I’ve been visiting Kim and Nick, my sister and her husband, in different towns and cities since Kim went away to Uni. Spending time together strolling the streets of Norwich and Bath, Frome and Edinburgh, has become a familiar joy. Visits to fantastic cafes and an endless stream of wonderous bookshops together never gets tiring. The easy flow of fascinating conversation is one of my favourite things in the world. Kim and Nick are two of my best and most beloved friends and I treasure every day spent together. Having made it as far North as York for the Aesthetica Prize, a visit to Edinburgh was a must. And what a brilliant visit it was, filled with adventures. The first adventure was to be found within the walls of the National Museum of Scotland, but it contained all of time and space: the Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder exhibit.
I didn’t grow up watching Doctor Who, in fact I didn’t find it until I was in my late teens. I met The Doctor when he was being played by David Tennant, and I instantly fell head over heels in love. Doctor Who is an amazing show and a spectacularly clever concept. Despite being a show about an alien Time Lord with two hearts, it has more human emotion than almost any other show in TV history. At its best Doctor Who is a show that inspires, comforts, and pushes us to be kinder, stronger, and more willing to dream.
The exhibition was wonderful, a blend of the show’s history and the real science that inspires it from physics to ecology. The displays of models and sonic screwdrivers, prosthetics and original art blew me away. The design of this show, from the Tardis to the villains, the sound design to the Doctor themselves, is iconic. Getting to enjoy so much of it first-hand was pure geeky joy. The exhibition was the embodiment of the original ethos behind Doctor Who and the BBC: inform, educate, entertain. As any truly great exhibition should, it left us all wanting more, so we returned home and put on Tom Bakers Doctor and the six-part story Genesis of the Daleks, a first for me and some truly brilliant storytelling.
Our second adventure took us beyond the streets of Edinburgh and out to Loch Lomond. With bright blue skies and crisp spring air Kim and Nick showed me my first ever Loch. How strange to have stood at Uluru’s feet and on the streets of Venice but to never have seen the mountains and lochs of Scotland. We had a perfect day out, snow-capped mountains following us as we drove, a pub lunch, and a walk along the loch shoreline, winter pink mountains in the distance.
I took my shoes off and plunged my feet into the ice-cold water. It was so still, the reflections so perfect, the sounds of birds so clear. I the cold and the wonder bone deep. Nick and I both came with cameras in hand, and I look forward to seeing both our shots when the film is developed. There was something endlessly tempting in the water and the far distant view for both my camera and my itchy feet. The day was the perfect teaser. It left me truly fulfilled while also wanting more, my longs fulls of water chilled mountain air. I can’t wait to come back and keep exploring Scotland in my van. So, I guess I best get back to building.
More next week, until then look to the stars and the mountains, they have so much to offer us.