It's taken just under 59 years but I've at last got around to walking across the Forth Road Bridge.  From the east walkway you get great views towards the railbridge and further downriver and if the walkway on the west side were open you'd get great views upriver, but it isn't.  From the north end of the bridge though I did get quite decent views of all three bridges.

I've been cajoled into rejoining the Dicksonfield Owners and Residents Association committee with no specific responsibility except to help chair meetings because our chairman is a bit deaf.  I've successfully carried out that task once so far and pinned minutes onto noticeboards, minutes that I'm heartily glad I didn't have to write as I would have done in my previous incarnation.  

There was a fascinating talk at the National Gallery about its activities during WWII.  They had lots of quite avant-garde exhibitions under the leadership of Stanley Cursiter, but it seems that the chap who took over after the war was of a much more conservative disposition and blunted their cutting edge.

Straight from the National Gallery I went down to Leith Arches to see the off-line continuation of Claire's frisson.  This bar is a great venue for a play like this about people meeting friends and potential friends.  The playing was excellent and well deserved the four stars that Joyce Macmillan gave it in The Scotsman.  Joyce is essentially our arbiter of what's good and what's bad in theatre in Scotland so Claire was naturally very happy.  All Edinburgh Theatre gave it a good write-up as well.

Having said what I have said about Joyce I feel I have to bow to her judgement of You Bury Me at The Lyceum.  Four stars and then five from All Edinburgh Theatre.  Their review says inter alia "A looming danger – that the characters and their storylines could come across as formulaic, almost soap opera-ish – is prevented by the verve and commitment of the cast."

It wasn't prevented for me I'm afraid.  I thought it was cliche ridden and  while I agree with Joyce that young Egyptians "had to watch the ecstatic high hopes of February 2011 collapse into a military regime far more repressive than anything they had known before" I did not feel that tragedy came over to me in this production.  My insensitivity I guess.

I've been to two contrasting musical events.  The SCO under the engaging Pekka Kuusisto played Sibelious's 5th Symphony which draws significantly on Finnish folk music. Appalachian folk music featured much more directly with the guitar and banjo playing of the American singer/songwriter Sam Amidon within an orchestral setting.  How different was The Buddy Holly Story.  Poor Buddy had very few years of fame and glory before he was killed in an air accident aged 22.  But those years happened to be during my teens when I paid some degree of attention to pop music which I don't do today, and it was great to hear songs that I remember pretty well.

I should have said three musical events because I spent another enjoyable saxophone weekend at The Burn.

Now that I remember it's four events.  Elim Chan's farewell appearance as principal guest conductor (whatever that is) with the RSNO.  Not quite as waif like as when she first appeared with them but still a diminutive figure whose command of a large orchestra continues to impress.  Pity about the skirt though.  The programme: Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, a satisfyingly rousing crash bang wallop of a piece, one of Mozart's many concertos and a piece by Anna Clyne called The Midnight Hour.  As befits its title this was dark and ominous.  I enjoyed it very much.