From Ullapool to Edinburgh

This morning James and I strolled into the village to post Christmas presents to Jamie. It was an absolutely beautiful day with blue skies, and the loch was flat calm. We walked out on to the pier and watch a young seagull pecking valiantly at a starfish, which looked rather tough and unappetising. We also saw a seagull dropping a mussel onto the concrete of the pier to crack its shell open. While it was feasting on its snack another young seagull came loping up hopefully but the adult wasn’t interested in sharing!

Back at the cottage we refreshed the cats’ litter tray and piled up their food ready for 24 hours without us, and we set off for Edinburgh to the Marillion Concert. Like many of the concerts that we booked in 2020 we have no choice of when the rescheduled concert will pop up in late 2021 or in 2022. Some we will have to miss due to other plans, but James was very keen to go to Marillion, so we have travelled to Edinburgh, we’re staying overnight in a Premier Inn, and we will travel back to the cottage and the kitties tomorrow morning. James thought that he had booked the Premier Inn at Edinburgh airport so we drove there, but when we tried to check in we found out that in fact he had booked the Edinburgh Park Premier Inn which is three miles further along at South Gyle. It turned out to be even better because we could get the tram from right outside it, in to the City Centre! And that’s what we did; we had a tasty dinner at Topolabamba (again!) and then arrived at the Usher Hall. And now we are in our seats, very near the front and also very near some giant speakers (I have made myself some rudimentary ear plugs out of a torn up paper hanky) waiting for the concert to start. The guy sitting in front of us has seen Marillion many times and had flown from New York for this concert. Apparently he goes to Marillion conventions - they seem to have a very dedicated fan base. The couple beside him have flown from Belfast. 

* Update at 11 p.m. on the tram back to Edinburgh Park. The concert was excellent even though I recognised barely any of the songs! It seems that my knowledge of Marillion’s albums is sadly out of date. But the band were great, led by the charismatic Steve Hogarth, and the songs were good. My favourite of course was their final encore, one of their early songs, Heart of Lothian.