the 1st of September

We went to Edinburgh for the Fringe festival about a week ago. About 10 years ago, when I was in an amateur theatre group, I thought it was the Place to Be for young stage performers, where cutting edge acting and directing would converge, and become famous. That impression stuck with me until I actually saw the theatre on offer. No, it wasn't terrible, but it didn't shine. The comedy was much better really. There are so many forms of comedy these days - classic stand up comics, sketch performances where comedians literally and figuratively bounce off each other, and then musical comedy, where the singer makes her buck by making people laugh at her antics, in between applauding her vocal strengths. It's as if no one's allowed to take their talent seriously at the Fringe. For serious, you need to make it to the International Theatre Festival, on at the same time in the same city.
Edinburgh remains my favourite going-away city though. Standing in the queue for 'Pappy's - all business' (hilarious), I composed one of my serious ditties to the city on my mobile phone. It started with something like - 'simply beauty, turreted silhouettes in an indigo sky...'. thank god I erased it by mistake later.
The oldish digital SLR my dad has donated to me got plenty of practice in auld reekie. I figured out aperture and shutter speed and even ISO. I captured the castle, Arthur's Seat, Lewis and the Bear, many many beer gartens and yellowish stone buildings in near but not qite Nat-Geo standard photographs.
Rum te tum...
Oh I might be going to Zambia next week. I hope they let me know in time to pack, and possibly to buy malaria pills.