August 2

Show: Greg Fleet and Mick Moriarty in Fleetwood Mick, 9.30 pm. £5, Gilded Balloon.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4675

Stalwart of Aus comedy and a nod to my time spent devouring Good News Week episodes. Mick Moriarty's band the Gadflys was house band on GNW's Nite Lite. Show went really well until the end where their story goes downhill about them both lusting after a girl on a picture of a pack of cigarettes. Distasteful. Spent hald the show wondering if Greg Fleet was still a junkie. Juy's still out on that one.

PS - I've added a few photos to my post about Dublin. Go back and have a gander!

August 1

Show: Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. Complimentary tickets, Gilded Balloon, 10.45pm.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=5502

Noni and I watched one man in a kilt behind a giant piece of tartan. 2 sock puppets. great idea for the first ten minutes, but a 50 minte performance was a bit of a stretch. however, high energy and enthusiasum for the month ahead meant laughs came easily. Helped that it was free too.

Almost August...

Fringe Festival rundown. Previews started on the 1st August, with the Fringe officially kicking off on the 5th. The 1st is when things started buzzing around here. All in all I saw over 30 shows, many free, mostly comedy, lots of Aussie acts. Scots all clear out of Edinburgh for August and the populations' accent takes a real nasal twang - the Aussies swamp the town!

Work kindly let me take a week and a half off to enjoy the festival which was great as there are so many things on during the day as well as late at night events. I really came to enjoy the long lie-in for that time. I'd wander down to a venue, usually Bristo Square where a cluster of venues are - the Gilded Balloon, Pleasance Dome and Udderbelly (a venue inside of an inflatable giant, upside down purple cow), and try to get as many free tickets to shows as possible. In the first week this was particularly easy and I saw some great neat things. It was also nice to not have to choose as the choice was so great sometimes you don't know where to start!

I think the best way to go through the shows I saw is to go through each day of August, start to finish. Better order another coffee...

Lead up to my August posts (in September)

Slightly out of date as I am writing this a week after the Fringe finished. Agata and Lawrence have gone to Connect Festival and the house is even more quiet than usual. I have actually been looking forward to a Friday night by myself as August has just been madness. Briony was going to a workmate's house to watch the Big Brother final. Not realy my cup of tea. After work finishes, I walk down to Alphabet Video to hire some dvds. The weather was so nice, I decided to walk the wrong way home up to Bruntsfield to wander the gorgeous little boutiquey shops and get some dinner. I get some pasta and some flavoured peanuts from the little Thai store which sells Asian groceries, so much cheaper than the supermarkets. Get a message from Cheryl, her and her flatmates are going out tonight. I'm all set up for a night home so sadly decline - my time with Cheryl is limited as she is leaving to go travelling at the end of the month.

Diana and Marcos join me in my room to watch Somersault. This Aussie movie has a soundtrack that i adore - I hired it purely on that basis. It was a good movie for Marcos as there wasn't much dialogue. I put Rushmore on next as I love Wes Anderson films but I've never seen this one...and fall asleep halfway through.

Saturday Morning and I get up nice and early to do a spring clean. Washing, cleaning, vacuuming. The house is spotless (for now - it never takes long for noni to leave her mark!)

During the morning I went across the road to pick up my new book from the library. Alan Alda's autobiography. I have high hopes. I also listen to my first bit of "Speak Spanish" CD, also from the library. I want to surprise Marcos and Diana, which I do. I can mimic very well but don't retain them in my old age so practice practice practice. Also used Lawrence's computer to rip the CDs I've amassed onto my new mp3 player...all 2 of them - the new Crowded House and Something for Kate albums.

It's now 3pm and I've escaped the house to go across the road to pen this long time coming blog post about the fringe (when I know it's a big one I write it on paper first). I've come to the Elephant House which is where JK Rowling supposedly wrote a bit of Harry Potter. Because of this fact during August tourists flocked to this place, taking photos and the like. I don't know why I'm here as the coffee is shocking, the service ridiculous, plus the chairs are uncomfy. Perhaps I wanted a bit of my own inspiration? I must look like a tool sitting here, jotting things down but who cares? I'm most excited about getting this ticked off the list today so I won't have to do any chores tomorrow. Father's Day will be a day of complete choice to do whatever I please. There are a few exhibitions in their last weekend here I could make time for. If it's a nice day I might go down to the Botanic Gardens. In the evening there is a fireworks spectacular on which we will hopefully be able to view from our lounge room window. If not we will wander down the Mound and watch from outside (NB. my dinner was still in the oven when fireworks started, but we say them from our bedroom window. Twas no SA-FM Skyshow!).

The fireworks mark the official end of the 'festival' and already the town has gone so quiet, it's weird not getting accosted by a flyerer or having to walk on the road as the footpaths are full of roaming tourists who just stop abruptly for no reason, right in front of you. Also, having to play umbrella wars with those that don't realise that they're walking too close to you and are poking you in the head - has stopped.

September 1 and summer is officially gone. The general concensus is that it never arrived this year. Autumn has been quite agreeable so far with mild days, not much rain and wind at all. Hope that keeps up for a few more weeks - this will be great weather while Mum and Dad are here.

My Space Update

Alas, the moment was shortlived. Cannae longer access MySpace at work, which means once more my page will slide into oblivion. I know you posted a comment there Jen but haven't been able to read it yet! And yes, Facebook is all the rage here but I shall resist that for as long as I can like I did with MySpace!

Last weekend of the Fringe, incredibly sleepy yet want to make the most of the last few days including going to see a comedy sketch show at the top of Arthur's Seat - I'm laughing already!

MySpace Ramblings

Just thought I'd double post this up as a poor excuse for a blog entry. Those of you that read (read) my MySpace, feel free to frequent it again as I am slowly going to be doing it up. Enjoy my MySpace rambling...

Ooh, an update...can you believe it? It's only been 5 months but now I can access MySpace at work - hooray!

Have been settled down in Edinburgh since April, November will be time for me to move on though. My existential crisis of earlier this week turned into revelation on Friday when I discovered if I save and work hard in September and October, I probably will have enough money to travel around Europe for 2 months, thus seeing more of the continent. Then I'll be able to use a bit of my Australian account money for travelling in Thailand and surrounds in early 2008 before coming home to Adelaide and contemplating my next move. I'll be excited to see my family, my friends and my best mate's wedding in August.

For now I'm just going to enjoy the rest of the month and the Fringe Festival and quietly plot my plans for world domination.

Notes from Dublin..no room at the inn

So on the last Saturday in July Cheryl and I had booked cheap flights to Dublin to stay there for three nights/days. Briony had a lazy day Saturday and a nice lunch downstairs at the Villager and it wasn't until 6 in the evening when I had to walk down to meet Cheryl at Waverley Bridge to catch the bus to the airport. Oh, when I say lazy day it was kind of indispersed with my being lazy and my fretting that Dublin was extremely busy that Saturday and we'd been trying to look for accommodation for days with no success. We'd booked a hostel no worries for Sunday and Monday but Saturday was proving a hard task. So I was on the phone a lot of the day ringing places seeing if they had cancellations. Finally around 4pm one place did have 2 spare beds so that sorted that problem.

The bus ride is only supposed to take 25 minutes but ended up being over an hour as a great big football match between Barcelona and someone had finished and people and cars were pouring out of Murrayfield Stadium and we were stuck in traffic similar to AAMI stadium after a match but only 2 lanes of traffic not 4 or whatever there is on West lakes Boulevard. The bus driver was getting all riled up - poor thing once we did get to the airport he would have had to turn around and head straight back into the crowds. We had a heads up on the match so factored in that we needed to catch an earlier bus so were not worried about missing our flight at all.

I'd borrowed Lawrence's little suitcase so I wouldn't have to check in any luggage (RyanAir charge you £10 per flight per bag to have this luxury can you believe?). Unfortunately Cheryl had a whole heap of liquids (hair stuff, good shampoos and other hairdresser stuff) so she either had to chuck them out and not check her stuff in or keep them and pay the price. So once we'd sorted that out she'd checked her bag in and on the plane we hop. I mentioned to Cheryl how I haven't got any luggage tags on my bag but since I'm not checking it in I don't worry. The airports here aren't as generous with those paper labels like QANTAS and Virgin are.

Flight was no worries, only an hour but the plane reminded me of a giant safety vest - Ryanairs colours are yellow and blue...not soothing colours. They also hock Ryanair scratchies on the flight as well - how classy. Arrived in Dublin in a makeshift terminal reminds me of Avalon Airport but Dublin's excuse is that they are building new terminals. It's half past ten before we get out of passport control and baggage collection and I am anxious to get to our accomodation by 11 because that's when reception closes. They guy behind the desk knows we might not make it there in time but is still adament we have to be there before 11. So i'm a bit anxious when i get on the bus. Half way into the journey some young local blokes get on and ask us what we're up to, tell them we're heading into town and have to go to blessington street. they tell us we'll have to catch a taxi once we get off the bus, no worries they'll hail us a cab when we get off. So when we get into town we all rush off and they flag down a cab, cheryl and I bundle in and thank the guys, off we go to the accomodation. It's ten past 11 when we arrive there and thankfully someone answers the door. We just want to drop our stuff down and go have a beer but he shows us our beds and expects us to get in them then and there. The place is like a homeless mens shelter I swear, we're not given a key but told to ring when we want to be let inside and that the beds are 40 euro each not 16 like the guy on the phone told me. it's at this point in time when Cheryl whispers in my ear "where's your suitcase?"

Shit. I told her to run downstairs and check to see if the cab was still downstairs, I say to the guy thanks but no thanks now we have no accomodation and are missing my suitcase. Remember, no idenification on the bag (but it was locked). I didn't know if I'd left it on the street when we got off the bus in such a rush for the cab - could be anywhere. We flag down another cab and when I actually stop and think about it the suitcase is still on the bus. Ask the cabbie how we'd get in touch with lost property and he helps us out ten fold, ringing up the bus company and also stopping other buses on the street to ask them what to do once we found out lost property wouldn't be open at midnight on a Saturday. We spent about an hour with this guy and he only asked us to pay 5 euros but he'd helped so much as tempting as that was I paid him twenty and thanked him for his help. You see, we'd found out that the bus was heading back to the depot, but not straight away so while we waited for it, our cabbie Alan took us to about 10 different places to try and see if we could find a room for the night. All places fully booked, one hotel had just sold their last room 20 minutes before. At a quarter past 12 we go to the bus depot (you'd think it was scary but we actually felt safe the whole time) and wait 15 minutes for my case and me to be reunited. Hooray! It didn't have anything important in it except for clothes, but still. While we were waiting we were chaitting to the drivers at the depot about how booked out Dublin was and they got out the yellow pages and started suggesting places we could go. They were ringing hotels and hostels and conferring with one another about where best to try. "Two football matches and two hurling matches on this weekend, see", they say "that's why it's so busy here". One younger, cuteish guy says he's got a half an hour before his night run starts and that we'll try some places. So at 12.30 on a Saturday night cheryl, me and this bus driver are riding a double decker bus through the streets of Dublin stopping wherever we saw a hotel, hostel, B&B, anything that looked like it might have a bed for us. I kid you not,we tried about 20 different places and the closest we got to a vacancy was a B&B where the guy said we could have a room for 50 euros each person but her was overbooked so he could kick us out if he needed to. Right....

The guy (Declan) has to start his bus run and we just want to look after ourselves, it has been so nice of everyone to help us out but it's like we're being killed with kindness and still not getting anywhere. But he's got one last idea. He takes us to the equivalent of North Adelaide on his bus run and says theres a whole row of B&Bs and hostels there. If we don't find anything he swears to god he'll pick us up on his way back into town, gives us his number and we get off the bus. Try the row of B&Bs, nothing and then rock up top a hotel called the Skylon. All the reception staff are young and having a fag break out the front, we ask them if they had anything, even a broom closet and they don't. BUT! One guy knew a friend who worked at a hostel and rang him to see if we could sleep in the tv room. it's no 2am and we're completely over this, just want to crash for the night. Thank God the guy says this is okay and we hop in a cab back into town and have the greatest nights sleep on a couch at a hostel, no charge, plus we have our luggage stored safely in lockers. We get kicked out at 8am and we are so grateful for their patronage. I let Declan know we found accomodation and he is pleased and also takes this opportunity to ask me out...So that's why he was so nice to us! I don't end up catching up with him but safely tuck this night away to remember when I'm old and decrepid that this jaunt overseas has provided some memorable adventures.

After this, Dublin turns out to be a great trip! We go to our new hostel and drop our luggage off but have to wait until 2pm to check in and have a shower. We while away the hours then at 2pm on the dot we hear drums, lots and lots of thunderous drums. Sounds so inviting we must investigate, maybe it's a parade but instead we stumble upon a free concert as part of the Big Bang Festival (first two photos) and it's great fun for a few hours, lots of different acts on stage music and dancing and all sorts. Plus, it's sunny so it's great to bask in the sun and listen to good tunes with lots of other people. there are hundreds of us sitting on the floor like we're back at school assembly so we can't resist to get up and dance when the finale of this concert starts, 100 drummers up on stage. Fantastic.

Finally at 5pm we head to the hostel for a shower. Litton lane is super central, just off o'Connell Street facing the River liffey. Couldn't get more central if we tried. The hostel is clean but the batrooms are a bit rundown. Really friednly roomates, 4 of them from Glasgow on holidays from Uni (all studying medicine), the other two were young guys from LA. Once we've chatted and freshened up, Cheryl and I go out to have a (real) sushi dinner and back to the hostel for drinks where we sat with our LA mates for awhile. Off we then head to Temple Bar, the touristy nightspot and see some live music. Met some Irish people and had a chat, I went to the toilet and when i'd come back Cheryl and this guy sitting next to her had just had a drink thrown on them! There had been a fight and it culminated in a drink throwing and Cheryl and this guy were sitting right behind it all.

We rounded Sunday night out by going to a Persian restaurant for some yiros (my first since New York) and chatting about what it would be like to have OCD with the guy who'd also been hit by the drink being thrown. Completely random but totally Dublin.

Monday and it's time to get out of Dublin for a day. We have coffee just off of grafton Street in my new favourite part of town, very relaxed but still stylish area. We catch a train to Howth and again, bask in the sun for the afternoon in a little fishing village. Haven't felt sun like this in ages, it's bliss!

Monday evening we go back to near grafton Street for a long dinner and drinks. Find a great kitsch Italian place with amazing food and go all out, have antipasti, main, wine, desert and coffee. The waiter brings us complimentary zambucca shots which was a nice touch. We head to Bruxelles, a little pub and sit outside until it closes, people watching. It's midnight but we want to dance to some Irish music so we hunt for an hour then almost give up when we find a place with live Irish music until 2am. it's a laugh and a half getting the place to dance, but we do it and by the end everyone there is dancing to the band, who were great.

Tuesday is a lazy day spent shopping and again, basking in the sun (and people were paying me out for choosing "sunny Dublin", it was gorgeous) in St Stephen's Green. We'd bought stuff for a picnic (3rd photos is of our spread) and it was grand, we were supposed to go to the Guiness Storehouse and do the touristy thing but by the time 3pm rolled around it was still too nice weather to head inside. I read my book and slept and relaxed in the sun, as was everyone else around me in the park.

We arrive back in Edinburgh and I'm in my door by 10.30, all ready to tell my stories to Briony who I haven't talked to all weekend. Unfortunately I haven't taken many photos but I will put some up here soon.

I'm actually writing this piece up a week after this all happened so in the next few days I will write about FESTIVAL FEVER which has gripped Edinburgh, now the fringe has started. I've got the next week and a half off of work to totally enjoy what I came over here for.