Shoppers in Edinburgh are gearing up for a bumper Halloween as research shows that they plan to spend an average of £34.18 on costumes, decorations and sweets for trick or treaters – double the amount spent just five years ago. Continue reading All set for Spooky Saturday!
Local familes had an added bonus to their holidays this year thanks to a new initiative by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Edinburgh Zoo. Continue reading ‘Wild About Scotland’ initiative helps makes Zoo accessible
NHS 24 is reminding people to take extra care of their health as the dark evenings draw in and days get shorter. This weekend, the clocks go back one hour marking the end of British Summer Time. Continue reading Winter health advice as clocks go back
Book Week Scotland is taking place Monday 21 – Sunday 27 November 2016 and audiences across Scotland can take part in a national celebration of books and reading, with hundreds of free events and fun reading activities happening across the country – and there’s lots to enjoy in Edinburgh! Continue reading Ten unmissable Book Week events in Edinburgh
Tuesday 8 November
It’s five years since Campbell Christie challenged us all to do things differently. Have we gone beyond the rhetoric? What have we collectively, as a sector and as individual organisations, done to drive change? Continue reading Complacent about Christie: EVOC conference and AGM
NEW STROKE FILM HIGHLIGHTS THE NEED FOR FAST ACTION
The Scottish Ambulance Service has released a brand new film to coincide with World Stroke Day (29th October) to highlight the need for fast action when it comes to a suspected stroke. 15,000 people in Scotland suffer from stroke every year. Continue reading ‘Think Fast. Acting Faster’: Scottish Ambulance Service film raises stroke awareness
Spending on the NHS in Scotland has reached record levels and waiting times have improved, but the government’s record on the health service was lambasted following the publication of the latest Audit Scotland ‘report card’ yesterday. Continue reading Parties clash over Scotland’s health service
Edinburgh Northern and Leith MSP, Ben Macpherson visited Leith Academy today to wish pupils – Caitlin Munn, Katie Ewart, Liam Stobie and Morven MacKay – good luck with their two week internships within the current US presidential elections. Continue reading Academy students leave Leith for the Land of the Free
Forget penny for the guy, Edinburgh Leisure has reduced their normal joining fee to just 1p on any of their fitness, swim, gym, class and climb memberships meaning there’s no excuse not to get fit and lose those extra pounds in time for Christmas!
The offer is available from Friday, 28 October until Sunday, 6 November.
As everyone is different and needs to find their own way to a healthy and active life, Edinburgh Leisure offers a range of different membership options to suit everyone offers a range of memberships from swim, gym and fitness class only to full monthly memberships. By offering different types of membership, it lets people match activity preferences to their pocket.
With 30+ venues offering 1 climbing centre, 3 soft-plays, 6 golf courses, 10 swimming pools, 15 gyms, 23 tennis courts, 140 pitches and 700+ fitness classes per week, Edinburgh Leisure is the ‘biggest club in town’ providing the widest range of fitness classes, state of the art facilities and community based programmes across the capital.
To join, visit your nearest Edinburgh Leisure venue or visit www.edinburghleisure.co.uk and sign up online.
A pair of slippers worn by Sir Walter Scott have been placed on display at Edinburgh’s Writers’ Museum. The renowned Scottish author, famous for penning Waverley and Rob Roy, was gifted the slippers in 1830 by friends who were ‘saddened’ by the state of the ones they found him wearing at his home in Abbotsford!
A letter from Scott’s friend, Lady Honoria Louisa Cadogan, reads: ‘The only thing we did not admire at Abbotsford was a (pair) of ugly, uncomfortable slippers we saw in (your) study so my daughters hope you will replace them by their’s.’
Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “We recently refurbished the Writers’ Museum to include a new gallery dedicated to Sir Walter Scott and this loan adds enormously to the existing display of personal books and items belonging to the author.
“It is fantastic to have a local resident step forward with the offer of this loan and I hope it might encourage further donations to the city’s Museums so we can continue to add to the mix of items on display. I have no doubt they will generate much interest.”
The embroidered footwear will be on loan to the Museum for five years thanks to private collector Richard Wiseman. He purchased Scott’s size nine slippers from a collection previously owned by the author Sir Hugh Walpole, who is said to have been inspired by Scott’s writing style.
Richard Wiseman said: “We live in one of Walter Scott’s former Edinburgh homes and we came across these slippers online by chance. We love them, and we want to give other people the opportunity to see and enjoy them too. They are certainly well-worn so you never know, Scott might have sat at his writing desk in Abbotsford wearing these slippers to keep him comfortable as he wrote his later novels in the last two years of his life.”
Gillian Findlay, Curatorial and Engagement Manager for the Museum, added: “Scott’s slippers tell such a human story of the need for creature comforts and the compassion the author inspired in his friends, particularly at this vulnerable moment towards the end of his life. He was still mourning the loss of his wife and struggling to make ends meet since the banking crisis of 1825. He had received advances on books he hadn’t written yet but a kind friend took pity on him and had these slippers made as a gift.”
The City of Edinburgh Council managed museum is free to visit and allows visitors to discover the Capital’s rare collection of first edition books, personal belongings and portraits of great Scottish writers. In August, it was named a top visitor attraction when it was selected as a winner of TripExpert’s 2016 Experts’ Choice Award.
Next week: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Samoan flip-flops?!
