Brooklyn is a novel that I bought after hearing its author Colm Toibin speak at last year's Book Festival.  I enjoyed this tale of a young girl's emigration from Ireland to New York circa 1950, her homesickness, her adaptation to American life, her romantic involvement, the tragedy that strikes her family and her subsequent return to Ireland.  Her return is intended to be temporary but things develop that threaten that intention.

I shan't spoil your enjoyment by disclosing what happens but suggest you run along to a cinema and see the beautiful film they have made of it.  Take some Kleenex.

What a musical weekend I have had.  As forecast Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto in the hands of  Boris Giltburg was exhilarating.  It's a high octane number so you'd expect him to choose a relaxed little ballad as an encore but not a bit of it.  He raced through another physically demanding piece albeit a lot shorter.

Even the orchestra most unusually played an encore.  I don't know what it was but it was a reasonably substantial latin sounding piece.  Not surprising given the conductor was Mexican.  It was very jolly with lots of odd percussion including at one point the conductor giving his head a knock.

The evening had started with another jolly piece called Naughty Limericks by a Russian I'd never heard of and after the Rachmaninov we were treated to a symphony by my favourite Russian composer, Shostakovich.  Lovely stuff.

 I should  have been at an SCO concert on Saturday but forty winks induced by an afternoon tea party although they ended in time for me to make a mad dash to the Queen's Hall doused my enthusiasm so I didn't go.  I mustn't drink so much tea in the afternoons in future.

On Sunday I was making music as well as listening to it at the Scottish Saxophone Academy's  saxophone day in the Roxy. Philippe Geiss who, inter alia, was the main man organising the sax congress I went to in Strasbourg was there to run a couple of master classes and we all played in various combinations in the concert that closed the day.

Not having had enough I went on to hear my chums the Jazz Romantics in an evening of swing in a bar I hadn't been in for over fifteen years.  It used to be a favourite post rehearsal refreshment stop called Maxies with pretensions to being a wine bar.  Now it's a mini brewery real ale place with twenty pumps on the bar counter.  Well maybe only a dozen I didn't actually count.  Fortunately they still sell wine and the ambience is still delightful.  And the music was good and there were dancers to watch as well - a jolly good round off to the weekend.