me for having the nerve to be there.

Here we are waiting for the doors to open





And here is some of my purchases - well you can't go that far and fail to buy..

Not bad?

Saturday was a day for browsing and just a very little shop.  Mainly we wanted to see our friend Emily to do her podcast - for nearly three hours we waited around and then at the last minute the event was cancelled - it was too noisy - well they knew that when they set up the venue.  We felt so sorry for Emily, and the other two who had been asked to do this, she had put a lot of effort into preparing for this, brought samples and set up, just to be told sorry.  I feel quite miffed about this, for had we known we could have spent time exploring Edinburgh in the sun rather than sitting around in a stuffy, noisy room.

That night we ate at Ecco Vino in Cockburn Street, just a few yards from our hotel, well what a difference to the previous restaurant.  The actual space was tiny, open kitchen and just two front of house staff who ran the place with utmost efficiency - not once did anyone kick my chair - bliss and the food was yummy, I had goat's cheese and sun-dried blush tomato risotto - divine, Julie had the Spagbol and Ann the Tuscan Beef Stew and we shared a starter of olives, pesto, hummus and gorgeous bread - a super little gem found purely by accident!


Sunday we viewed the Celts exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland - fabulous as was the actual museum

Then just as we leaving, rather peeved that the Lewis Chessmen were less impressive than we had imagined we saw this amazing tapestry

Woven using yarn from every breed of sheep in the United Kingdom by Victoria Crowe of the Dovecot Tapestry Studio
Then we headed for the airport and home, very tired but happy.... Late nights knitting, chatting and drinking coffee and early mornings make for tired girls.......










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