The Forth Rail Bridge from underneath with a glimpse of the two road bridges upstream taken from a wee boat on which I went for a wee excursion one recent sunny Saturday.  The intention was to go with Siobhan.  Indeed she had organised the trip but was unwell on the day so I went alone.

The Maid of the Forth took us under the rail bridge and downriver to Inchcolm, rounded the island and then up to and under the two road crossings and back down to the Hawes Pier at South Queensferry where we had embarked.  It was a lovely sail.  You can spend time on Inchcolm and catch a subsequent sailing back but tickets for that option were sold out.

When I was a child excursions to Inchcolm ran from Aberdour and I visited the island that way probably more than once.  I also remember travelling on the ferry between Burntisland and Granton.  The world's first roll on roll off rail ferry ran on that route but that was well before my time.  It fell out of use after the rail bridge was built.

But there was a passenger and vehicle ferry which I travelled on when I was at primary school.  There's not much about it on the internet. According to my researches it ran for only a couple of years from 1951 to the end of 1952, although in The Scotsman in the summer of 1950 there are adverts for excursions from Granton to Inchcolm and for a service to Burntisland.

One post on the net recalls using the ferry for summer holidays at a grandparent's house in Burntisland where they were joined from Friday to Sunday by their father.  Another says that the service was popular on a Sunday when only bona fide travellers could get a drink and then only in a hotel bar.  A substantial detachment of policemen were apparently deployed to meet the last ferry as it docked at Granton on a Sunday night to welcome the returning drinkers.

There's a picture of one of the ferries, the Glenfinnan, here and another of her leaving Granton for India in 1954 (sold on presumably) here.  

I found mention also of a catamaran service in 1991 on the route.  I don't remember that at all but I do remember a brief trial by Stagecoach of a hovercraft service between Kirkcaldy and Portobello.  According to The Scotsman the trial did not result in a full service because Edinburgh City Council refused planning permission for a hovercraft terminal in Portobello.

The festivals are all doing their best to present something this summer despite Covid.  Much of what is available will be on-line but some are in-person events.

First to get going was the Jazz and Blues Festival.  They offered 42 gigs.  All were available on-line either streamed as they happened or on demand afterwards.  You could get that for the bargain price of £40.  I don't know how many live in-person events there were but I went to three.  They were held at The Roxy and were very well organised with respect to Covid restrictions and they were pretty good musically as well.

I had a day out that was almost like a pre-Covid experience.  I went to an enthralling exhibition at the Museum about typewriters that had on display very early models and more modern ones that I recognised.  There was quite a lot about the social impact they had, particularly how they provided a route to economic independence for many women.

Then I had lunch al fresco in Victoria Street before heading to the National Library to see two exhibitions.  One was Petticoats and Pinnacles whose virtual opening I posted about recently.  There's more about the women who feature in the exhibition here.

The other was about Henrietta Liston focussing on the years she spend in Istanbul (then known as Constantinople).  She accompanied her husband there in 1812 when he was appointed ambassador to the Sublime Porte.  It celebrates the publication by Edinburgh University Press of her Turkish Journals 1812 to 1820 but there is some additional material about her origins in Antigua and her travels in North America.  Very interesting and a lot more is to be found here and here.   

I saw a couple of plays on-line.  Bitter Enders was billed as a black comedy.  The setting was a Palestinian house that had been half taken over by Israeli settlers.  A dividing line ran through the living room and the comedy and the blackness were supplied I suppose by the dilemma the Palestinian family found themselves in when a doll was thrown over the line in a fit of temper by one of them.  We never saw the Israelis unfortunately.  That might have offered an opportunity for substantially more comedy and blackness than we got.

The other was a Young Vic production from 2014 of A View from the Bridge.  I thought it was tremendous and the Guardian of the time agreed with me and gave it five stars.  Not all of our theatre viewing group agreed, mainly because of the stripped down staging.

The Lyceum/Pitlochry Soundstage play for July was Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil, a story of devotion to lower league football and the love of a daughter for her father.  It was funny, moving and thoroughly enjoyable.  What's more it introduced me to a Scots usage that I had hitherto been unaware of.  Returning to Cowdenbeath from Los Angeles for her father's funeral the protagonist (played beautifully by Cora Bisset) is asked about "the purvey".  By which is meant the food and drink served on social occasions, in this case a funeral.

Much attention, including mine, has rightfully been paid to the Olympics these past ten days or so.  I'm not much of a football fan but I turned to Eurosport to watch the Copper Queens, Zambia's women's team, in their first match.  Up against the Netherlands, 100 places higher in the FIFA rankings the outcome was never in doubt.  Indeed they got thumped but they did put 3 goals past the opposition and the game was so enjoyable that I decided to watch their second match.

This was against China, 89 places higher in the rankings.  Barbra Banda who scored the 3 goals against the Netherlands produced another hat-trick here and as the match approached its close Zambia led 4-3 but handball in the goalmouth gave China a penalty and led to a 4 all draw.

Again it was an enjoyable game to watch so I was eager to see how they'd do in their final group match against Brazil, 97 places higher.  Maybe 15 minutes into the game a courageous save by Zambia's goalie ended with her being stretchered off, a Zambian player being sent off (a harsh decision) and Brazil being awarded a free kick just outside the box from which they scored.  It was 11 girls against 10 for the rest of the match but Zambia held off the might of Brazil till the final whistle going down only 1-0.

Claiming third place in the group they deserve a hero's welcome when they get home. 

I've watched a whole bundle of other sports.  The sailing coverage has been particularly good with excellent and exciting on the water filming, good graphics and intelligent commentary.  I enjoyed seeing two 13 year olds taking gold and silver in skateboarding but I feared for the competitors as they took tumbles on what seems to be concrete.  Gymnastics I always enjoy and fencing repaid the hour or two I spent watching that.  BMX racing was new to me but was a great watch and I believe the BMX freestyle is even more exciting.  I was struck by the elaborate costumes worn by some lady shooters.  I couldn't for the life of me see what they contributed but maybe they're just meant to look impressive.  I was sorry to see Djokovic not achieve his golden slam but not as sorry as he clearly was when he lost the compensatory bronze.  But I suppose he can afford to smash a racquet or two.  Even straightforward running and swimming has entertained.

I've watched most of that on laptop or tablet because my telly broke down more or less simultaneously with the start of the Olympics but I got a new and bigger one on Friday which improves matters.  It seems huge to me but I'm sure I'll get used to it and it's still a 10" smaller screen than calculation recommends for my viewing position.

I usually find myself doing a tax return about this time of year and this time HMRC told me I owed them 35p which I duly sent by bank transfer.  I think they could have let me keep it.

One of the Covid rules that has been most irksome socially has been the limitation to three of households eating together in a restaurant.  That has now been increased to four and I duly took advantage of it with lunch at La Casa in Leith Walk yesterday where four of us enjoyed the birthday lunches we've been forced to miss since whenever.