I spotted a number 12 bus the other day whose destination board declared that it was going to Seafield and serving the Eastern General Hospital. Since the Eastern closed in 2007 and the bus was heading in the opposite direction my immediate reaction was to damn Lothian Buses for incompetence. Then I remembered that the Science Festival was in town and realised that it must have been a demonstration of the strange nature of space and time.

The two talks I've been to so far, Science, Sex and Theatre; A Potent Brew and The Science of Wine and Cocktails, dealt entertainingly with some of my interests and I've another one in view about music. I shall have to try some of the novels and plays of Carl Djerassi who gave the first talk. He's credited, inter alia, with being the main man behind the oral contraceptive but he's also a writer of what he calls "science in fiction" , which he characterises as being about real, proven, imminent or at the very least plausible science as opposed to science fiction. He didn't seem the sort of chap who would write in too worthy a manner, except I suppose in a scientific paper, but I shan't rush out and buy them all at once just in case.

Rona Munro is a playwright whose work is not in the least worthy in tone and whose latest play, Pandas, is given a sparkling production at the Traverse. It is a cleverly constructed tale in which the lives and loves of six characters are linked to great comedic effect. The play is well served by a simple, attractive and cunningly designed set, great sound and lighting, and the cast act their little socks off.

Much the same could be said of Edinburgh Theatre Arts production of A Fistful of Mondays in which a cast that included a number of my friends and acquaintances gave a packed house an evening full of laughter, with the occasional pause for tears, culminating in a splendid line dancing number.

Given the respective resources of the two companies you couldn't put a fag paper between the results of their work.