2006-08-18
As you may have realised – you’ve actually heard from me a few times this week! - I’ve had a few days off work; some quality time with my daughter while she’s off school. The last couple of years we’ve gone abroad for a short holiday but she had commitments she couldn’t get out so there wasn’t really time to make it worth going somewhere further off. So…we’ve come to Edinburgh for the festival.And for once Scotland has been warm and sunny (except it’s now pelting with rain) and we’ve had a great time with all the street theatre and dipping in and out of shows and exhibitions. Believe me if you ever get the chance, go and spend a week in Edinburgh in August – you’ll have a phenomenal time (probably best if you don’t have a child/young teenager in tow as the best of Edinburgh takes place late at night). It is – they claim – the biggest arts festival in the world, literally hundreds of shows of all kinds on every day and because there’s so much competition for audiences you can even go to sampler shows where they give you ten minute excerpts to tempt you. Yesterday lunchtime Catherine and I sat through one that gave us an Australian skiffle group, an Irish play about speed dating, a student comedy sketch show, a lesbian stand-up comedienne, a serious play about prostitution in Liverpool and finally a male Liza Minnelli impersonator. All very good and not one we would have considered booking otherwise.
We’ve seen acrobats, fire jugglers and unicyclists and a Japanese contortionist for free (or donation). We’ve seen a play about McCarthyism, a version of Shakespeare’s Tempest and a couple of comedians. We’ve been to the art galleries.
And we’re still speaking. Which is nice.
And years ago this was Lynne and I, performing here when it was so much smaller. It's been nice to re-live that time a little.
Thanks for your comments about my brother – I too think it’s a matter of getting the chemical balance right. It seems to me the therapy he’s been sent to is all about deconstructing, which might be fine if there’s something obvious under the surface to get at. But if there’s not – then further digging is just going to do damage.