Rest Day in Aviemore: Land's End to John O'Groats 13

Our one rest day in two weeks was in Aviemore, it was much needed and featured a full sports massage on both legs, which was surprisingly restorative! No film from us today, but this from The Vine Trust was lovely!

Next day, we hit the road again!

Philip Noble's Bubble Magic

Abernethy Centre, caught in bubbles, above and below

Kids love chasing them - and bursting them

 Below - two more views of The Abernethy Centre, in the bubble.

20-30-40ft... Now, THAT'S a Bubble!

By blowing into them, Philip creates bubbles within bubbles.

When the sun catches the bubbles, the colours burst all over the place. Very cosmic!

Photo down inside a long 'tube' bubble

More of Philip's projects are online at Bubblestrings.com

Public art that raises a smile

Public art?! I must admit that a lot of contemporary public art just annoys me - and gives me brief (and rather disturbing) outbreaks of Dailymailitis as I find my self muttering darkly about the scandalous waste of public money by self-seving liberal elites, and the emperor's new clothes ad nauseum. However, when walking through Paris, we stumbled on the above. A piece of public art, that just made everyone who saw it smile, or even laugh out loud while reaching for cameras. Mrs Hideous noted that if we had had young 'Norris' with us, he would have simply loved to have found a stick, and waded into the water to try them all out!

Twine

I took the kids down to Edinburgh today to experience something of the famous Edinburgh Festival. The first great part of the day was the train ride into the city, over the Forth Bridge past the airport and into Waverley station. As usual at festival time the streets were packed with tourists, people advertising their various shows, and a bewildering array of street entertainers, artists, and people selling all manner of the weird and wonderful. We ignored all of these and marched to the Lawnmarket on the Royal Mile, to watch a children's play called Twine, the cast of which included our old friend Ross, who is part of the Tortoise in a Nutshell theatre group.

Norris (aged 7) said, "I liked Twine because it was funny and interesting. The best character was George because he kept on coming in to the stage every so often with a box of people on top - that's what made it funny. Uncle Claude pretending to be French made me laugh. I liked Uncle Claude's music and people were saying that he was pretending to be French but do not tell him because it will make him angry. I liked the chocolate cakes that they gave out at the end too!"

All three of the kids seemed to really enjoy the show - and were utterly absorbed by it from beginning to end, the hour flew by and they were disappointed that it had to end. There were no problems with restlessness or naughtiness, because they couldn't take their eyes off the characters. I looked accross to my kids at various points during the show - and they were utterly absorbed. The 'story within a story' idea as very well done, and alongside the flights of imagination of the storyline, the musical accompaniment was especially effective. The bizarre family of storytellers who have surreal and improbable adventures after an elaborate Tea-drinking ceremony, reminded me of The Rutles, but where that comic band were transported by 'tea' into Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds territory, this family are joined by a boy made of string, whose inability to speak draws them within the stories they are trying to tell! The age recommendation for the play is 6yrs+, but my 4 year old was highly entertained by it - because even when the dialogue was 'over her head', there was enough happening visually to hold her interest. Well worth a trip!

Yet More Holiday Snaps: Orvieto

The holiday house we had near Orvieto was adequate, but the area was lovely. The sister-in-law, Simon and their kids were there, which was good - the only down side was that she brought her tonsils with her which duly became infected and she was ill, I mean really not well!

These pictures show the town centre, the caves under the town centre, and a view of the old town perching on top of its hill from where we were staying. These ones will enlarge if clicked on!

It was in Orvieto that I made a mistake which could have been costly and which might have ruined our holiday altogether. Doris and I didn't join the rest of the exploring the caves under town centre becuase she was asleep in her pushchair. It was while I was with her, in a cafe, that I lost my wife's purse which pretty much contained everything we needed! I re-traced my steps, looking everywhere and when I got the cafe, the owner was waving at me clutching the purse! Phew! I shook his hand and gave him my most effusive ever "grazi!". He just shrugged and said my favourite Italian word, "'prego"!

Rood Awakenings

Rood Awakenings is fringe contribution to the Perth Festival of the Arts by Christians as a celebration of creativity by artists who believe their gifts come from, and reflect their creator.

Some of my friends have been instrumental* in putting this together in Perth. Click on the image above to go to their website. Although the events and performances will be held in Perth, there is a photography competition running too, looking at images of the cross in everyday life - so any of you artistic types who read this blog from further afield please join in too.

The irony of the fact that this message has been brought to you by the least artistic person you know, is hereby humbly noted.