mybigadventures.com

We just got in from our nice dinner out at Monteiths in Edinburgh for Valentine's day. We used open table this year to book it online which was a first having not used the service before. It added a reminder to Google calendar for me and has been reminding me all day, and the restaurant were expecting us too so happy days. Dinner was lovely, Dani had monkfish whilst I settled for some lamb with some roast potatoes on the side. Very nice indeed. Today has been a much nicer day in Edinburgh. The sun has shone all day with blue skies and mild temperatures. We've had a great time so far, visiting Holyrood Palace on Monday and the underground attraction Mary King's Close today.

It was a fairly grey day on Monday when we visited Holyrood. Sadly there aren't many photos as you aren't allowed to take them inside. We had a tour of the state apartments including those of Mary, Queen of Scots, accompanied by an audio guide to tell us what everything was. The palace was really quiet with very few people about. We finished the tour outside the palace in the ruin of Holyrood Abbey which despite its ruined state, maintains some of the structure that gives you an idea of how grand it once was. We were probably only there for a couple of hours including a visit to the cafe so still had time in the afternoon to explore a little further. We headed over the bridge to the new town and walked up Carlton Hill to see the Wellington and Nelson monuments. Reaching the top you are rewarded with a nice view back over Edinburgh and even down over Holyrood Palace. We had a bit more of a wander around before heading back to the hotel. We ate at Byron burger later in the evening as it's really close to the hotel and picked up some desserts from a bakery on the way back.

Today with the sun shining outside, we headed underground. Not the best timing, but nevermind. The Mary King's Close experience takes you underground to the site of one of the original close's of Edinburgh, some of the original buildings still exist now with valuted ceilings to support the Royal Exchange now built above. The tour takes about an hour with a guide taking you though the history of the area and walking you through a number of rooms and buildings including the narrow street that originally ran all the way down to the loch - now filled in and home of the Waverley train station. We spent the afternoon exploring Edinburgh a bit more including a walk around the Grassmarket and a walk up to the Scott monument - which had sadly closed just before we got there.

Edinburgh Castle tomorrow - hope the weather stays nice! 

Hmmm . .  . I think I've used that title before. Anyhow not a whole lot to say really, I took a look at the site and noticed how empty the front page was looking. Maybe have to do something about that, although judging by current levels of business its not entirely likely for a good while. Anyways I'm sure nobody is reading this so I might aswell get back to work.

Cheerio ta ta

After a spot of bowling, we got back to work on the project. Today seemed a little less productive but involved a lot of trial and error. We started off by cutting the shelf for the top of the units. We were really keen to get a nice finish, but neither wall was exactly straight so in order to get the finish we were looking for, there was a lot of measuring, cutting and remeasuring before it was right. 

With the shelf in place, we had decided to make a back panel rather than leave it open to meet the corner of the eave, it was also hoped this may give the illusion that the storage is shallower and less intrusive in the room. We only had enough wood to make half the back panel, but as it was that took the rest of the day. It was quite a complex cut with the angle of the eave having to be trimmed from the back and the the angle at which the roof sloped along the width being taken into account, not to mention the angle when it met the wall. 

It seems we'll need to make another visit to B&Q tomorrow, and we haven't picked out any paint yet!