Ta-ra Edinburgh...

Well that's it...it's over.  Edinburgh is over for another year, only a few months until I start planning next year's trip!

I have several reviews still to type up, and other bits and pieces including what could be a most wonderful rant.

However this morning I amused myself by walking down a very empty Royal Mile before seven o'clock...amused because the last time I walked on it (last night) the Tattoo had just let out and the Royal Mile couldn't be seen for Argyle sweaters and anoraks.

Got to the station stupidly early, grabbed breakfast and waited patiently for the train.  Just on it until Newcastle where my parents and Baby Girl are meeting me (can't wait, haven't seen her in three weeks!).  Then we drive to Peterborough services to meet up with the meester and older girls, transfer cars before heading to Wisbech for the wedding of two friends of ours.  We were going to be camping overnight there but to be honest after a week on a sofa and one night in a hostel (more on the hostel in a later blog!), well, I want to sleep in my own bed next to my husband tonight.

We've just pulled into Alnmouth (for Alnwick don't you know!) so only half an hour until Newcastle.

In a nutshell, my week in Edinburgh has been fabulous, with only a couple of meh points.  Quite frankly there were far too many highs for the mehs to really affect it other than whilst they happened.

Words to sum up?  Peg-legged pirates, two messiahs - one false and one true, Pissed Priss, pole dancing Lee extended cabaret, cold late night, lovely flatmates, vomit, semi-naked Lee, marvellous magicians, most excellent facial hair, henna, vanilla vodka, drinks with friends...that'll do for now...

So ta-ra Edinburgh...catch you in about 12 months x

Shows, garlands and vomit

Well I find myself about 36 hours away from leaving Edinburgh, and I am knackered and happy, with still a writing workshop and some shows left to go!  Those who have been following the reviews will see that I've been to one or two shows since leaving Pissed Priss at Waverley station.

Somehow the weather has stayed pretty much unbelievably good - with nothing more than the occasion shower!

Monday found me having quite a bit of a lie in due to the late night, however soon enough I was off down to the National Gallery for The Impressionist Gardens.  On the way I succeeded in finding these hair garlands everyone has been wearing - all three of us had wanted one too - so purchased three and continued to the gallery.  Post exhibition I returned to the flat and basically did not very much except have a soak in the bath and fall asleep.

Tuesday was another day filled with shows and much walking, getting accidentally merry in the afternoon after seeing The Sweeney.  I ended up boring the pants off a family for about an hour - well, I thought we were all having a nice chat, but upon coming out of the ladies loos I saw the dad, daughter & fiance with the dad being very unsubtle in his "shushing", eyes fixed on me and head indicating...hmmmm, not sure what I said that offended and it's not like I held them at the next table against their will. :rolleyes:  They girls rolled in rather late and shall we say somewhere around half past pissed o'clock?

Wednesday morning started with a bit of a surprise...and not a good surprise...

Early up & the usual morning bathroom visit, only to be faced with a sink almost over-flowing with vomit.  I'm sure I need not describe the sight and smell.  As you can imagine, it's not a sight that is a pleasing one.  

I went into Mum mode temporarily...I looked at the clock - 0856 - hmmmm, so very tempted to drag the two unconscious girls from their bed to discover who was responsible...but then I thought "hell, we've all been there, I'll give them more time before they (whichever responsible) can clear it all up".  By lunchtime they were alive...sadly no hangovers (how is THAT even fair??)...and the younger of the girls, for it was she who had mixed far too many of the wine and vodka varieties, set to work attempting to return the bathroom to normal.

Has to be said, she'd obviously done a good job of being rather ill as she still needs to hunt for some sink and drain unblocker...

Show ten...Ardal O'Hanlon

Let me start straight off with an audience observation...unlikeliest audience member for an Ardal O'Hanlon show (IMO) was a shaved headed chap...all except for a circle of hair right at the back that had been grown very long and French plaited...just didn't scream "Father Ted/My Hero" fan.

Photo from www.edfringe.com

Ardal was exactly as I imagined he would be, ie every sense of the words lovely, sweet & funny.  What he gave was a thoroughly enjoyable show.  There were lots of laughs throughout the whole thing, the occasional big hearty laugh, but generally a good level.

He came out on stage to a huge round of applause & cheers, playing up to it saying it made him feel all worthy so could be possibly have just one more? (which was duly given).  About two minutes later two later comers arrived and he informed them they were to do their part re cheering...which they eventually did.  Ardal then told them we'd also made a bear noise for him, and could they make a bear noise too?  Bless the chap from the couple if he didn't make the tiniest bear noise ever!

Various highlights for me.  Discussing his horny pregnant wife looking like an Easter egg in her dress with a big bow on it, who would then get distracted by a sudden need for food before crying - ah I remember those days.  Discussing his eco-daughter and Alvin/Beelzebub son.

Ardal proceeded to call the Pope a liar, demanding that he resign as should various high ranking Priests...and that God should also consider his position because "he really had to know what was going on".  Possibly the childishly funniest line has to be about the Pope hiding priests under his cassock...and "which is basically an anagram of cock and ass and we all know that anagrams don't lie!"

So overall the show was lovely, glad I've seen him.  If you haven't seen him and are a fan of the shows he's been on, then he's worth going to see...but possibly only the once.

Oh...and he's starting to look very like Greg Kinnear...

Show nine...The Rupert Pupkin Collective...again

To be honest I could go and see these gents every day and not be bored, and at this show we were treated to a special guest as Dave Johns had to head home early. Joining Steve Steen, Stephen Frost, Andy Smart and Ian Coppingger was Aussie comedian Adam Hills.

Photos from www.edfringe.com

An early game called film and theatre styles provided the most shocking, loudest and longest laughs...set in a coal mine, Ian and Adam were on stage and the film style "pirate movie" was suggested. Cue Ian doing a lot of argh argh aaaaaaaaaargh argh argh aaaaaaaaargh aaaaaaarghs...Adam just stood there before saying "sod it", lifted up his right trouser leg and unbuckled his false leg to reveal a very convincing pirate peg leg...the lengths some comedians will go to for laughs never ceases to amaze me! hehehe

It would also appear that there were quite a few audience members didn't know about Adam's leg...I can only imagine just how shocked they must've been.

Anyway the whole audience were laughing and laughing and laughing...it was very hard to stop...Frosty even suggested we took a break for a few minutes for people to collect themselves.

In the game "Meanwhile" were many funny moments. Opening with a casino scene played out in pigeon French, Ian interrupted asking "ou est la bibliotheque?"...a theme that ran through various other scenes.  The Irish dancing class was a stroke of genius, especially with Ian getting Frosty to perform the "kick a Brit in the face" move...performed obviously on the Aussie.  Another one that tickled me was In the Playground where Andy was jumping around stating "I'm being Spiderman"

The last game was once again a dubbed Sherlock Holmes case, this time the Case of the Missing Sausage.  Lots of cheap sausage gags...we likes cheap sausage gags.

Sadly this was the Pupkins last show this EdFest. So very pleased I came back and saw them - well done to Adam for jumping in there, he did well :)

Show eight...The Sweeney - The Life and Times of Jim Sweeney

I missed the first (IIRC) showing of this at The Comedy Store in London back in December last year due to having pneumonia, and very nearly missed this show due to a lost booking until a very kind chap helped me out, something I am very grateful for.

Photo from www.edfringe.com

A packed out room full of people wanting to see this documentary Jim made was buzzing with anticipation.

The screen flickered into life to see Jim, hunched over in his chair, slow drawn out speech, looking like a very frail man, introducing his documentary...half the audience begin to laugh, much to the shock from the other half...I know the chap next to me tutted in my direction...until Jim sits up straight and asks "Too much?" - queue belly laughs from the whole audience.

For those not in the know, Jim has MS.  But that's not really important...the fact that he is an impro god and very talented man is the important bit.

The documentary is Jim talking to Lee Simpson in his garden, recounting many tales of his life, often split in with other comedians and people from Jim's life telling their version of the same story...sometimes those sides even agree!  Among those featured were all the rest of the CSPs (Lee (not just as interviewer), Neil Mullarkey, Josie Lawrence, Andy Smart, Richard Vranch and Paul Merton), Steve Steen, Steve Frost, Suki Webster, Mike McShane, Eddie Izzard, Greg Proops, Barbara, Dom, Mark and the lovely Jools from The Store and many others.

We are treated to wonderful archived (oh that sounds so wrong - makes Jim sound ancient, which he's not!) tv footage (although no breeches from Blackadder III - forgive as we do get to see him in S&M get up doing a tango) and photos.  These photos take us through an impressive amount of curly hair...I like to think that Jim donated his hair time and time again and somewhere in the world, probably Liverpool, are a lot of very curly Sweeney wigs.

The entire room is filled with huge belly laughs...you know the type I mean, the ones that give you a stitch whilst also giving your abs a damn fine work out, and you feel a little bit tired afterwards.

Throughout there have been clips of Jim's last show at The Store...this is the place where I've had the pleasure of seeing him perform 2-300 times...I can't even be sure it's only that many...but sadly I couldn't make his final show.  I'll admit I welled up at his little goodbye speech, actually it was when he said the word "goodbye" rather than anything else.  I miss seeing Jim perform.  I miss him owning the whole room.  Miss him having us all hanging on his every word before creasing up...I hold him personally responsible for me choking on drinks on more than one occasion (I soon learnt not to take sips if he was on stage!).

Anyhoo, I digress and he'd hate me gushing about him, so will just state that the above is bollocks, he's completely average and I don't miss him at all - there, that should balance it up a bit.

The proceeds from the screening is going to the Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre. Richard and Mike were outside with collection boxes too.  

Should you want to see the film yourself, you can pre-order it on dvd (I already have a while ago!) from Jim's website (and also see a clip) http://www.thesweeney.net/ - I urge you to do this, as again, all profits from sales also go to th Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre...which means you get to do something nice for charity and get to have a laugh whilst doing so!

I shall leave you with a photograph I took of Jim at my first ever EdFest in 2004 - I love this photo :-)

Show seven...Just a Minute recording

JAM is a show I've listened to on a number of occasions when I've either remembered or discovered it on the radio, and I've always found it quite amusing...and quite amusing is just how it is.  It isn't die hard laugh a minute and it isn't dull.  It had high moments, and to be honest, this recording had some shudder creepy moments.

Nicholas Parsons is the host, with Paul Merton and Gyles Brandreth firmly in place, guests were Shappy Khorsandi and John Bishop (making his first appearance).

Without a doubt, new comer John Bishop stole the show - which surprised me as if completely honest, I was a little disappointed when he came out, something I firmly take back and apologise for should he ever read this and take any offence - but as that is unlikely, I sharn't lose too much sleep over it.

Highlights for me were (quite childishly) John making the wanker hand jesture to Nicholas Parsons (2nd time unseen by NP which made it all the funnier) and Gyles suggesting hamsters were often found abandoned by motorways.

I was, however, utterly stunned that John was "given the benefit of the doubt" over challenging Paul's claim that owl's were birds of prey...erm...

Also, although I'm sure was meant to be hilarious, I found NP hitting on Shappi very uncomfortable...something very wrong with a man even play hitting on a gal when he is old enough to be her grandfather!

Otherwise it was a very pleasant show...but not one I'll be in a rush to see recorded again. Very pleased it was a freebie.

The Impressionist Gardens Exhibition @ The National Gallery

I shall pre-warn now that this will no doubt be a waffly blog post, and I don't blame you if you skip it.  

Impressionism is my favourite style of art, it's not my only love, but it is my greatest love, as my all time favourite painter was one such artist...Monsieur Oscar Claude Monet.  To discover this exhibition was here whilst I was filled me with great joy, so I set aside a day that I would be going to see it, booked my ticket early to make sure of it.

Overall the exhibition was truly wonderful.  I don't go to galleries or museums anywhere near as much as I want to, and to be honest, have little real excuse as to why not...I mean, I live near London, it's easy enough to access so many of them!

Anyway, a little game I play when I go to a gallery or museum is the "take home" game.  The idea of the game is simple - in each room you enter you are offered the opportunity to take home ONE painting/sculpture/artefact/whatever, so which one do you choose.  What I'm going to write up next is what my choices were for each room...

Room I - The Fleming Room

The Curious One, 1823 - Antoine Pierre Mongin

I chose this one because it was a. very different from any other in the room and b. it was just so cheeky.

Room II - The Royal Bank of Scotland Room

There were several paintings I loved in here.  Simplicity of Daisies, 1892 - Gustav Caillebotte was simply stunning; The Fragrant Air, 1894 - Leon Frederic featured a young golden haired child smelling a flower in amongst a throng of other flowers made for a snapshot of idyllic country childhood; Lotus Lillies, 1888 - Charles Courtney Curran is a painting of Lake Erie in Ohio, where two ladies in their finest are gathering lotus lillies to make the wedding bouquet for one of them.

However the one that I would take home is The Artist's House at Argenteuil, 1873 - Claude Monet

I feel like I'm there, watching little Jean playing with his hoop, a glass of wine in my hand, passing idle chit chat with Claude, his wife having just come out to tell us she's put out some bits to eat. 

Room III

The Luxembourg Gardens at Twilight, 1879 - John Singer Sargent

This scene is so serene.  I'm sitting on a bench after a day wandering around Paris and this is what I am faced with.  I also feel like this looks like a photograph that has been on a slightly longer exposure - giving it a great feeling of movement.

Room IV

Portrait of Karl Nordstrom, 1882 - Christian Krohg

I love the stark contrast between the gentle pastels of the garden viewed through the window by the bold gent.

Room V - Wolfson Room I

In the Sunshine, 1897 -  Johann Viktor Kramer

Struggling to find an online picture of this but will scan from the book when back home. This was the only painting that jumped out in this room, however if honest, it reminded me of a country garden centre.

Room VI

Oh my...water lillies!!!  Four of them in one room, no less!

Of the four, two were particularly amazing, one painted in 1907 and the other in 1908.

1907

1908

I adore Monet's water lillies - how he made the same subject so very different each time.  Both paintings were so beautiful and awe inspiring that I found myself literally moved to tears.  I feel very humbled at having the opportunity to stand in front of such amazing pieces of art.