A weekend of cultural extremes. Saturday afternoon saw me hauling Miriam (aged 6) up the Royal Mile cinema-bound to see Nim's Island as a four month late birthday treat. (I tried a link to the film website there but the Nim's Island website requires a more advanced version of Flash than I can be bothered to download at this time of the morning.) Suffice it to say I wouldn't rush to see it. Jodie Foster was very good. As was Abigail Breslin, she of Little Miss Sunshine fame. But the plot was slightly too far-fetched for my liking. Home Alone set on a desert island in essence.

Saturday evening was slightly more challenging. A Leap at the Traverse featuring directing students from QMU and acting students from Telford. It was dear Nick's end of year / course showcase. And from my selfish point of view, a great chance to see slivers of plays that I otherwise wouldn't have. Some really interesting stuff.

I liked very much an extract from Alexander Salamander (or the Story of a Teenage Pyromaniac) although Equus-like, I suspect it would rely on finding a really excellent teenage-looking boy. (Which they did.)

David Greig's Europe looks very interesting although possibly too obsessed with the nature of nationality for my liking.

There was a great little extract from a play called Wit by Margaret Edson about a woman suffering from ovarian cancer. Though again personally, I'm not too hot on plays about illness. Too squeamish.

And interestingly, an extract from Catherine Grosvenor's One Day All This Will Come To Nothing which is as fine a title as you can hope for. We almost did this in the festival a couple of years ago but it fell through for various reasons.

So purely selfishly, it's given me some fodder for a what next reading list. Nick of course was very good. And some of the other (tempted to say children - clearly feeling like old mother time this morning) actors were very good too. So a nicely interesting Saturday night. And a hangover-free Sunday morning. I could learn from this.