6 Aug - Today we enjoyed particularly good coffee at Printworks as owner was the barista (got to start the day properly) and saw 2 Fringe shows plus some good guitar and drum music at The Arches. Also walked up the Royal Mile enjoying the general mayhem. Again 2 people thought we were locals. One an American and one another local. I guess Stephen can stop wearing the kilt now.
Saw a brilliant play called Tobacco by a South African theatre company called Baxter Theatre. A one man show with an actor called Andrew Buckland. Recording the names in case I ever read that they are to perform in Sydney. Unlikely but you never know. Afterwards read that is an adaptation of a Chekhov play called "Tobacco & the Harmful effects thereof". The theatre company are putting on 5 plays and we have booked to see another one called The Fall which is about South Africa and the end of apartheid.
The other show was really story telling rather than a play. It was called The Duke and was performed by a Welsh actor called Shon Dale-Jones. The story centres on a week of his life and loosely around a porcelain figure of the Duke of Wellington but is really about what we value in the world including the current refugee crisis. He is performing for free and the Fringe gave him the venue at a substantially reduced price plus his show is half price although you are asked to donate to Save the Children afterwards. Had a number of interesting themes including the role of the artist, moral principles versus the artistic work and the refugee crisis. We had no idea what to expect but was very good. Entertaining and funny but with some thought provoking material in there as well.
7 Aug - saw 3 shows today. Ramping it up. One was at the "Free Fringe" and is a show I saw 2 years ago and thought Stephen would enjoy. It is quite bizarre - a married couple one of whom is a neuro scientist and the other a rap artist. The show is about how the brain works and they perform various experiments (some of which using rap music) including with audience members to demonstrate the different parts of the brain you use to perform tasks. Good fun. The funniest part however was as we are queuing up we ran into some friends we know from London. Totally unplanned which is pretty impressive given the number of show that are on. After our rap/science show we went to St Pauls Church to hear the "Voices of Lions". This was a boys choir from a London school. Mainly a cappella singing. The best bits were the more traditional music - possibly suited the venue more. We finished the day with a stand up comedian - Phil Jupitus. An English comedian that Stephen particularly likes. We found ourselves in the front row in the centre. Not my favourite seating for a stand up show. Fortunately did not have to engage in banter with him but he did direct some comments at me. The show was good. He is quite wacky so was good fun. We have seen him on QI at home with Stephen Fry etc. He did some pretty funny stand up on the awfulness of Scottish fried food.
8 August - More music today interspersed with drinks at The Bow Bar with London friends -John and Jackie. Went to St Cuthberts to hear the Edinburgh City Organist play some Pachelbel, Bach and traditional Scottish and Danish (?) music. Impressive organ playing. Sounded like he had 4 hands and 4 legs at some stages given the intricacy of the melody (and the noise). Felt exceedingly young which was nice for a change as feel exceedingly old at some Fringe shows (mainly the young male stand ups shows). Also went to Usher Hall in the evening (like a smaller Carnegie Hall) to hear the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra play Schuberts "Unfinshed" symphony; a piano concerto - Schumann which was lovely and Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra - so more loud organ music in part. The orchestra was very good as was their conductor - very tightly disciplined. The conductor is Danish I think - Thomas Dausgaard and the soloist was Armenian - American (Sergei Babayan). I sat next to a very knowledgeable man from Bologna who told me all about the music we were hearing which was good as we had managed to completely forget what we were going to see and didn't buy a program. Frankly was a bit relieved neither of us dropped off to sleep as we had quite a few drinks in the afternoon with our friends - Stephen had downed 3 pints in a little over an hour so was looking pretty chilled by the time we got to the concert. Fortunately concert was excellent and in any event the seats were unbelievably uncomfortable so there was no way either of us was drifting off.'
Also saw another part of Edinburgh which I really liked. It is in the south and is called the QaurterMile - around Edinburgh University and there is a huge park behind it called the Meadows. It used to be a loch - Burgh Loch and supplied the city's drinking water. It was then drained and is now the park we saw today. Very popular on a sunny day.
9 August - Sun was shining so decided to skip the Fringe today and went for a walk up Salisbury Crags. The crags are some very high cliffs (about 46 metres) at the top of a ''subsidiary spur of Arthurs Seat'' -basically runs underneath Arthurs Seat and assume part of the same volcano/glacier land mass as Arthurs Seat. They are rocks that are the remains of a glacier and when you get to the top there are some great views of Edinburgh. Read that apparently they were chipping (or eventually dynamiting) away at the rocks from the mid 17th century until the mid-1800's to use for the street cobble stones. They stopped when people started to notice that the crags were getting substantially smaller. Anyway glad they stopped as is interesting place to walk along. One online thingy says it is a cliff face that looks down on Edinburgh like a grand fortress. I thought that about summed it up. Off to dinner tonight in the west end near Charlotte Square to a place called Wigams. This is with our friends from London. Expecting a longish night and possibly not going to get to the pool early tomorrow morning.
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