I went to a delightful wedding do at The Scotsman hotel in Edinburgh on Saturday. Ros [far left-hand side] and Andy had already had a ceremony in Thailand where half of Ros’s family comes from. I couldn’t afford to take up my invitation to that party. They officially tied the knot in Scotland because, if she had legally married out in Asia, Ros would have forfeited a whole range of things by becoming Andy’s “appendage” (for example the right to inherit).

The whole gathering was seriously Scottish. There was a ceilidh and an innovative alternative to wedding cake: a huge cheese display. As one of my fellow guests remarked, “I’ve never seen so much cheese and so many kilts in one room.” I was not wearing one, however—a kilt that is—though I was eventually dragged into “stripping the willow“. If this is how violent the Scottish have always been when dancing, no wonder they caused the Romans and the English so much trouble fighting.

Edinburgh is still stunning to look at and now there seems to be even more money than usual sloshing through its streets. My visit to the city also gave me, as usual, an opportunity to say hello to and argue geopolitics with my “Auntie” Maureen, the first human being in the World to see me alive.