MONDAY

MONDAY

To Scottish Ballet's Tramway HQ for a sneak peak at rehearsals for its new show, The Nutcracker, and a chat with its Gallic star, Sophie Martin. Having appeared in the ballet several times, what she doesn't know about this Christmas staple isn't worth knowing. With a little practice and an XL tutu I feel I could almost take on the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy myself.

Martin tells me of childhood Christmases growing up in Normandy, plus a few more unseasonal recollections - one of which takes us back to a summer night at Celtic Park when Tunnock's Teacakes and God Save The Queen were the order of the day, rather than toy soldiers and Tchaikovsky. Martin joined Scottish Ballet partner Christopher Harrison to dance to The Proclaimers' I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), performed in what was referred to as "a folksy arrangement" by some and "a funereal-paced dirge" by others (me, mainly).

Martin looked unflappable - but as with all swans there was a degree of paddling below the surface. "The first rehearsal we did in the space, it was pouring and we couldn't do anything because it was so slippery. So on the day I was saying, 'I hope it's not raining, otherwise I don't know what we will do …'" But as they say in showbiz - yes, even in the rarefied world of ballet - it was all right on the night.

TUESDAY

Does anybody celebrate failure like the residents of these miserable, austerity-wracked isles? I think not. So, as councils across the UK stick up Christmas trees in town centres and on village greens, the people whose taxes pay for this annual display pick up their smartphones and snap away - and the more miserable and austerity-wracked the tree, the greater the exposure online.

The national press has leapt on this and come up with a Worst Christmas Trees In Britain list. There's one in Micklehurst in Manchester, which is topping the polls this year. In 2013, it was Stockton's cone-shaped monstrosity. "We would appeal to people to look at the bigger picture," said Stockton council leader Bob Cook when his tree was named and shamed. I tried, but I just ended up laughing harder.

WEDNESDAY

Those who complain about the lack of ­­­homegrown talent in Scotland's top art jobs will know the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has never had a Scottish-born director.

It shouldn't matter of course - that word "International" is there for a reason. But those who do care might be interested to learn that Edinburgh boy Alex Poots, who set up the EIF's brattish young rival, the Manchester International Festival, is upping sticks for New York and a job running its innovative Culture Shed arts centre.

I first met Poots when he co-founded the Flux festival in the late 1990s, bringing names like John Cale, PJ Harvey, John Zorn, Michael Nyman, Beat author Ken Kesey and Nick Cave to the capital in August. On one famous occasion he hired a brass band to play classic Acid House tracks in a nightclub on King's Stables Road. On another, the Composers' Ensemble played music by Frank Zappa - and if that stunt sounds familiar, it's because the Ensemble MusikFabrik did the same thing at the 2013 EIF.

A more than adequate musician himself, Poots once appeared at Glastonbury with Pulp. Among his many coups during his tenure in Manchester was persuading Damon Albarn to write an opera. Others include mounting collaborative projects with Ennio Morricone, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Rufus Wainwright, Bjork, Victoria Wood and Turner Prize winner Steve McQueen. Next year's programme, Poots's last, features an opera scored by Jamie Smith of Mercury Prize-winning band The XX, and a children's show telling the life story of CBeebies favourite Mr Tumble.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind some of that come Festival time, whatever the nationality of the provider. A question then: will the EIF soon have a king across the water?

THURSDAY

Mad Frankie Fraser has died aged 90. Unsurprisingly, the 1960s London gangster wasn't christened "Mad" by his parents but had the sobriquet added to his name by "colleagues" as a result of certain "talents" he displayed. These involved finding alternative uses for things you normally store in toolboxes. I won't be expected at his funeral, but I once interviewed him. "We was only really rowing among ourselves," he said when I mentioned his penchant for violence. "It wasn't with nice people like yourself." And the Kray Twins, sworn enemies of his employers the Richardson brothers? "You couldn't have met two nicer men," he told me. "Absolute gentlemen."

FRIDAY

Edinburgh's city fathers today host a ceremony to rename those parts of Grindlay and Cambridge Streets which meet outside the Usher Hall. As of 3pm, it's known as McCrae's Place.

It's a tribute to the men of the so-called McCrae's Battalion, a volunteer cadre attached to the Royal Scots which was founded 100 years ago today after a public meeting in the Usher Hall addressed by local businessman Sir George McCrae. The battalion took part in the Battle of the Somme and fought at Contalmaison, where a memorial now stands.

What's notable about the battalion, though, is it contained 11 players from the 1914 Heart of Midlothian football team, then top of the league having won its first eight games. Many Hearts fans enlisted in the battalion too, as did fans and players from Hibernian, Raith Rovers, Falkirk and Dunfermline. Seven of the Hearts players died but, despite having lost its entire first team, the club still managed to finish second to Celtic.

McCrae's Battalion has already been celebrated with a book, a television documentary, a folk song - Robin Laing's Geordie McCrae - and a mention in Sebastian Faulks's best-selling novel Birdsong. And today it enters the Edinburgh A to Z.

On the other side of Lothian Road is Festival Square, which campaigners have long wanted renamed Mandela Square. Earlier this month, councillors agreed to pursue plans for a memorial to the former South African president - but they want it at the other end of Princes Street.

It's a shame. There would have been a sobering neatness to its proximity to McCrae's Place. After all, among Madiba's many quotable sayings are "We can't afford to be killing one another" - words, I think, the survivors of McCrae's Battalion would have endorsed.

SATURDAY

With December fast approaching and with bad Christmas trees in mind, I go in search of advent calendars for the kids. I get as far as Googling "Lego advent calendar" - yes, such things do exist - and two clicks later I'm immersed in website thebricktestament.com, which recreates scenes from the life of Jesus in Lego. One episode is called Jesus Curses A Tree, though whether it was the one in Stockton or Micklehurst isn't clear from the picture.