Nightmare journey to the dentist ....

Hello, Well I haven`t written for ages and thought to note a recent journey to the dentist....
Left work early - 3.15 expecting max 1 hour drive to get from South Edinburgh to Dalgety Bay in Fife. Initially no problems, round the ring road onto the A90 and then stop... for a long time - luckily I had my book with me ... (Currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - which is excellent but that is an aside to this story) then waited for approximately an hour before a slow crawl to the bridge. I did call to say I was going to be late - but the story goes on... By the time I did get to Dalgety Bay at 17:40, I just arrived and parked to just miss my dentist and friend Chris just driving off. Arghh. I needed the loo by then but Ping was still at work and was waiting for a lift back. Therefore I drove passed home to get to Prudential - only to see Ping on the company bus - Arghh Arghh - so i then turned round again and got home for relief. Total 3 and half hours later with no good results. Whilst on route and stationary again this sign annoyed me somewhat!

Edinburgh Bank of Scotland Fireworks 2008

Good evening well the Edinbugh International Festival has just finished with a bang.
Here are videos of most of the fireworks as seen from about 3 miles South along with the music from Radio Forth and our chat!

I recommend that you right click any of the following links and "save as" to your computer and then view at your leisure.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Feel free to comment etc....

If some of the videos don`t work it is because they are taking a while to upload - I am sure they will be all present and correct by about midnight today (310808).

Wedding of Robert Veitch and Ping Wang

Wedding photos

As you may know Ping and I got married on the 21st december 2007 and what an excellent day it was. To see the pictures collected so far click the picture above and here is the story from my perspective.
I and my best man - Richard went over to my parents whilst Ping stayed at home with her sister and parents to prepare. As you can see I hired a great kilt set from The Kilt Hire Company and I was wearing a Scotland the Brave tartan - I think you will agree I look better than just good!. I had hired the same for Richard but just without the sash which is reserved for the groom. I had prearranged transport however by 2.45 there was no sign of it, and after a lot of frantic phone calls a taxi arrived and got us all to the Registrars office at the corner of The Royal Mile and George IV Bridge - a very lovely venue. Ping arrived a few minutes later looking fantastic and we met our guests for some photos and chat before being taken upto the wedding room. Richard and I were briefed on the ceremony and then it all started.
Ping was brought into the room by her dad - who looked very impressive in his traditional Chinese outfit. Then the ceremony at which I was very emotional - especially at the part where i say "with this ring I thee wed" (It was slightly embarrasing as I was virtually in tears as well as getting a runny nose right at thye same time!) so with a small - get me a hanky break this was completed successfully. I suspect that both Ping and I managed to mangle slightly the normal English of the vows to some extent due to the emotion of the moment.
Vows, rings exchanged and ceremony complete - in what seemed like 10 minutes - signing the marriage certificate plus posed photos doing the same, photos outside and down the stairs - then outside to sparklers which Richard arranged prior to a quick journey for my wife and I to The Cafe Royal via the hotel where we dropped off our stuff.
I had been a little worried about the reception meal at The Cafe Royal but I shouldnt have been - it was fantastic - the staff, the ambience (especially as the bar next door was packed with revellers on the last Friday evening prior to Christmas) and the food was I and it seems everyone thought was excellent. I am using that word a lot in this post but really it was that good. We started off with pink "champagne" and then everyone had a small range of choices from the menu we had chosen as shown here. The reception really started about 5pm and between courses Ping and I tried to do as much mingling as possible and it was great. Later on in the evening we had the speeches and the cake cutting ceremony before heading for the hotel for our honeymoon night. Richards speech was very good and most of it is also available via the above link.
Other comments - as the evening progressed it was noticeable that the people who were accidently using the revolving doors trying to get to the bar were getting more and more inebriated and most were very funny in their reactions to seeing the error of gatecrashing our wedding!.
Summary - the wedding ceremony and the new registrars was lovely, having my friends and family at the wedding and the reception was more better than I hoped and the food at The Cafe Royal along with the service far exceeded my wildest expectations.
Thankyou to everyone who helped to make the wedding of Ping and I such a success.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival - reviews Traces, 7 Fingers, Truth in Translation.

Hi,
It is a long time since I have posted on here but I thought that I must do something asap - Just over the last few days the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has started and I have been doing very well getting to shows (for me at least).

Wednesday 1st August - went with Dad to the Assembly Gala Press Launch - essentially 2 hours of non stop excellence from a variety of acts all of whom are performing somewhere within the Assembly group of venues.
Highlight - edge of the seat stuff was for me "Traces - The 7 fingers" - astounding, brilliant, the best show I can remember seeing for ever etc etc - more later - I shall try not to run out of superlatives - but I honestly did like it.

Friday 3rd August - a busy day, after work straight to Traces then a beer then to Khalil Ashanti - a true story with all the characters played by Khalil - very good. Meet Ping and Richard for beer and then walk upto the other Assembly venue at the top of the Mound for Havana Rumba! who had also been on at the press launch.
Three good shows and beer - what an excellent day basically.
Traces - A world Champion circus / physical theatre / music act from Quebec, Canada who did this absolutely astoundingly good and enteratining show. Consisting of 5 members it is basically acrobatics , but that doesnt do enough justice to the whole piece - it is music, show, dance, everything ... I am sorry my word skills are not upto the job!! - Their website is here http://www.7fingers.com or www.7doights.com

I shall now give a few words to try and evoke memories for myself - regarding this show and clues to some of the vignettes within the show:- hoops, chair(s), poles, big hoop, chalk line, grand piano, music, skill, jump, hurdle, wonder, awe, incredible, edge of seat, sweaty, amazing, superb, beautiful, poignant, powerful, ....
Summarises as - if you have to choose one show from all that are on in Edinburgh throughout the festival then I recommend you see this one.
(I have no links with the group so this is not advertising hype).

There are some videos around like on this page by some of the other members of the group winning the world circus prize.

But better is this Youtube piece which is much more eloquent - also the great comments all apply for my thoughts on this show.

And this one also on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hgxhPlYJw0


Go see them, sell your brothers and sisters to get a ticket etc etc.

Ok I shall write about the other shows a little more perfunctorily :-

Khalil Ashanti - multiple characters slipped into very quickly, expressively and humourously.

Havana Rumba! - makes me want to visit Cuba. Vibrant music, people and well the costumes!

Saturday 4th August - Truth in Translation - Oh gosh - a very powerful, well crafted, beautifully performed , serious show based on the harrowing testimonies of people who testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa following apartheid - told from the perspective of the translators / interpreters. Leading lady - superb.

Saturday - 4th August - Jimmy Tingle's American Dream - a fast hour of comedy, politics and stories from this theatre owner on The American Dream - with Questions and Answers from the audience at the end.

That is it for now - next thing I am off to is the Fringe parade in the lightly dreich weather of this afternoon, starting at 2.30pm, 3000 performers and 175000 approx spectators - another great day in Edinburgh.

All comments gratefully received.