Another update for all you loyal (if silent) readers out there. It's been a good few days here in Edinburgh. We've had more festival fun after our slightly distrastrous first attempt. On Sunday afternoon we went to Fringe Sunday, a free day of performances and delicious things at the Meadows, a big stretch of green next to the city. We saw some bands, some performance poetry, and some hairy hippies banging drums and doing some kind of 'dance' a bit reminiscent of Twister. It's a great atmosphere in this city right now, it's amazing that with so many people from so many different places all squashed into the same area it still has a nice vibe about it. For people who have been to Oktoberfest in Canberra, imagine that multiplied by 1000 and then take away the aggressive alcoholic haze that hangs over everyone. That's the basic feeling.
The Priscilla bus that we see around town occasionally (it's not actually for Priscilla, in fact I'm not sure what it's for. But cool, huh?).
On Monday we decided to have another shot at seeing a comedy show. We didn't want Toby to pass out and inconvenience everyone again (just kidding, he didn't do that at all) so wanted a decent venue with seats near the door. We found a bar about 10 minutes walk from our house which is part of the free fringe and sat there drinking for a while wondering if there would ever be a show on. Finally I asked one of the bar girls who told me there was one starting downstairs in 5 minutes. Oh, there's a downstairs. That explains why we saw no signs of festivities going on. So down we headed and took seats right by the entryway, wondering what we were about to see. It turned out be a sing a long about the joy of sex, complete with lyric sheets, a la Nana's 80th birthday mass in Ballina (for all those of you who were there). It was a couple, both comedians, the bloke had a guitar, and they'd penned a whole bunch of songs about sex, like Welcome to Brazilia (waxing) and Waiting Room Blues (about sex-related injuries). They had another comedian join them for the threesome song (as you do) and then she had 5 minutes to give us a preview for her own show, which is called How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You. She was pretty funny and I'm sure her show would be good, but it costs 9 pounds which is a bit much especially considering there's already one person who wants to sleep with me (sorry parents) and that's enough to handle.
The show was really entertaining and although it was a small audience it felt nice and friendly, but not THAT kind of friendly. Toby didn't need to pass out once. Afterwards of course we were asked to contribute some money and because we'd enjoyed it we gave them 10 pounds. So I'm liking this free festival business, you show up and then afterwards you get to decide how much it was worth to you.
Yesterday we decided to get out of Edinburgh and took the train to Glasgow. It's a very easy 45 minute trip (well it would be if we hadn't gotten on the wrong train to start with), even though it's considered 'west coast' (Edinburgh is the 'east coast'). Glasgow has a very different feel to Edinburgh, a bit tougher and much, much trendier. The shops were great and we spent a bit of time wandering around since I've barely seen a brightly coloured stiletto the whole time we've been here. We visited the Gallery of Modern Art which has a current programme looking at sectarianism, a bit of an eye-opener considering I thought the Protestant/Catholic thing was well and truly over in Scotland (it's not). We also went up to Glasgow Cathedral, the only Cathedral to survive the Reformation. It was very impressive.
Glasgow Cathedral
Me in front of the Glasgow city council building and the gigantic pillar of John Knox (the Catholic priest who decided Protestantism was better and is therefore a rather important historical figure as far as Scotland's concerned)
Our train ticket meant we could either get the 4.30 train or one after 6pm; even though we'd planned to stay for dinner we were pretty tired by then so we got the earlier train and came home. We will definitely return to Glasgow, especially if I need to buy new shoes (which I do, of course).
This morning I had another interview with another job agency, and the best thing to come out of that was a job. It doesn't start until the 29th and it only goes for a week, but it's better than nothing. She put me through a typing test and a word test and her books seem a bit busier than the other agency's so I'm hopeful. Hurray.
Some personal shout-outs, first to my dad who's having a birthday today (yes I remembered, all the way from here), and second to uncle Ross and his lovely wife Hettie who are expecting another baby. Hurray for dozens of cousins. Another baby we're going to miss. Life goes on, after all.
2 comments:
From Beth. Just to let you know that many people at chris's 60th on saturday night said they love your blog and were apologetic about being "silent" readers. I encouraged them to drop you a line or 2 next time they check it out. Hope you are still enjoying the Festival or has it finished by now? Love the Priscilla bus - must watch that movie again soon!
Hi Dot and Toby.
Just thought you'd like to know that the Raiders won on Saturday night - yeh. It means they definately won't get the wooden spoon. John Howard has announced that we should all be into 'aspirational nationalism' which means that the prime minister can do anything he likes regardless of the constitution. Kevin Rudd has made headlines for looking at strippers through beer goggles. So, while you may be having plenty of laughs at the Edinburgh Fringe, we're getting lots here too. Re the shoe thing, sounds like you are a natural born Glaswegian, Dot.
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