2018 - FIP Glasgow: Day 12: Thu 6 Sep

6-17 degC

An even earlier (6:20am) start to be at SECC by 7:15am for a 7:30am departure to Edinburgh Castle for the day. We were scheduled to arrive in EDN at 9:30am and arrived just after 9am, so the drive took us for a wee tour of EDN itself including the Royal Mile. We were dropped off at the Castle Wynd N stairs about 9:25am and climbed the 72 steps to meet one of Ellie’s friends at the top and he escorted us into the Castle and to The Castle Club where we had mornos and presentations.

After a short presentation about the National War Memorial Museum we were taken on a tour, including the Shrine which I equate to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier here at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. It was very moving but the guy doing our tour went on a bit too much about the individual artists like we knew every one of them. We then had about 15 minutes of free time to wander the Museum and the Castle before gathering to go to lunch at the Officers Mess. As it was Thursday, we had the traditional Curry lunch, complete with raisins, coconut, cucumber&yoghurt, onion&tomato sauce and it was pretty good, the only thing missing was the banana.

At 12:45pm we all gathered outside to watch the firing of the One O’Clock Gun, a tradition started in 1861 to provide an audible signal for ships in the port of Leith to set their time pieces by. It is fired everyday, except Sundays. I managed to capture the moment of the firing to most people’s surprise, including mine!

We then settled into the Castle Club again where we were given two very interesting presentations on Defence immunisations past and present and Fentanyl lozenge story. These were followed by afternoon tea, then the last presentation of the day. This was on Modern military blood transfusion support and was also very interesting. Ellie had obviously done a lot of thinking as all three presentations were very topical and not just for the military members in the audience.

Once the presentations were over, we were left to our own devices again. Some went shopping, some stayed in the Castle grounds and some did a bit of both, before we had to be back on the bus for a 5pm sharp departure for Glasgow. On the way home Richard arranged for the driver to drop us at out hotel as there were eight staying at the Marriott and at least five others living nearby. It was sad to have it end that way, instead of all getting off at the SECC and being able to say goodbye properly. We arrived about 6:30pm.

Due to hectic pace of the last few days none of us really wanted to go out again for dinner so we had it in the hotel. I had a set two courses for GBP23. Still a bit expensive but when you consider a steak alone was GBP21, it was not too bad. Was quite hungry as well, so had the smoked chicken, fig and rocket salad which was a good starter. And then the 250g rump for main. Could have had a main then dessert, but opted for the starter instead. Washed down with a really nice cider.

Sleep time was a bit later than usual as I had had an extended LLD on the bus on the way home.