happy birthday blog

Saturday was the 1st birthday of my blog.

By fate or by coincidence, on Saturday I was in an internet cafe in Edinburgh called Dreamcatcher. How strange it would have been, if I had updated my blog on that day in an internet cafe of the same name :)

I am so so tired today. It's been a fantastic but exhausting weekend. The grand finale of my excursion to Edinburgh meant going to bed at 2am only to have to get up at 4am to be able to get to the airport to come back to London and straight into work. I am now operating on backup energy supplies with copious topups of tea. If I drank coffee, I'd probably be on triple espressos.
Still, I only have to survive for another 3 hours and then I can go home to sleep - only my dad is celebrating his birthday today so perhaps bed is further away than I could hope for..

The last three days in Edinburgh have been a blur of walking, drinking and sitting still in various venues trying to broaden my mind on different levels. It was my first experience of the Edinburgh Fringe.
To those who may not know what this is, it is a month long festival held annually in Edinburgh where actors, artists, musicians, comedians, dancers all gather to present their work to the eager public. It's a remarkable event. There are hundreds of shows to choose from, and not enough time in the day to see it all. Promoters roam through the streets in groups, handing out flyers to would-be audience members. "Come and see our show, it's fabulous." Sometimes the cast themselves will do the handing out - "Come and see my show, I'm biased but it's great!" The end of each day turns almost into a ritual of emptying out your bags and pockets of flyers and postcards. There is a lot of drinking. Drinking whilst waiting for the show (goes hand in hand with the queuing), drinking after the show (opportunities to chat about what you've just seen), drinking in between shows (flicking through different programmes and flyers trying to choose new shows to see). Pubs must do a roaring trade this time of year. The whole thing has a studenty feel to it.

In 3 days, I went to see 10 shows and one graveyard tour at the witching hour. Due to my amazing scheduling skills, I managed to fit everything in with time spare for eating and even some sleeping. Highlights:

- Star Wars in 30 minutes: Brilliant rehash of the original trilogy with the most inventive use of props I have seen since the days of Whose Line is it Anyway?
- Gamarjobat A Shut Up Comedy From Japan: Two hilarious japanese mime artists
- La Clique: Unforgettable 'circus' with amazing performers including a male bellydancer who was totally awesome
- Ladyboys of Bangkok: A fantastic cabaret of some totally hot and some totally not thai ladyboys in various tiny outfits strutting their stuff.
- Pupptry of the Penis: Penis origami. Ouch.