Did a weird assortment of things on Wednesday, jumping from place to place. Headed off to Broughton Place on a bit of a whim, to catch my first ever art auction!
After that, poked around Valvona and Crolla along Elm Row, a 70-odd year institution set up by Italian immigrants; apparently, this food emporium was so successful that it became the first port of call for waves of other Italian immigrants in the early 20th-century. Today, you can go in and marvel at the floor-to-ceiling shelves which are stocked with an international array of food products, in addition to a tasty looking cheese-counter and wine section! Bought some prettily-packaged tea leaves for my teachers back home - I think a soothing brew will be what they need when pouring over our research papers.
After that, I hopped down for some takeaway fish and chips at the Montgomery fish bar (very friendly and very loud Italian cook; pretty good fish!); went for a dance class at Grassmarket and ended the day with a nice dinner at Pinsheng's place where we had home-cooked food (though I got lazy and just brought some wine :P) and a very intense game of Monopoly where everyone except Jules went spectacularly bankrupt.
Some of the above proved to be rather interesting indoorsy places to wile the time away - wish I had known about them earlier, especially during the winter season! They would have been nice alternatives to staying cooped up in the library or my room, facebooking incessantly. So if ever you're stuck in Edinburgh on a cold, wintery day wondering what to do, you can consider getting yourself down to these places for some nice, indoorsy activities!
1. Lyon and Turnbull, 33 Broughton Place
Okay so this might not be to everyone's taste, but I scoured the web on Tuesday night and realized there was an auction occuring in Edinburgh on Wednesday - I had to go! I've never been to an auction before despite spending a whole week discussing and studying the Art market in my art history class. In addition, the auction in question featured fine jewelry and silver! xD (cue nerdy grin)
Best of all, I called ahead on Wednesday morning, and the friendly lady I spoke to informed me that anyone could come down for the auction even if they weren't intending to buy anything. With those reassurances, I felt emboldened to make my way down to the very sophisticated sounding Lyon and Turnbull, Scotland's oldest firm of auctioneers and appraisers.
Lyon and Turnbull is situated in a nice neoclassical building along a quiet street. The salesroom is the first thing you'll see when you get inside, and it's true that anyone can just walk in, no questions asked. So that I did, feeling rather excited as I took my place between rather genteel-looking ladies of leisure. Some interesting observations I made during my first auction:
1. Seating: There are plush-looking seats arranged in the centre of the room for visitors, but I was surprised to see quite a few people sitting right at the back of the salesroom on the steps! I wondered why they were doing that, until the auction got underway.
There are some benefits to sitting on the steps: from your place at the back of the room, you can observe everyone else and see clearly who's placing the bids - from what I noticed, the auctioning process is extremely rapid. Call me silly but I was expecting bidders to wave their auction cards wildly like they sometimes do in those Hollywood movies. However from what I saw, bidders tend to communicate with the auctioneer using fairly subtle gestures - a slight nod of the head or a discrete flick of the wrist combined with eye contact. It was sometimes hard to see who was bidding from where I sat, and almost impossible to tell if someone on the steps was placing a bid unless I craned my neck right around. So yes, sitting at the back on the stairs - smart move if you want to observe the proceedings better.
2. The Noise: I realize that a lot goes on in an auction, apart from the sale itself. In the salesroom for instance, staff from Lyon and Turnbull are stationed at two rows of tables which flank the sitting area. They are constantly on the phone with clients, giving them real-time updates on the auction, information on the latest bids placed and also placing bids on their behalf. An antique Jewish wedding ring in particular, saw an exciting bidding war waged between 4 phone bidders communicating through their representatives at L&T. The lot, estimated at 1500 - 2000 pounds on the catalogue, was eventually sold for a whooping 15 000pounds to one of the four very persistent bidders! And we never got to find out who it was >.<
Apart from the phone business, there are also quite a few people who mill around checking out the lots, which are displayed on either side of the salesroom - here, another revelation: they don't physically bring the lots up onstage during the auction. If you want to view the items or obtain more information about them, you should either attend a viewing session prior to the auction, or consult the catalogue. Nevertheless, some people will roam around the salesroom just before the auction starts. In addition, there's also a viewing gallery on the second floor which overlooks the salesroom. On Wednesday, the gallery featured several paintings about to be auctioned off at a later date. Consequently, there were a handful of viewers walking about on the second floor, with the occasional curious individual peering over the balustrade to look at us.
So as you can tell, there's a lot of clatter and chatter going on at any one time during an auction. People frequently stand up to move about as well. This makes it rather lively, and there are always interesting observations to be made! Glad I went down for a look see. You can view upcoming auctions at Lyon and Turnbull here!
2. Dance Base, 14 - 16 Grassmarket
This place touts itself as Scotland's National Centre for Dance, and has an amazing line-up of dance programmes. I'm most impressed by their daily selection of 'drop-in' classes - basically, you just turn up on the day itself half an hour before the class you're interested in; make payment, change into comfortable attire and just dance! There's no need for bookings or reservations. Consequently, it's a great way to sample a whole range of classes on offer, with no obligation to continue.
Wednesday's line-up included Ballet for Lunch, Ceilidh dancing, Contact Improvisation, Free-style Contemporary, Hip Hop for Beginners and Pilates! Each class also has a difficulty level assigned to it, so you can make an informed choice based on your fitness levels and how much dance experience you have.
I opted for the Gentle Jazz class (5 pounds, student concession) at 5pm, which is graded at Level 1 (easy-peasy!) and thus suitable for beginners. Really fun stuff! The class was taken by a young-ish lady named Grainne who was so nice and enthusiastic. It wasn't a very popular class - just a handful of people in a huge studio, so it was quite nerve-wracking knowing that I wouldn't be able to hide my mistakes behind a whole crowd of other people! However Grainne was very patient and encouraging, which helped mitigate the self-consciousness. All in all, a good afternoon with little nuggets of jazz set to the soundtrack of Hairspray! Enjoyed it quite a bit! :)
I really recommend going down for a class on those days where you've got nothing else to do except sit at home and mooch around. It's a fun and healthy form of exercise; you get to meet new people; and the selection of classes is quite wide so there's definitely something for everyone, whether you're young, old, a newbie, or a seasoned dancer. Check out their drop-in programme here! The classes have been organized in various categories for easy browsing and selection.
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