Along the Royal Mile

Out and about around the Fringe today. The Royal Mile has become busy with festival people, both flyering and looking for shows.

Some shows are excellent, and I've only really been to one that, for me, was a bit of a nosedive. I had that feeling about 5 minutes into the show and even with the crowded stage of actors I wasn't able to recover nor escape. The long pauses whilst actors lifelessly tried to remember lines, the sudden jumps in continuity and logic left me and many others covering their faces with their hands to avoid offence.

But enough of that, there's still oodles of good stuff and many actors and characters promoting their shows along the Royal Mile and throughout large swathes of Edinburgh.

We're off to another show in awhile, and at some point I'll have to find time to write about another one properly. Meantime, my twitter feed is full of #edfringe and inevitably @ukmixtape messages, and I guess it will continue to be so until the end of August.

For now, here's Sweeney Todd:

And maybe some late night cabaret farce. As one audience member put it: "So funny I had to use my inhaler"

first #edfringe impressions for @ukmixtape

Time for it all to kick off properly in Edinburgh. This was me running into the Kenny Newman Show, on one of my trips along the Royal Mile.

We've been here since Wednesday/Thursday (tech arrived earlier), and at that time things were still comparatively quiet.

I took a picture of the start of the Royal Mile before the crowds arrive, although even at that point there's a few signs of what is to come.

Actually some of the street's posters were already looking in need of replacement, with the wear and tear of light foot traffic ahead of the main onslaught.

Thursday evening we'd taken a look along the street before the show, and worked out that most of the people there were - well - tourists rather than early evening punters looking for a Fringe show.

Now it's Saturday and things have changed.

The flyers are out in force.

I was offered several free tickets (which I refused) by people papering their shows to get early attendance.

For Mixtape, we'd already had two busy preview nights, although the first one was a nail biter because the queue looked empty until just before the start.

Fortunately people came along and we all had a fun evening. Here's the first winners of the Edinburgh Golden Mixtape:

Then Friday saw a bigger crowd and a high-scoring winning team, so things are moving in the right direction.

(We'll get the photo opportunities right sooner or later)

And the Underbelly Cowgate is a great venue, with the Belly Laugh space ideal for the show.

But hey it's early days and tonight is the official First Night for Mixtape, looking forward to a Mega Mix show.

The Soaking of Vera Shrimp at #edfringe @VeraShrimp

Late breakfast after yesterday's 2am finish and then along to the bustling Pleasance Courtyard/The Attic at 12.45pm to see the wonderful "Soaking of Vera Shrimp".

A one-person play, written by Alison Carr, directed by Rosie Kellagher and performed by Tessa Parr.

Without giving away spoilers, the setting is a classroom inspired science project, and the story of a girl who discovers an extraordinary ability.

The water in the story provides a lens to explore a range of situations, poignant and dark yet imbued with a overwhelming sense of positivity.

The audience loved the charming Vera, smiled, laughed and shed a tear with her as the story unfolded.

An unforgettable fresh idea and truly a story about never giving up.

a brief wander through Kielder forest and along the water

Further north today and into the Kielder Forest, which contains the Kielder Observatory and also the famous Kielder Water.

Both the forest and the 27 mile circumference lake are man-made and are also both the largest man-made forest and man-made lake in Europe. A further claim is that Kielder is one of the least light polluted areas in the UK (hence the placement of the star observatory).

The reservoir serves the three main river areas of Tyne, Wear and Tees was built in the 1970s and opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1982.

They've also build a hydro power station served from the same water supply. And yes, it's England's largest hydro electric plant.

It may look like a quiet area, but there's plenty going on.

a temporary basecamp

A temporary base for a few days before we head to Edinburgh.

In the movies, most of the time its the villains who have the big houses, with long drives and fancy swimming pools.

Not sure where this puts us?

Comparing television road programmes by party success

With the recent talk of which UK car programme is to be presented by which person, I thought an experiment was worthwhile. Simply put, which presenter could throw the best party? And perhaps which would be the most worthy?

I've seen the group of presenters that are about to be transferred to Amazon run a party before. It's on the TV channel Dave most weeks and is pretty awful. I can't place it as worthy, and most of the time the same group seem to smash everything up, set fire to it and tell everyone that their selected form of transport is inferior to that available to millionaire TV presenters.

This brings me to Chris Evans and the party we attended on Sunday. Part of the CarFest events, and a charity money raiser for Save The Children. I think that ticks the worthy box, along with it being a highly enjoyable day, with Chris Evans acting as a superlative host to the many people at the event.

We arrived as the car track events were in full swing. I don't know much about cars, but they'd included a few fun ones like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a kind of James Bond style Aston Martin and a wide range of Ferrari and similar supercars.

Later we saw club cars, hot-rods, dragsters and a selection of Formula 1 cars on the track too.

This is about when we had a footwear disaster and had to return to the car for a speedy changeover. By the time we got back, the music had started and then rocked on for the next six or so hours, well into the dark hours, when everything finished with fireworks.

No contest for who won.

More on the music later.

forces of nature

Time for a walk along a coastal footpath.

There's large chunks of the original path that have fallen into the sea. The underlying ground is made up of something called Gault clay known as blue slipper, which, as its name suggests, is partial to a bit of sliding around.

Fortunately we'd picked a sunny day and so although we were not too close to the edge, there was little prospect of any large scale land movement.

Not to say there hasn't been in the past. A whole village has fallen into the sea, as has a large part of an amusement park. This picture from above shows the well-known Blacking Chine amusement park as well as the fallen cliffs leading towards it.

The rest of the park continues and has been rebuilt across the road although inside the older section are various paths marked with no entry signs, which adds to the sense that we are dealing with major forces of nature. Then look the other way and everything seems tranquil.

blue, not red, around sunset

A quiet moment on deck before we dock back at Portsmouth. It's that time when the sun is about to set, which adds something of an unreality to the scene.

The Spinnaker Tower shows off its blue paint-job. The Emirates provided sponsorship, but although the Emirates' customary red paint was ordered, there was something of an uproar. Red is the colour of the adjacent rival port of Southampton whereas blue is the correct colour for Portsmouth.

Common sense prevailed and the Emirates found itself sponsoring the Spinnaker for the Americas Cup with blue instead of red.

scanned in depth

Something of a personal best this time when I came through airport security. I was travelling alone, with only small hand luggage.

I'd already take my laptop, iPad and Kindle out of the small briefcase and put them into a tray.

"Belt?"

I removed my belt.

"What's in the other bag? Anything electrical?"

"Some cameras"

"Please could you remove them"

"Are you wearing boots? Can you remove them too."

By now I was up to five trays. This is my personal record.

Through the scanner.

Beep.

Man scans me. Nothing found.

"Random check. Please could you go into the body scanner and stand on the yellow footprints"

I do. No beeps.

He asks me to go back past the metal scanner and then back in again.

All okay.

Then I start to gather my five trays of items together. Two still cameras, a video camera, a laptop, an iPad, a kindle, some minor toiletries in one of these see-through bags. My belt. My shoes, My small briefcase, My phone.

"Is this your bag?" asks another man.

"Yes"

He starts to go through the "Did you pack it yourself?" questions.

We progressively empty it. He takes everything that is in an inner bag out and dusts everything with one of those special wipes.

All clear.

I start to repack. Other passengers pretend not to notice.

RemoteGoat reviews @ukmixtape #edfringe preview @LiveTheatre ★★★★★

Today's post is more like a guest post than one of my own.

I'm borrowing a few lines from RemoteGoat's review of the Mixtape Preview at Live Theatre on Friday evening. The full review by Gary Dugdale is at www.remotegoat.com

As RemoteGoat says:

"As Mixtape shows usually focus on a set genre, tonight’s show was an example of what can be expected at the Edinburgh Fringe Show this year showcasing elements from each of the 25 odd shows they’ll be performing.

Mixing all genres of songs works well and equally, focusing on one set area works too. My preference is the mixing of types of songs as this means a broader scope of knowledge is needed to successfully win the coveted golden mixtape. You folks in Scotland will be lucky if you catch a show while the crew are there.

Another flawless, extremely entertaining show tonight, well done boys and girls."

Oh yes, and Five Stars from RemoteGoat! ★★★★★

@ukmixtape in the wild at rehearsals @LiveTheatre

Here's a minute of the rehearsals at Live Theatre before Mixtape's Preview on Friday evening, which sold out to a full house.

Lookin' good.

about time I used one of the pods

I thought I'd try the Pods at Heathrow today.

I used to sometimes use the car park where they are sited before they were running regularly, which invariably meant catching a shuttle bus.

Then main T5 car park opened, so I habitually park there for short journeys or pre-book the valet if it is for longer.

However, when I park inside T5 myself, I usually park on the same floor as the Pods anyway, so it's about time to test them.

Beep-beep.