Scotland II: October 2009

• In the weekend of 2-4 October I visited the core of the Highlands with a dear friend, Timo(othy B.) Denvir.
  • I met him in Stirling at the train station and he drove up through the Trossachs to his town, Killin.
  • I stayed Friday/Saturday night in the "splashy" Ardeonaig Hotel where we had a fine dinner Friday night.
  • Next morning Tim drove along the shore of Loch Tay, bypassed Pitlochry and stopped at the Dalwhinnie Distillery.
  • After "the tour" and a wee bit we took lunch in the village "pub".
  • The more miles along breathtaking glens seeing great mountain ranges to the town of Kinguissie.
  • Here we stayed at The Cross - again, and this time, an even more luxurious small country inn with great food.
  • Next morning for breakfast Tim gave me a bottle of Champagne, it was my 72nd birthday. Tim is just a great fellow !
  • Kari and I drank the champagne on our train trip up to Inverness, see later.
  • After breakfast off to halfway up Cairngorm Mountain - and from there by railway up to the top!
  • The next two photos show railway and view from the top.
  • After a sandwich lunch at the top we went all the same way back to Pitlochry.
  • Again fine views, better weather than on the day before.
  • Our tour together ended after a visit and cups of chocolate and tea at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre..

• I took the fast train back to Edinburgh from Pitlochry - see photo below.

• Monday-Tuesday 5-6 October I visited St Andrews.
  • Visited the Computer Science department both days.
  • Gave my talk on Tuesday, as part of the School, i.e., the full University Colloquium series.
  • I had time to walk the town, north-south, east-west.
  • Splendid university town. Students appear to make up 2/3 of the population
  • that is when there is not some golf tournament going on!

• Next photos are from my weekend walks around Edinburgh.
• The church you see down the street is St.Mary's Cathedral across the street from my flat -
• the second, the center photo below.

• On Thu. 8 Oct. I met Margaret Stewart, the Finance and Administrative officer of UNU-IIST during the greater part of my directorship and for some years after.
  • Margaret hails from near Aviemore/Inverness in Scotland.
  • She is married to Jorge *** who is with UNESCO.
    He was at UNESCO in Bangkok when Margaret was with us in Macau.
    Before Macau she was UN posted in Cambodia.
    Every other weekend he would be in Macau, vice versa she in Bangkok.
    When he transferred to Kirgisistan she resigned to stay full time with Jorge.
    From there they went to Burma, then Pakistan.
    Now they are in Santiago de Chile - and have also an apartment in Paris.
    It was great fun to spend well over 3 hours with Margaret.
    We had High Tea in the restaurant Forth (on the fourth floor) in the Harvey Nicholls dept. store.
    She then went on by train to see her 90sh mother.
    Margaret brought to UNU-IIST in her years vitality - quite a bit of fresh air.
    As Director I had, in Margaret, the greatest and happiest of support.
• I went to three concerts at nearby Usher Hall.
  • The first one was with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC SSO, conducted by Donald Runnicles, Beethoven 1st and Mahler 1st ("Titan") with Alban Berg: 7 Early Songs in-between. A great, great concert. (Sunday 11th of Oct.)
  • The next day it was a Joan Baez concert. A rather pathetic affair. She could hardly hold her tones.
  • The last one was Wedn. 28 Oct.: The Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club - an interesting experience.

• Two shop front streets in Edinburgh, the middle one below is Grassmarket.
• The rightmost is of a rebuilt inner courtyard near the Grassmarket.

• Sat./Sun. 17/18 Oct. Kari and I strolled around sunny Edinburgh.
  • The leftmost photo is from a Sat. breakfast at Brown's.
  • The center one is of Kari at Charlotte Square, the center of Georgian architecture in Edinburgh.
  • We had just seen the Georgian House, a splendid family house from late 1700!
  • The rightmost photo is from a nearby pub.

• Dines, having sworn himself not to buy any more books - and instead had become a very frequent borrower of books from the local lending library went on th buy books "galore" from Waterstone and Blackwell's in Edinburgh:
  • two new Ian Ranking books,
  • three Philip Kerr books,
  • four Andrea Camilieri,
  • and a few others !
• Alas most are now read!