Edinburgh is a dynamic and wonderful city that I've been thrilled to call home for the past (nearly) three years. When I first moved to Edinburgh, I remembered stressing about its population size -- after living in cities of a few million, would I find the kindred spirits I was hoping for in a city of barely half a million souls? After settling in, my experiences in the city compelled me to recall an old rule, you know -- the one about quality over quantity.

After some time thoroughly enjoying my time here, I decided I wanted to up the ante, and get more people together, in intimate and ever-changing environs, chatting and eating and drinking and making merry, and making the most of the incredible brain trust of the 500,000 or so of us that live in this wonderful place.

So I hatched a plan with two like-minded friends, Lucy Keany and Kirsten Lloyd, to start a series of salon events in private flats around Edinburgh, that will be about social interaction and mixing as much as different dialogues and cuisines colliding. We held the first salon (and decided to name it simply "The Salon") in March, and served two types of pasta to a group of eight who relished in a very loosely-structured networking opportunity. Our next Salon will be a bit more structured discourse-wise and a bit less so cuisine-wise: we envision a simple serve-yourself salad bar, which will be accompanied by a discussion on current issues in contemporary curatorial practice.

The group is a bit larger this time, and we're in a different flat, and a different neighbourhood. It's this Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to sharing more about it after the event.