For several years I've been going to The Burn on twice yearly saxophone weekends and was delighted to be able to go last weekend after a Covid caused gap of two years.  There were about twenty of us, mostly old friends from previous gatherings there and elsewhere.  We had a lot of fun and the minor Covid related restrictions in terms of masks and so on were not such as to put a damper on our socialising.

Thanks to that socialising I missed 99.9% of the thrills of the Ladies final at the US Tennis Open.  I didn't know it was on free to air TV, though if I had I'd have had to watch it on my phone.  I had decided I'd listen to the radio commentary but lingered in the lounge and it wasn't until I was preparing for bed that I turned on the radio.  I just caught the last game of the match which had thrills enough and a very welcome ending.  What a girl!

The Dunedin Wind Band is back in live action which is a lot better than the Zoom sessions they had and that I abandonned.  The second altos who had also been playing on Zoom, but more pleasurably, have now graduated to a live get together in a studio not far away.  That was very successful and we intend to keep it up.

The weather on the day we played there was lovely and when I reached Leith Walk on the way back I decided it was too nice to go up to the flat so I wandered down the Walk till I came to the recently opened Nótt winebar.  I sat outside with a pleasingly cold glass of Reisling ( a welcome change from the standard set of Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio) and a nibble of vine leaves.  Surely not (no pun intended) the fare of Thor's granny after whom the place appears to named.

More substantial fare was consumed at La Garrigue, a restaurant I have often fancied and which I have at last entered, thanks to Siobhan.  The food was delicious.  Claire's end of summer BBQ fare was not a million miles away from La Garrigue in deliciousness even if simpler in its presentation and more relaxed in its consumption.

I've seen a few films in the last couple of weeks.  At the Filmhouse I enjoyed The Courier.  This is a spy movie that tells the story (suitably spiced up for the screen as this review makes clear ) of Greville Wynne, a British businessman who collected material from a soviet informer, Oleg Penkovsky, and delivered it to MI6 in the early 60s.  I remember the case well.  Penkovsky paid with his life but Wynne got off with an uncomfortable couple of years in a Russian jail.

Also at Filmhouse was a rerelease of the gentle documentary about the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz on a Summer's Day.  The critics found it a bit bland which I suppose it is but there's some excellent music in it, which is surely the point.

From the BFI I watched two films.  After Love is an excellent film with a brilliant central performance by Joanna Scanlan.  She plays a contentedly married woman who when her cross channel ferry captain husband dies suddenly finds that he has been maintaining a second relationship in Calais. She sets out to find the woman concerned and the film explores the subsequent events and emotions.

I enjoyed that but I absolutely loved One Deadly Summer.  As L'été meurtrier it was a big hit in France in 1983.  Isabelle Adjani is wonderful as the sexy new girl in the village who chooses to bestow her favours on Alain Souchon's quiet motor mechanic rather than on the more macho contenders.  It turns out she has an ulterior and very dark motive for her every move.  She wants to wreak vengeance on the men who made her mother suffer many years before.  I can't reveal more.

Sophia by Frances Poet was the Lyceum/Pitlochry audio play for August.  The Sophia of the title was Sophia Jex-Blake who spearheaded the drive to have women admitted to British universities in the 19th century.  It was a riveting account of the struggles she and her colleagues, known as the Edinburgh Seven, had in trying to get a medical education.  She eventually became the first woman doctor in Scotland at the age of 37, having qualified in Dublin. 

Mention of Dublin reminds me that I've had a couple of scam emails recently that were written in Irish.  I don't know how I've got onto a list of potential Irish speaking suckers but there you are.  Anyway I don't know a word of Irish but I can spot a spam without too much trouble.  See what you make of it.

"Mo bheannachtaí go léir,

Seo an dara huair dom iarracht teagmháil a dhéanamh leat. An bhfuil an ríomhphost seo bailí? Karim Alassani is ainm dom, dlíodóir pearsanta an Uasail Jovan, nach maireann, a fuair bás i dtimpiste gluaisteáin lena aon bhean agus iníon. D’fhág sé ($ 4,211,000) sa bhanc anseo.

Tá barántas agam ón mbanc chun a neasghaol a fháil, ach tar éis mo thaighde fuair mé amach nach raibh aon ghaolta aige cheana. Táim i dteagmháil leat chun an ciste seo a aistriú chuig do chuntas ós rud é go roinneann tú an t-ainm céanna le mo chliant.

Tá na cáipéisí uile agam chun tacú leis an éileamh seo.

Coinnigh an fhaisnéis seo an-rúnda le do thoil agus freagair go díreach ó mo bhosca ríomhphoist pearsanta thíos chun tuilleadh soiléirithe a fháil.

Go croíúil,"

That $4,211,000 rather gives it away don't you think.