I’m officially converted to the Lightroom side – seriously converted. If you haven’t bought it yet why not?

This fix took me 10 seconds.

I’m not even trying anymore.

Import in Lightroom 3. Sharpen a lot. Noise Reduction about half. Slight warm. Slight Vignette. Badaboom.

10 seconds from this…

to this….

I’m gobsmacked at what this software can do!

Wanna come on a photowalk round Edinburgh on Saturday 9th October?

What’s a Photowalk you ask?

Well you sort of walk, and take photos.

That’s it really.

No matter what kind of camera you have, be it a phone, or an all singing all dancing dSLR or anything in between… walking about taking photos is kinda fun.

Especially in Edinburgh.

A rough itinerary…

• 14:00 Meetup outside Waverley Station
• 14:00-16:00 Walk and take photos! I will plan a route to include the Grassmarket, Greyfriars Cemetery, The Royal Mile and time permitting, Princess Street Gardens. I am also working on getting permission from some places with roofs as a wet weather backup.
• 16:00-17:00 Make our way to Calton Hill, weather permitting, for some cityscapes in the hour before sunset.
• 17:00-hometime Eat, drink and make merry at a venue to be decided.

Given the route and the necessity for popping into the nearest hostelry at the slightest drop of rain this event won’t be suitable for children.

I have a few participants already lined up but the more the merrier I always say, hence this blog plug.

You can either email me or leave me a comment with your email address so I can add you to the list of attendees and keep you up to date with arrangements.

And… if you want to skip the walking bit and just come for the food and drink bit that will be tickety-boo too.

I look forward to meeting new friends, taking some fab fotees and, with permission, sharing them to showcase our pretty darn beautiful capital city.

So I have absolutely so explanation as to why we turned up at Edinburgh Airport a few weeks ago with 1 epipen, half an inch of Piriton syrup and absolutely no prednisolone steroids for our 12 hours journey to the USA. There was a full, in fact double, complement of drugs in our checked in luggage but for the plane that was it. Woefully inadequate.

British Airways carry a supply of epipens on board, their cabin crew are trained to administer them and their meals are all nut-free but I was still uncomfortable travelling without any steroids. Andrew’s awkwardly allergic to more than just nuts.

I was carrying the tear off bit from his last prescription, the bit you use for repeat orders, just in case we needed to fill it in the US. On the off chance, a bleary eyed 6am off chance, I popped into the Boots branch in the airport departure lounge to see if I could buy steroids over the counter. That wasn’t an option but the pharmacist on duty took my slip, called the out of hours service in Perthshire, managed to get permission to dispense the drugs without prescription and made me a very happy and contented, if somewhat doofus mother.

Now it might surprise you to hear I write letters. Real letters. Usually whining moaning letters to whoever’s made me feel fed up that week. I very rarely post them as I find the writing process is usually enough to placate me (or make me feel like a right prat – one or t’other).

Back home from our holiday I decided to write a nice letter. A thank you letter. A boy did that lovely pharmacist save me from a hideous journey full of angst and panic letter. A cheers for saving my son from 9 hours of “You’re 13 – for crying out loud check your own bag!” letter.

I even posted it.

And not only did the people at Boots thank me for thanking them… they thanked me for thanking them and promised to pass on my thanks to the branch and sent me a thank you for thanking us gift.

Aren’t Boots lovely?

Just my colours too.

Should I thank them?