(no subject)

I just got back from a week's break in Scotland. I didn't really do much for most of the time, it was largely just a break from work, just spent most of the time visiting family, reading (I read Ken Macleod's "Execution Channel", Steph Swainston's "The Modern World" and some of Peter F Hamilton's "The Dreaming Void") and enjoying the occasions when the weather was actually summery (I think there were at least three sunny days, which in Scotland definitely counts as a heatwave).

I did make it down to Edinburgh a couple of times to meet up with some of my old friends there from University. It was nice to meet up with them again, since I hadn't seen any of them for about a year. One day I met up with Alex, Ed (who has surprisingly now grown a beard large enough that a random passer-by declared that he 'looked like Jesus'), Dave, Fan and Dan and went to see Transformers (which was entertaining nonsense). The other day I met up with Alex, Rob and Ross, at Alex's suggestion we went to see a Fringe play (the Edinburgh Festival having just started) which had the catchy short title Xenu is Loose! Cower puny Humans as the Dark Prince of the Galactic Federation rains Atomic Death once more upon your Pitiful Planet - The Musical!, it was a comic space opera satirising Scientology, it was amateurish but amusing. While on the way to the venue I was surprised to bump into Pod and Mormont who were heading the opposite way to meet up with Zak, Tyria et al, unfortunately I didn't have time to pop into the Pear Tree and say hi to them.