August 11

7.30pm, The Edinburgh Military Tattoo, £40 (ticket given to me), Edinburgh Castle.

http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/

Saturday and my turn to go to the tattoo had arrived! Briony, Cheryl and Stefan had gotten last minute tickets and went the night before. We invited Cheryl and Stefan up to our place for some drinks and a late lunch. they came armed with cocktail ingredients and made a potent drink with lime juice, sugar, ice and vodka. That's it! Went down very nicely but I had to pace myself as I had to sit through the tattoo soon. At 7pm I walked up the street to join the lineup, just a huge mass of people filling the street. This is only part of the crowd behind me:


I got through the crowd and entered just as it was starting at 7.30pm. Those who were behind me would have missed the first 15-20 minutes of the show as they start dead on time. The lady who offered me her free spare ticket, Christine, arrived 2 minutes after me. She was a lovely lady and I hoped she liked the little gift I bought her to say thankyou. We had great seats, and on the aisle as well so we weren't piled up on top of each other if we were in the middle of an aisle - they really do pack you in like sardines. I'm so glad I got to see the tattoo as it was a real show. A lot of the acts I'd seen in the Festivals Cavalcade so they weren't a surprise, but what they did in their acts was. the backdrop of the castle was stunning. This is a photo from the final part of the performance, where all the acts were on stage together:


After the tattoo I met up with everybody again for a bit of a night out on the town. Tried to get into Spiegeltent but the lineup was huge. Ended down in Broughton Street with all the housemates except Noni, who'd wandered off the wrong way to what we were going. Crazy dancing at CC's, a dodgy gay place with mirrored walls and way too much glass on the floor. We left Lawrence to enjoy it while the rest of us caught a taxi home as it was pouring down with rain!