Woke up to the sound of rain. This is probably indicative of the weather to come over the next few days.
Today we expected a light show day as we were catching up with friends coming over from Glasgow, but we managed to see an early free show.
Comedy Tapas – Opium Rooms
Part of the Free Fringe. This show, in a small and very dark room above a nightclub, featured 5 minute slots from several comedians running free shows. The idea is, you see their 5 minute slots, like their stuff, and go along to their full show. It’s a good way to see a lot of different comedians in a short time. For us, it came with the added bonus of getting us out of the rain for an hour.
Lucky us. Despite several comedians complaining about hangovers all the comedians we saw were good. We liked some better than others (no names) and took flyers to consider their shows for any free slots that appeared in our calendar.
Aidan Greene – Stutter Island
Having despatched our friends back towards Glasgow in the late afternoon, we found we had a free slot, and so marched back to the low lying Cowgate to see Aidan Greene’s full show.
A comedy about stuttering? Yes. And it’s OK, he said we could laugh. The show was part comedy, part education about stammering and how shitty people can be. But in a funny way. The show ended on a positive note, encouraging us all to be nice to each other.
Simon Evans: Genius 2.0
Simon Evans warned us he wasn’t leaving much space for laughter in his show. And he barely paused during his fast paced show, except to take an occasional sip of Harvey’s Briatol Cream.
Without giving too much away he covered aging, politics and democracy, an alternative storyline for Finding Nemo and the Guinness Book of World Records.
Observations: I saw signs us around Leith Walk (where we had breakfast) that the council had plans to knock down some sandstone fronted buildings from the 1930s and replace them with a student accommodation block to house 1000 students. Local businesses and residents were against this plan, which means destroying part of the buildings that give the area its distinctive look.
Edinburgh, like Glasgow, has large Su urban areas with streets full of these old buildings. They give some areas their character. And they have more character than modern build apartments. It it seems that here, like in so many cities, modernising is what its all about. And the beautiful old things that draw people in are replaced with generic modern constructions that make every city look like nowhereville.
Health:
Started the day with a greasy spoon breakfast (called a “Desperate Dan”). A big plate full of carbs and high fat food. Still, I cut the fat off my bacon and only ate 1 1/2 of my 2 sausages, so yay me. And there were mushrooms and beans on the plate so…some vegetables.
Lunch: Mexican food. I had mine “bowl” style to avoid more carbs. Beans and guacamole, more veg! But countered that with a pint of beer and a glass of Bailey’s in the afternoon. On the plus side, I ate and drank so much early on, I didn’t have proper dinner, just an apple, so fruit. Yay.
Drank almost no water until we got home. Overall, positive on veg numbers, negative on water and alcohol.
Tales from Tobhamhor 