Vikings!

 "Thor's fight with the Giants" M.E. Winge 1872. Stockholm.

 

We have a Sunday afternoon free, shall we go to an art gallery?  No, instead we go to an exhibition on Vikings at the National Museum in Chambers Street.  Oh weel, she used to live on Lindisfarne, where the 1st Viking raid on what is now the UK was recorded  and I spent time on one of their favourite targets Iona, so there is a vague connection and interest there.  Fascinatingly, Vikings were NOT the people - it was the name given in Norse to the trading/raiding journeys.  The Scandinavians went on vikings, they were not Vikings!  And they never wore horny helmets - Richard Wagner's to blame for that idea. (Which I picked up as a child reading Marvel Comics about Thor).  It was however a good and interesting exhibition and well worth a gander if you're in Edinburgh before 12th May. Sadly we missed the screening of "The Vikings" film with Kirk douglas and Tony Curtis which was running while we were there. Next time we go,  it'll be the David Livingstone exhibition -which is finishing in early April.

Grub n' stuff

Dougalthinkists will be aware that I rather enjoy my grub. Mercifully, I am blessed with a metabolism that burns calories faster than an Olympic sprinter on amphetamines, so I can do so with impunity. Today was a case in point. I was taken for lunch to Bar Roma and indulged my inner fat Opera singer with a plate of delightful Onion soup (lashings of Parmesan) followed by a really rather tasty artichoke risotto. Last week I discovered the local Thai place had changed hands and had seriously improved. Nice sea bass starter. Ah, the joys of good food! And tonight's sausage and Murphy's casserole was just as yummy. And the poached pears!! (Dougal tip: poaching in apple juice, with a mulled wine spice sachet and a good slug of Drambuie works very well!)

I also treated myself a little by nipping into the Edinburgh University Library to have a shuftie at their current exhibition: a very fine 11th century Psalter (probably illustrated on Iona) which is the old book produced in Scotland still in the country, a wonderfully preserved copy of our 1st printed book Bp Elphinstone's Aberdeen Breviary of 1509. A 1599 text of Romeo and Juliet in splendid nick, a copy of the the 1st printed book in Gaelic (Knox's Book of Common Order). But the prettiest of them all was a lovely book of designs of the medallions in the Choir School of St Mary's Cathedral by Phoebe Ann Traquair. Just gorgeous! Do pop in if you get the chance.