Blog2012 ≫ Edinburgh Fringe day four

A more relaxed day today on our Edinburgh Fringe tripe, as we know we have a late night planned. We walked in to town via the literary festival area - amazing that there is SO MUCH going on at once. The queues were around the block for events there today, Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith among others.I think I have got the day right anyway, as I'm picking up this final day on the Sunday after. Would be great to come here for the whole month and try and fit a bit more in. Obscenely expensive though. An early lunch in the salad bar bit of Henderson's (last time we went in the proper table service bistro), nice but felt more expensive, even though it wasn't. Last day, starting to work out how much we've spent I think. We also went to an art exhibition on our way to comedy, great and interesting for three reasons, number one: it's free. Number two: it's in White Stuff, which is a shop Clare dragged us in to anyway. Number three: it was Harry Hill's exhibition. He's apparently been painting for years, it's all crazy stuff featuring celebrities, but really good to see.

Went back to The Stand for Richard Herring's Edinburgh Podcast again, main guest today was Tony Law and Lou Sanders did the open spot. He was quite funny, though he talked over Richard constantly. Her little set was not great, it's hard to do a two minute preview of your main set I suppose. We enjoyed the venue again, they let us in before everyone else because of Clare's hugeness. We found out during the set that Richard was a guest on Mark Watson's Edinboreolympics show last night, I thought about going to that too, I made the wrong call...

We spotted that Fingers Piano Bar was just round the corner from The Stand, and a show that had caught my eye in the programme Love In The Key Of Britpop was just round the corner. This felt more fringey, less commercial, ie not many people in there. It's a spoken word show, just one person telling her story of love and loss in the mid '90s. We didn't stay for much of it. Was nice to hear the story, but I found the britpop references grated a bit rather than adding to the story. Mostly it was that the songs mentioned were the biggest most obvious numbers, more the sort of things that a retro-britpop fan would pick, though the performer seemed to have really lived it and loved it. Nice to try out something different anyway.

Went in a nice pub after the gig, The Queen's Head I think. We sat in a little booth with its own door. When we left we passed Matthew Kelly in the street. It's all go here. Pictures1!

Not sure what we did next, I have about a five hour gap. I will check my ticket stubs later!

Henning Wehn was brilliant, I am so pleased, as this was one of the first shows I booked. This was in the crypt again where last night's Set List show was. Saw tonight's Set List lineup on the way in, though it had changed again on the way out - Richard Herring, Phill Jupitus, and more, bah. thought for a second about blowing out Al Murray but decided to stick with the plan.

At last, we have arrived - we saw Stewart Lee in the street. Did not go to his show this year as we had already seen the same one earlier in the year, think it was a christmas present. He was on his way in to a show, some theatre called Planet Lem that people were queued round the block for.

Went to Kalpna2 for dinner, all vegetarian so nice to be able to order a vegan thali, though the portion size wasn't all that. Had another walk around now, including going in to the Pleasance Courtyard. We'd not been to a show here but heard somewhere it was a nice part of the fringe to hang out in. There are lots of little spots like this, a mini festival in its own right. Seems there is a bit of a struggle within the fringe, several groups of people trying to be the fringe on their own. Any one of these would be fabulous to have locally, but to have so many going on at once is incredible.

Al Murray's pub quiz was good and funny, a real quiz too for the first ten tables who got in (including us) hosted by Al Murray, the pub landlord. Lots of interaction too, every time Al objected to something someone said or did they were slung out and replaced by someone sat further back. We came fourth. Didn't get out of there until 2am. This was the end of our festival (unless I remember more things to add in later).

Properly raining this morning, now we're heading home. I might get to wear my coat for the first time this week! It has been roasting the rest of the week. Sat watching Come Dine With Me in the hotel while Clare packs... Got good flight times both ways then back to see my boy! I have never been away from him for so long, I hope he remembers us.

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Paul Clarke's blog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed to Clare + dad to two, I am a full-stack web developr, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home automation and other diy stuff, history, family tree stuff, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.