It’s been a really busy couple of weeks, and I am taking this weekend to catch up on various things, relax a bit, and remind myself what Inverness looks like. Thankfully there are few travels between now and the wedding, which will be nice.

During my work in Edinburgh, I had a reception to attend at the Scottish Parliament, a controversial building which I had already concluded was immensely ugly on the outside. This having been my first venture inside, I sadly have to reach the same conclusion about the interior too. It’s curious, though, and I’d have loved to have taken some photos but stupidly I forgot my camera. Maybe I’ll get a chance to go back in, camera in hand, and suss the place out at my leisure, and perhaps even change my mind about the place.

While mingling around, spotting colleagues, the occasional famous face and a few old friends, an MSP approached me and introduced himself. He told me where he represented, and said he was also his party’s spokesman for something or other. I asked if he enjoyed that portfolio.

“No, I absolutely hate it,” came the refreshingly honest reply.

Later in a restaurant with colleagues, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was just a few tables away.

She didn’t recognise me, though. Not that she let on, anyway…