Five things you need to know today Edinburgh!

Everything gets underway for the Christmas festivities tomorrow and then Light Night takes place on 23 November 2014. WE noticed that the Christmas tree is already standing on The Mound and we hope to tweet you some photos from the City Chambers where we will be this morning at the full council meeting.

Here is what’s happening at The Mound Precinct and East Princes Street Gardens over the Christmas period:

21 November to 4 January. Gardens are Free to access

• The Star Flyer: Come and see Edinburgh as you have never seen it before, and this year you might just open your eyes. Last year over 62,000 people took to the sky in the Star Flyer, which this year is re-located to East Princes Street Gardens.
• Santa Land: Santa Land is bigger and better this year. Joining the Santa Train and the Christmas Tree Maze are several affordable kids rides including the Swan ride, the Reindeer carousel, a mini roller-coaster, the Ride-a-rama, a North Pole Slide and, for slightly older children, the Ice Wall. Santa himself will be installed in a resplendent and enlarged grotto and around Santa Land will be a number of other stalls, including face-painting.
• The Big Wheel: Perhaps the most visible sign that the festive season has arrived in Edinburgh, the Christmas Wheel returns to Princes Street Gardens with its cosy, covered pods. As high as eight buses and bejewelled with 20,000 lights, the Dutch- made Ferris wheel is a joyful and kaleidoscopic addition to Edinburgh’s famous festive skyline. In 2013, 120,000 people enjoyed the new Big Wheel (more than twice the number of previous years).
• Ice Rink: That great Edinburgh tradition returns, to provide a boutique skating experience like no other, overlooked by the magnificence of the Scott Monument. 33,000 people took to the ice at Edinburgh’s Christmas 2013.
• The European Christmas Market: 106 stalls return to Princes Street Gardens and the Mound Precinct from across northern Europe with a selection of foods, drinks and crafts to form the magical Christmas Market.

Here is what happened last year when The Edinburgh Reporter was persuaded to go on The Star Flyer!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur8M7wAfKUU]

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Tonight at 17.15 there is a free music research seminar taking place in Lecture Room A, Alison House, 12 Nicolson Square. This one will discuss “Of the Search for Lost Time: Multiple time and temporal inordinance in Franck’s String Quartet”.

If this interests you then there are More details here.

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Rosemary Kaye has listed all of the things she can find to do in Edinburgh this week. The list is here and we hope you find something to your liking there!

Please tell us if you are organising an event in Edinburgh. Email details to theedinburghreporter@gmail.com

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This evening on Shore Radio there will be a programme presented by the team at North Edinburgh Community News called Edinburgh Matters. The show will run from 7.00 till 8.00pm. There will be music, news and a guest. Anyone who wants to be involved should contact North Edinburgh Community News.

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The Scottish Government is very proud of the fact that the new bridge at South Queensferry is both on time and under budget.

The latest aerial photos have been added to the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) page here. Their photo which we reproduce here is the latest in the collection showing how the bridge is progressing. ©RCAHMS

The bridge will be the longest three tower cable-stayed bridge in the world and is due for completion in 2016. The 30,000 tonnes steel structure will be 2.7km in length.