:: daze off

I'm in shock, I had two days off from work, two days in a row. It was great. On Monday afternoon I ventured into town -- Festival! Within an hour of arriving I was nearly ready to run back to the suburbs. The heat! The noise! The crowds! The costumes! Aieee! Now I remember why I left my Old Town flat ...

Managed to calm myself down and enjoyed a ramble around my old haunts, then met up with Fiona just as the Tattoo audience started arriving in their massive coaches. They park along both sides of the whole of George IV Bridge and Chambers Street, ghastly.

So Fiona and I had a lovely dinner at Favorit, right next to an open window for a refreshing breeze. Then we met up with Martin outside the show I'd booked for us, Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden Unplugged. It was a good laugh -- old troupers, the pair of them, and Golden did a great Elvis impression.

After that we had a beer at the terrace bar outside the venue ... reeling in shock at discovering that a bottle of Budweiser was £2.95. Eeeek! It was entertaining though -- people on stilts kept trying to persuade us to come to their show. After that we retired to one of my favourite pubs, Sandy Bells. It was packed -- fiddlers were playing at the back -- but we managed to find seats. And astonishingly, we found ourselves sitting next to a man who claimed to be the uncle of one of our colleagues (former colleague, for Fiona and Martin).

I hadn't intended staying out late, but in the event I only just caught the last bus, after battling through the crowds leaving the Tattoo. And who should get on at the next stop but my next-door neighbour! It really is a small town.