Book Festival – Tattoo Fireworks – Swimming with Sharks – Champagne – Fires

While you cannot get tickets for Irvine Welsh tonight at the Book Festival except perhaps by queuing for returns, the Edinburgh Makar, Ron Butlin, is also appearing in Charlotte Square, and it appears there are still tickets available. Butlin has written poems about the trams among many other things. Tonight he will be talking about The Magicians of Edinburgh which is his collection of poems written during the period as the capital’s Laureate.

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Remember that there are two showings of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo tonight with fireworks after each performance. Usually the fireworks at the end of the second performance on a Saturday evening are slightly longer in our experience. We hope to get some fireworks photos during the week, although there are not just as many bangs and cracks as there are at the fireworks to mark the end of the Festival. This year the Virgin Money Festival Fireworks take place on Sunday 2 September 2012.

The Festival explain this year’s Fireworks programme on the website:-“Bringing Edinburgh’s summer festival season to a magnificent conclusion, the Virgin Money Fireworks Concert combines passionate music from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with breathtaking pyrotechnics, specially choreographed by international fireworks artists Pyrovision to enhance the musical experience. It is all set against the stunning backdrop of Edinburgh’s historic castle.

This year’s Virgin Money Fireworks Concert is a feast of pageantry and patriotism, celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and also echoing the Festival’s Shakespearean offerings.

Walton’s noble Orb and Sceptre march was written for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It is followed by Vaughan Williams’s glowing pastoral evocation of the folk song ‘Greensleeves’. Prokofiev’s ballet score for Romeo and Juliet is where the greatest love story meets the greatest entertainment, and is well-known to viewers of the BBC’s The Apprentice. The concert’s triumphant conclusion is Walton’s music for Laurence Olivier’s great 1944 film Henry V.” 

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Some of the people who work in Asda in Leith are swimming with sharks today, all in the name of fundraising for cancer charity, Tickled Pink! More details here.

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The famous champagne quote is by a rival champagne manufacturer, Madame Bollinger, but nonetheless the lovely Pommery champagne that we tried out last night at The Signet Library was delicious. They offer lots of food to accompany the fizz too, particularly in the afternoon when they put on a champagne afternoon tea….. We were treated to lobster and Brut, a lovely combination.

Oh and the quote? Well it runs as follows:-“I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.” ~ Madame Lilly Bollinger

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There have been two city fires reported by Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service in the last week.

A 28-year-old woman and her three-month-old baby girl were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for a check-up after a deliberate fire in the Granton area of the city on 14 August.

Firefighters from McDonald Road and Crewe Toll fire stations responded shortly before 11.30am after a report of a building alight in Royston Mains Gardens.

When crews arrived, they discovered the back door and rubbish to the rear of the three-storey property well alight and the common stair filled with smoke.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze and checked out all the neighbouring flats to ensure no one was unaccounted for.

The woman and her baby were lead to safety by firefighters before being taken by ambulance to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. Crews left the scene at 1pm.

A spokeswoman for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said:

“Initial investigations suggest that rubbish which had been stored at the back door was deliberately set alight. This led to the door catching fire and the common stair filling with smoke.

“This would have been a very frightening experience for householders. Fortunately, firefighters were on site quickly and were able to help residents out of the building before extinguishing the blaze.

“We can’t stress enough the importance of keeping common areas free from junk and rubbish. It’s an attractive target for firesetters and can put people at risk of deliberate set fires.”

The second occurred on 12 August. A 23-year-old woman was taken to hospital suffering smoke inhalation after a fire in a flat on Heriot Place, Edinburgh in the early hours of Sunday.

Fire Control received the call at 12.26am. Three fire engines and a height appliance attended the fire at the first floor flat of a tenement. Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used two high pressure hose reels to extinguish the blaze. Crews also searched and vented other flats in the block and the red cross staff and van provided support to around 15-20 residents.

The casualty was given oxygen by firefighters until the ambulance arrived, where she was tan to hospital.

The stop message came in at 2.03am. There is an investigation on going into the cause of the fire.

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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.