Edinburgh Meet Up - 2 & 3 November 2013

This last weekend I have been up in Edinburgh for a Philofaxy Meet Up, but this was no ordinary meet up. We might have been low on numbers, but it was certainly high on memorable and very enjoyable moments.  However,  let me first go back a few weeks.

Shortly after announcing the dates of the Edinburgh meet up I got an email that almost knocked me off of my chair... It started off in the usual way, 'I would like to attend the meet up', but it was from Nan... wow!

Nan and I have never met before, we have spoken on Skype a few times and of course we have exchanged dozens if not hundreds of emails over the years. But actually meeting the person face to face and spending time with them over a weekend really is the best.

Over the next few days we had a series of email discussions to arrange the logistics of the travel. In the end it worked out very well. Nan arrived on a flight from Boston on Friday evening, we then both caught the same BA flight to Edinburgh, even managing to get seats in the same row on the aircraft. We both booked rooms in the same hotel and on the Monday afternoon we managed to book return flights back to Heathrow together so Nan could then fly back to Boston (a very long day!).

I travelled to Heathrow Terminal 5 by train on the Friday night and eventually found somewhere obvious to sit to await the arrival of Nan's flight. With the help of our phones and text messaging Nan appeared on the escalator and we greeted each other like long lost friends.

We went and found a café to have a quick snack before our Edinburgh flight was called. Once on board the aircraft the cabin staff might have sensed the special occasion because they kept bringing us wine and food!

It was quite late by the time we got to the hotel, so we bid each other good night and arranged to meet up for breakfast in the morning.

Sadly as the meet up time approached a couple of people we not going to be able to make it, but what we lacked in quantity we made up for it with quality. The discussions we had around the table were excellent. We started off with coffee at about 11 am and that gave us opportunity to introduce ourselves (although I have met Maria and Natalie before) and then ordered our food.

One of the interesting discussions was about some of the history of Philofaxy and how Nan had got involved in the blog back in 2006.

As you can see it wasn't long before organisers started appearing out of bags and they were circulating around the table with explanations of their uses from their respective owners. We all admired a Cuban that Nan had had modified to have a much larger pen loop.

Maria and Natalie

Nan

Nan and Maria

After lunch Natalie had to leave to get back home again, but we would be seeing her again on Monday. Maria, Nan and I went for a walk around the key shops of interest in Edinburgh. Maria being local she knew were all the stationery shops where and led the way in the light rain! But we didn't care. We bought a few things on our way around, mainly inserts and other small items.

Very kindly Maria agreed to meet up with Nan and I on Sunday so we could get to see some of the tourist sights of the city.

Sunday was drier but not any warmer!

We started off with an open topped bus tour of the city with a very knowledgeable and amusing tour guide giving us a running commentary as we went around. We braved the sunny, but cold weather up on the open top upper deck and I took quite a few photos as we toured the city.
 

Maria and Nan at Edinburgh Castle

Nan and Steve at Edinburgh Castle... it was a wee bit cold!

Nan at The Elephant House the birthplace of Harry Potter

After an excellent lunch at a restaurant opposite The Elephant House, we set off once again on the tour and had a quick visit to the Scottish Parliament building 

By the time we got back to the city centre it was starting to go dark so we thanked Maria for a lovely day and headed back to the hotel to relax and prepare ourselves for our visit to Letts Filofax on the Monday....and that post will be coming up soon.

Nan and I would like to say a big thank you to Natalie and Maria for coming along on Saturday and a huge thank you to Maria for being our tour guide on Sunday, we had a great time and it certainly made the most of our time in Edinburgh.