Here I am enjoying a draught of après-ski on the final afternoon of my holiday.  I'm not generally a beer drinker but I found the Austrian hooch most palatable, more so than their wine - the bog standard haus wein anyway.

The weather was nothing like the warm sunny Spring of Kronplatz last year.  The mountain tops were visible on only one day, being shrouded in mist and cloud otherwise, but only one day was truly horrible.  I gave my thighs a rest that day and took the train down to Innsbruck.

I've been in and out of the airport several times but never before into the city.  There is some lovely baroque architecture to admire in the old town and it probably looks even more lovely when the sun shines on it. 

They were getting themselves geared up for Easter.  Giant eggs were on display in various parts of the city centre.  Here's one:-

There was a definite end of the season feel about Seefeld which I suppose must be why it was so quiet despite being only 20kms from Innsbruck.  The snow was in excellent condition too especially on my last day following a heavy fall overnight.  But not many were there to enjoy it as you can see from this picture taken on a day when the sun shone a bit.

 Back home I've seen a couple of films, the rather odd-ball The Square which takes the mickey out of modern art and the wonderful Cabaret which gives us Liza Minelli's so vulnerable and so determined Sally Bowles against the the background of the rise of the Nazi party.  I saw a production of the stage  musical not long ago but the film transcends it in every way.  Joel Gray as the Kit Kat club MC is an impossible act to follow.

I had the pleasure of reading Benedick at the readthrough of the Grads upcoming Fringe show Much Ado about Nothing.  I was in the show the last time the Grads did it as a lowly henchman of the villain.  Obviously I shan't be playing Benedick this time round unless David adds a geriatric touch to his slimmed down re-genderd version but it was fun to read the part.

Something else I read the other day amused me.  On the side of a box containing an electric toaster was the boast that the gadget had a "climate sensing toasting cycle".  So whatever happens with global warming we can rest assured that our breakfast will be safe.

There was an article in the Evening News yesterday about the new concert hall to be built on the site of the office block behind Dundas House in St. Andrew Sqare.

It was complete with a natty artist's impression of the circular auditorium ringed with stacked balconies.  My objective when it opens will be to locate the seat nearest to where my office was when I worked for RBS.

The pesky pigeons survived snowmageddon and continued their attempts to set up home on my balcony.  They managed to lay one egg which I swiftly removed and we then entered into a war.  As soon as they found a little corner in which to nestle I deployed an obstacle.

They were very persistent.  The balcony is now criss-crossed by silver tape that is claimed to frighten them but doesn't really, although it impedes their movement.  It's also strewn with upturned flowerpots and other obstacles that leave no sheltered spot a bird can rest in.  The right way up flowerpot that received the egg now boasts wooden slats poking up out of the soil and just itching for a pigeon to try lowering its bum onto them.

I'm praying they've got the message because I've exhausted my gamut of defensive measures.

Encouraged by Claire's rave review and the wish to try what sounded like Aldous Huxley's "feelies" I went to see Black Panther.  It wasn't a bad film as far as Boys Own Paper adventures go and the visual effects were impressive.  The pitch and yaw seats, blasts of air and sprinklings of water were fun.  I missed a smell effect but am assured that's because my sense of smell wasn't up to the job.  I don't think Huxley would have been entirely satisfied but it was enough for me.  For once anyway.  I fear that the experience would quickly get boring so don't expect to try it very often.  Plus it's hideously expensive.

I enjoyed a wonderful SCO concert and was impressed as was this reviewer by just how much the musicians were enjoying themselves, It bodes well for Francois Leveux's return visits.  I've put them in my diary.

The second Jazz at St James concert was equally rewarding.  Brian Molley and his quartet played a very generous two hour-long sets, mostly his own compositions in a contemporary jazz style with a tinge of the other gained from the quartet's travels in India and elsewhere.  Here they are in Bangalore last year.

Preparatory to striking another blow in the St James Centre rebuild and the sometime, maybe, let's hope not never tram extension, Picardy Place has had its statues moved and its trees cut down.

Sherlock Holmes has been stuck in a storage cupboard somewhere but the Paolozzi pieces have been put in the gardens at Hillside Crescent/London Road and very lovely they look there.  The contemplation chairs are a welcome addition.

Pity about the Picardy Place trees but the Council has a two for one replanting plan which sounds good.  The reason given for axeing them now is that it had to be done before the bird nesting season got underway.  I synpathise. The pigeons who nested on my balcony last year have been doing their best to move in again and I've been fighting back.  I haven't seen them for a few days so perhaps the Beast from the East got them.  It's an ill wind and all that..

I can't tell how cold it is on my balcony because my thermometer is covered by snow.  I'm not particularly inconvenienced by the nasty weather.  I don't need to drive anywhere and I have in any case just disposed of my car.  I have done so not out of a fervent desire to save the planet though I do hope it will hang on for a few more years but I now use a car so little that it didn't seem worth the expense of keeping it going or, given its age, buying a replacement.

The snow has so far caused the cancellation of two concerts I had tickets for.  A blessing in disguise really since it meant that I didn't have to venture out into the cold night but could stay comfortably at home.  The major danger is that I will run out of milk for my breakfast cereal before the supermarkets have their supplies restored.

Before I disposed of my car I stopped by the roadside and took some snaps of the tailend of the Ochils near Stirling which, thanks to some clever software, I stitched together to make what I think is a lovely panorama.