Frequent Flyers

Well, last night’s James 1 play was as wonderful as the others. I’ve read reviews where people say this one or that one is best. I can’t choose. They were all thrilling. This one had a spectacular battle scene.

And on some days, all three plays were shown. It says a lot for an audience to sit through eight hours of drama, but what about the actors - many of whom had speaking parts in all three plays. And the production team. It’s on in London next. Excellent background info here.

This morning I popped into town on an errand I have been putting off. I was in by 10am and home by 11am. The Fringe performers hadn’t got going - they were probably all out carousing all night (some of them in my neighbourhood, I hear) and so physically incapable of starting early.

The Royal Mile was just coming alive - stages being set, delivery vans, a few staunch performers handing out flyers. I always feel sorry for them and take the flyer and put it in my pocket, feigning interest. These will be deposited in a bin later. However, I was sitting watching the comings and goings and two performers were just behind me.

‘You see that chap over there. With the dark glasses on… He just took a flyer from me and walked over to the bin and threw it in. I was pissed off.’

I stifled an urge to join in and say, ‘Good. He didn’t just chuck it on the ground.’

‘Why didn’t he just say ‘No thank you?’

I could contain myself no longer and broke the news to them that, sadly, most flyers will end up in the bin and I commiserated on how expensive they must be to print. But I like to take the occasional one so that the person feels better. It would not be nice if everybody refused them. I offered to go and bump into the man in dark glasses on the way by - it was very rude of the him to do it front of them.

All the whacky performers had not yet appeared, so this normal chap will do for today. He was a fantastic classical guitarist. And almost as cute as Archie...

Archie news: We have discovered a brilliant new toy - the inside of my Shreddies box. The packet is extremely crinkly and rustly, so he goes crazy for it. It's made of some indestructible material, though that hardly seems necessary for just Shreddies. I put some kibble inside it when I went out and it must have kept him busy for ages. Kibble all gone, but the crinkly packet is still intact.