I've noticed recently something of a fashion for shops and cafes to retain the old name of the premises when it's uncovered during refurbishment and repainting of the exterior.  This is the first example I've seen of the fashion being applied to residential premises.  Seems a bit odd to me.

Nothing very odd has cropped up in my activities though you might consider my enrolling in exercise classes a trifle uncharacteristic.  And you would be right but it's a follow on from the pulmonary rehabilitation classes I've completed. The physios recommend continuing to exercise as a help to counter breathing difficulties and with the best will in the world finding the motivation to do so on my own at home is likely to be tricky.  Hence the discipline of going to a class.

Edinburgh Leisure run lots of classes aimed at helping older people maintain a degree of fitness.  The first one I tried was called Active Life but it was just too active for me so I moved on to Strength and Balance which is a closer fit to my degree of (un)fitness though one of them, run by an enthusiastic dancer is pretty vigorous.  I'm also doing Sing to Breathe run by a group called The Cheyne Gang, named for the street in Stockbridge where they started rather than the homophonic length of metal links.  Even when my lungs were in A1 nick I couldn't sing for toffee but fortunately they're not looking for choral excellence.

Unlike the RSNO Chorus who performed Beethoven's Ode to Joy in the orchestra's final concert of the season. There was a full house made slightly fuller by Ewan's presence. He was in the UK to attend a conference in Aberdeen and as well as visiting his mum and his brothers managed to spend three weekends in Edinburgh. 

Ewan is a fervent rugby enthusiast and the weekend he arrived in the UK we enjoyed a rugby 7s tournament at Raeburn Place. He then went south and got back from those visits too late the following Friday to join me at Lounge 33 to hear Haftor Medboe and Konrad Wiszniewski perform in the Leith Jazz and Blues Festival or at the Usher Hall to hear Elgar's Cello Concerto. The following day he went unaccompanied to watch more rugby, this time at Murrayfield.  I'd planned for more jazz that evening but I'd had a cold building up for a few days so stayed at home wrapped around a hot toddy while Ewan got ready to go to Aberdeen.

After Aberdeen, as well as the Ode to Joy concert we spent time on Leith Links at the Leith Festival Gala Day and went to the Lyceum to see Sweat, a fine play about the decline of American manufacturing and the damage it wrought in people's lives and relationship. 

The Gala Day featured lots of different stalls and included a number of musical entertainments including a set by Buskin' Sharks starring several of my saxophone chums. 

I learnt that money from the famous not yet implemented visitor levy has been pledged to two Leith projects.  One is the redevelopment by the council of the disused bowling greens on the Links to provide various facilities such as a skate park.  There are already tennis courts run by the LTA who presumably financed them.

The other is the bringing back to life of Leith Theatre which I heartily applaud. The lottery fund is also dipping its hands into its pocket for that and I imagine is a major contributor.  The public can help the cause by donating.  Follow the Support Us link.

Theatre doesn't always need purpose built premises and to prove that point as it were The Lyceum currently has four short pieces being performed in people's houses. Friends of mine hosted one in their flat in Fountainbridge and I was invited along.  It was an entertaining one man work as much a story telling as a play. These pieces are all to be performed in the Lyceum itself on three evenings next week. I think the one I saw may be a little lost on the Lyceum stage although it's not a particularly large theatre.  Unfortunately I'm not free on any of those evenings so I shan't see how it fares.