*sigh*
It's been a long couple of weeks. Deadline last week and we're a man-down in the art department with the departure of Jon so it's all hands on board and absolutely no quality blogging time. These are stolen moments folks. If only I could offer you gems as opposed to the slightly incoherent drooling ramblings of a sleep deprived, multi-tasking Goddess wannabe.
A touch of home
The other morning I looked out my kitchen window to be greeted by a sight that made me seriously nostalgic. I mean you practically expect to see this kind of sight on a Sat or Sun morn in Dunedin but in London...? I was grinning every time I looked out the window.
I had another moment like that when I was in Edinburgh over the Bank Holiday weekend. It was the last weekend of the Fringe Festival and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see a road 
cone on top of a statue and apparently I missed out on one the other day that had been perched atop one that was much higher up and harder to get to. Kudos to the drunken climbers out there. Also the masses of bollards covered in various posters made me think of home as well. I know they're not a Dunedin specific thing (I know this because for every show that Julie does, there is a photo of her beside a bollard pointing to one of her show posters ;-) ) but you don't really see them in London. At least not where I go...Edinburgh
I flew up to Edinburgh on Friday evening to catch the end of the Fringe Fest and to catch up with Aimee and Reece. I had the best weekend, it was just great. The vibe generated by the festival probably helped but Edinburgh itself just made me smile. It does feel quite reminiscent of Dunedin although of course Edinburgh feels older. There is this delicious contrast between these dark, cold, and looming Gothic buildings and a quite upbeat feeling to the city. 
It should be miserable, it really should- but it's not. The colourfully painted shop fronts are totally weighed down by the oversized stone structures towering above them and it just feels so heavy at times.But then the sun pops out and you walk down Princes St. (for the Dunedin girl it's hilarious to see so many familiar street names) and everything opens up and you have the park/gardens opposite the castle and it's just beautiful. 
I'm definitely going back.This was a piece of graffiti I found on the street and had to stop to take a photo. I mean what the f***? ;-) I'm afraid that I don't really have any pics of me from the weekend- me being behind the camera most of the time (as it should be)- so this is the only one I have. Hmm..... Kind insane huh? (And definitely not flattering...)
But I have no shame (well not a lot) so I thought I'd slab it in anyway. This is me and Greyfriars Bobby (check out the link, I'm too lazy to explain) and everyone gets their photo taken beside him so why not me and midnight on the way home? I am modelling Reece's jacket which I appropriated because I was cold and it's bloody huge on me and pretty soon he and Aimee were referring to me as the Michelin man. Not that I cared. I was warm.The Festival itself
In my three days I saw quite a lot of standup comedy, lots of street performances, some exhibitions (oops, forgot to bring my postcards to scan in!) and did a tonne of wondering around. (If indeed wandering can be measured in weight- which I guess it could if you take it as the accumulation of my weight per step I took over the weekend. That must be a tonne. 
I walked a lot.) This dude was the first item of street performance I caught- Eli the Kid from Adelaide. He did nifty tricks with boxes and wobbled around on the unicycle and was quite amusing.
Both Aimee and Reece were working on Sat and Sun which actually turned out to be quite a good thing for me. Not since Greece have I been somewhere new by myself and it was really nice to be able to just amble around at my own free will and stop if anything seemed interesting and not to have to worry about if the person I was with was interested to or if they wanted to see something else. Nobody else to make decisions with. It was nice. There were lots of juggling and diabolo stuff and sometimes those street performers can be bloody aggressive when it comes to gathering/keeping a crowd. I only caught the end of this act and I'm gutted. They were an Irish couple and seemed absolutely charming. And amazing- she's doing a handstand on his hands folks. For the girl who's still just doing handstands up against a wall (I have a fear of being too enthusiatic and going over backwards), that's bloody impressive.
My fav performance was Albannach. They are a Scottish group with bagpipes (just the one) and a whole lot of drums and as soon as I heard their drums, I'd ditch what I was doing and try to find them. It was this amazing celtic music that has you tapping your feet and wanting to dance but not this airy fairy diddly dee bullshit but this deep primeval rhythm. So incredible. I bought their CD. I will be keeping an eye out for other performances of theirs in the UK. They're about to do a US tour so for the mystery readers of this blog, check out that url and hunt them down. They're awesome.Right, and now work calls. (The writing of this has been spread out over a couple of lunchtimes...) More about exhibitions I saw at some later date.
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