Downtime

Today there were still about ten workshop participants still in Edinburgh so, after dropping off A in Portobello for her rowing outing, I picked up И and we joined them at Blackness. Two were on a tour of the distillery, so the rest of us hung out on the "beach". I'd brought Django, and I let him off the lead. Pretty soon a couple of very little children started playing with him - under granny's watchful eye. After a while I gave the older one Django's ball to throw. Gravity being what it is, the ball kept reaching the wet mud, so it and Django were getting progressively filthy. Eventually Django was unable to distinguish the muddy ball from the muddy stones, so I had to find and retrieve it! According to granny the kids have a dog at home, and it was sweet to see them having fun with him. Having already joked to И that I mustn't forget Django, that's precisely what I did when we walked off to the nearby "Lobster Pot" pub. Fortunately И reminded me and, rather sheepishly, I went back to get him. 

Those of us who ordered lobster and chips had to wait a while to be served, but it was worth it (see extra)! Lobster also takes a long time to eat, and I was only half way through when I got a message from A that she was approaching the closest railway station. So, our vegetarian Kiwi collaborator went off to collect her. We all then moved into the quirky and attractive beer garden, where A had her lobster and chips, and we had a final round of drinks. In the group was incoming PhD student G, who had attended the workshop, and greatly appreciated his introduction to the HiGHS team as people, as well as the vibe put across by our visiting  collaborators and users.