Party girl!

This last couple of days I've been in party mode in Edinburgh. It's been lots of fun.

My musician pal, Jim, had been finding cool places to go for dinner and then pubs that have music and was keen to show me what I've been missing living in the quiet of the Scottish Borders.

On Sunday night we started off by going to Petit Paris, a French restaurant in The Grassmarket, which was very French, including rather off hand French waiters! But the food was good. They have a special menu before 7, which makes it quite cheap for 2 courses and pretty good value. After that we headed for The Royal Mile and, after scouting several places along there and around South Bridge, ended up at Whiski Bar, where music was supposed to come on around 9.30.

We were told we could sit at the band's table until they arrived and just as we got settled, a couple at another table got up to leave and luckily we spotted them before anyone else did. And just as Jim went off to the bar to get the drinks in, the band (a three-piece) arrived and took up their position just where we'd been sitting.

The drummer took quite a shine to me and offered to buy me a drink, which was very flattering - well ok, it would've been if he hadn't been a bit short, with long hair tied in a pony tail, which is not quite my look! Jim thought it was highly amusing.

We stayed there until the band had played both their sets of traditional Scottish/Irish with a modern twist, so us punters could singalong and enjoy ourselves. The atmosphere was really good and the place was packed. We eventually left to get me back to where I was staying before the witching hour.

Yesterday, we decided on starting out at Jim's, sharing a bottle of wine and some nibbles at around 6.30 and before we knew it, it was 9.30! We quickly got ourselves together and, after some aborted attempts at getting pubs to serve us food, we ended up back at Whiski Bar, who told us that the chef was just about to pack up, but would feed us first. Luckily our food arrived pretty quickly and we settled down to eat while listening to a duo, who were ok, but not a patch on the previous night's band. So after food we left there and went to another of Jim's haunts, Whistlebinkies, where he'd got up and played on Friday night.

They had open mic night and it was pretty good. Another late night!

I was quite relieved to get home today and sort out my e-book to get it off to the editor (the amazing Russell Turner, better known as Bassman of Bassman Books) and then settle down for a quiet evening.

Hopefully tomorrow will be quiet too as, apart from badminton, I have more book stuff to sort and then on Thursday I head for the bright lights of London, where some more social stuff is happening. 

I'm becoming quite the party girl!