There is nothing I can say about the current dismal weather that will make one whit of difference, so I shan’t bother.

Instead, we have been out and about; last weekend our intrepid traveller friend Rieko visited from Tokyo via London, and we went to see jousting at Linlithgow (noisy), the Falkirk Wheel (round), Brit Floyd (very good) and both Galleries of Modern Art.  We are happy to report that the cafes in Modern One and Two are still well worth a visit.  One is a very popular venue for a healthy, varied and well priced lunch even if the acoustics are not good for the hearing-impaired.  Two has the unique mixture of genteel dark panels and the gobsmacking statue/sculpture of Paolozzi’s Vulcan striding through.  Every time I see it the shock is new, such is the energy that flows through it.  And all this for the price of a cup of tea and one cake shared between three (or a massive afternoon tea platter with Prosecco, but you would have to lie down afterwards).  And before you start, yes, we did visit the exhibitions too.  Edward Munch, Joseph Beuys, Sol LeWitt to name check a but a few of the artists on display, plus a jaunt round the gardens for Henry Moore and Charles Jencks.  In fact that was my second visit to the Munch show and I gained more insight having been round it once already.    Gallery One is preparing for the big summer Picasso show while the gallery on the Mound is hosting van Gogh to Kandinsky.

I will go back to Linlithgow Palace when it is quieter although I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere, and remembering that as a working building it would normally have been thronged with people anyway.

Falkirk Wheel is ten years old today, happy birthday.  Also congratulations to Elspeth and Colin on their Ruby Wedding.   Forty years since the taxis didn’t turn up.