Short breaks are always nice, and there are few better cities in the UK for this purpose than Edinburgh. I flew over, and within a matter of hours was walking – accompanied by Lucinda – through the bright suburban streets to the Usher Hall. What was on? Only my favourite band Idlewild. Coincidence? You decide. Whatever the case, it was a great performance.
It wasn’t a bad old birthday, considering in the morning time I took a Helicopter flight over the Ards Peninsula, in the afternoon I flew a plane for the first ever time, and in the evening I had all my friends and family celebrating with me. No, not bad at all. Most importantly was the part each and every person who was there played in making it so great.
I joined Lucinda and Ian for a bite of lunch in Katy Dalys. We then attempted to burn off the calories with a dander up around Queens and Botanic Gardens. It was great to walk through the park with them and just talk. I had to leave them before too long though, as I had a tutorial to attend. It was a joy floating along the street listening to some good tunes in the late afternoon spring air.
This was the second time I saw my friends since returning from Brazil. On the first occasion, Gareth, Lucinda and I ended up back in Karen’s lounging around and talking about life’s complexities. For the other, it was just Leigh, Gareth and I in the Limelight again. In one final piece of other news, the horse I backed last year but did not back this year won the Grand National this year.
Seeing the sunset strewn Statue of Christ disappear behind buildings on the way back up to the airport, I came to a number of conclusions about this enigmatic city. There are three types of people in Rio: the extremely rich, the tourist and the extremely poor. You can therefore guess the order of things. Rio De Janeiro has a great deal of problems.
