Close quarters and embarrassing bodies

Mary King's Close: This alley in Old Town was buried under the Royal Exchange and preserved for hundreds of years. It is now reopened as a "tourist attraction", with tours led by costumed figures from the close's history. Our best description: Very touristy, so go early in the day. But it is enlightening to understand just how crowded the city was in the 1600s and the differences in how the classes lived (12 people living in a small windowless room with a bucket for sanitation that they could only empty into the alley twice a day). Pity the extremely poor people who had to live next to the cow shed and scrape up the blood from the floor after a slaughtering to make black pudding (something we will definitely not be eating while we're here). No photos were allowed in the close.

No bland network PSAs here: We took an opportunity Saturday night to watch some local television programming, particularly a show called (no joke) Embarrassing Bodies. It seems to be an educational reality show, and this particular episode featured morbidly obese individuals who:

• desired surgery to remove excess skin after a dramatic weight loss
• required gastric bypass as a life saving procedure
• need to have a stomach removed because it hung down past a man's knees

The doctors who host the show also staged screenings in cities throughout the country and work with families to address the nation's obesity problem (apparently Britain is the "fat man of Europe" -- their words, not ours). It was shocking to see, especially because they show everything - topless women, surgical procedures, and even an anatomically correct animation about why obese men frequently have problems with intimacy.

There is also a companion website where you could look up your own health issues, or try to find out more about one's spotlighted on the show, or even apply to be on the show yourself.

The site contains this well-deserved warning: "The Embarrassing Bodies website contains images of an explicit medical nature and nudity in a medical context."

Educational but truly frightening, and it made me feel really guilty about our post-dinner chocolate run at Sainsbury's.

Rainy weather: Someone needs to patent a pair of waterproof dress pants. It has rained nearly every day since we arrived in Scotland, though Saturday was by far the worst. We were soaked by the time we made it up the hill to our first stop of the day. Then we walked all the way down and back up the Royal Mile to do some souvenir shopping and get lunch. By the time we made it to the Scottish Parliament and had to remove our belts to go through the metal detectors, I had to hold up my jeans to keep them from falling down due to the heaviness of the water.

You probably can't see the water lines around Ryan's knees, but we both had them.

We stopped at a Turkish coffee shop to warm up in the afternoon. I had Turkish apple tea, while Ryan had Turkish coffee (and we both tried Turkish Delight). 

Photo of the day:

This is the outside of the Scottish Parliament, which Ryan looks at in depth in his post.  

Sign of the day:

The signs outside the Deacon Brodie Tavern, named after a disreputable Edinburgh resident who was supposedly the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

Jennifer Lopez's £10,000 visit to the BBC and other tales from the world's largest broadcaster



The iconic BBC headquarters in London, built in 1960. Shortly after taking this photo, our tour guides informed us that it's on the market as the BBC employees are gradually transferred to a new headquarters. 

As part of our tour of the BBC on Thursday, we stood inside one of the five "superstar" hang-out rooms where big acts relax before being taken to their dressing room/makeup rooms before a performance or interview. As part of the deal, the big names get to pick some amenities to make themselves feel more at home.

Our guides, Megan and Rachel, shared with us a few memorable requests the BBC has gotten from celebrities over the years (called riders). As Rachel listed a few examples of famous people's riders, she let us guess whether the BBC went along with the requests or not. It was so much fun -- and enlightening -- we'll let you play, too. Decide whether you think the BBC granted the following requests, then check your answers below.

1. Paul McCartney. Request: Fresh fruit and tea.
2. Elton John. Request: Sugar-free ginger biscuits from British luxury shop Harrods.
3. Jonathan Ross. Request: A Playstation 3.
4. Madonna. Request: A life-sized portrait of the Pope.
5. Mariah Carey. Request: A box of puppies to play with.
6. Lady Gaga. Request: A pair of additional refrigerators.
7. Prince. Request: To be carried around the BBC's campus to avoid going up steps or in elevators.
8. Jennifer Lopez. Request: To have her dressing room redecorated entirely in white, including new white carpet and two white sofas flown in from her Paris apartment, and dressing rooms for the 32 members of her entourage.




The BBC knows irony.



1. Yes, McCartney's request was granted.

2. Yes, the BBC sent someone to Harrods to buy the biscuits.

3. Yes, a BBC employee went out to buy the PS3. At the end of the night, Ross gave it to the compliant employee as a gift.

4. Yes, the BBC met Madonna's demands by borrowing a wax figure of the Pope from Madame Tussauds. It apparently traveled to BBC headquarters sticking out of the roof of a taxicab.

5. No, the BBC denied this request for fear of cruelty to animals.

6. Yes, Lady Gaga got her two fridges. She used them to store her wigs, according to our guides.

7. Yes, a security guard got the honor of carrying Prince from one floor of the BBC to the next.

8. Yes, Lopez got her redecorated room, couches and all -- but only when she agreed to pay for it. It apparently cost her more than £10,000, according to our guides. (The BBC is publicly funded, raising its revenue from an annual license fee of about £140 that every citizen who owns a TV must pay.)

And for all that trouble and expense, Lopez was only in the room for about 40 minutes, our guides said.