Fringe and Heat!

No not the fringe Americans call bangs, nor a weather heat... the Fringe that is in Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the heat is measured by Scoville units! Or nowadays anyway it's High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (no where near as interesting sounding!).
It was a most fabulous weekend! Started off by being able to leave work at lunch time, stepping on a train and idling away several hours with scenery watching and reading! Once at Edinburgh Waverly though it was a mad dash along Princess Street to just past the castle to check-in to the hostel (room the size of the bedroom with five bunk beds in it!) to check-in (while trying to be polite to the wanting to chat check-in guy though wanting to scream that I have to go, like NOW!!!), then madly dash back and make it to see Miss E in the play she's staring in! Yes, one of my friends is indeed staring in a play at the Edinburgh festival, woo! The first part was a comedy, very funny if a little gross, the second part was a little surreal and I still have no idea what it was about, and the final part was very dramatic and edge of the seat sitting. A play that I thoroughly recommend to see if you happen to be in Edinburgh over the next week or so! I've added a link so you can check out their site and see where they're playing at.. you can also books tickets! Hint, HINT!
After watching Miss E play we headed off up to the main drag (Royal Mile) to see what was happening there. We meet three strange guys from LA, their threesome was called Sound & Fury... they managed to persuade us to see their free show, "Testaclese & ye Sack of Rome", at a bar just down the road. Well they were reasonable cute and endearing, though I think the word 'free' played a major part. I have to say that the show was one of the funniest I've seen, though sitting in the front row was maybe a little too up close and personal, especially when they started using us as props, and stealing a kiss from Miss E!
We headed back upstairs to figure out what to do next when we bumped into some ladies that Miss E had meet earlier. Fortunately they were on next and we just had to see them too, plus that 'free' thing is good! I have to say that Desiree Burch is on gusty lady with her "52 Man Pick-up". I laughed, I related, I could have cried though didn't, and I even managed to get up on the stage! YES, little old me up on a stage.. well it was little, there were about 20 people there and a couple of ciders probably helped! I also had to admire the lovely black satin corset that she was wearing, woo woo! And she certainly looked absolutely fantastic in it!
We then headed off for some much needed food and were entertained by an extremely drunk young man who couldn't decide if he wanted chips or not and the staff were unable to get rid of him. I have to say that margarita pizza at 11pm, sitting in a little square, in Edinburgh on a Friday night is yummo!
All too soon it was time to head off to the hostel for some much deserved sleep. It was quite amusing to find that I'd been put in a unisex dorm - nice surprise walking in though and seeing semi-naked men in the bunks!
Saturday kicked off with a very scrummy breakfast at a lovely little cafe called Kilimanjaro - best eggs Benedict and latte I've ever had! A lovely day was then spent looking a galleries, people watching and enjoying the street theatre! Even manged to see Mr S.W. again! Was rather funny when I was asked if I was a festival stalker as I saw him at B&J's too! Even funnier was that I managed to get sunburned, in Edinburgh... !!
The day was over too quickly and and was back on the train soon enough.. what a most fabulous trip!
Sunday was then here and it was off to West Dean Gardens for the Chilli Fiesta! Oooh yes! Lots of yummy chilli drinks and food, and anything else that you can add chilli to, put them on and make look like! Mr S and I spent a lovely day, kicked off with a scrumptious cider, wandering round, tasting and enjoying the stalls. There was a little bit of a wasp issue though. Stop and you'd be surrounded by them wanting to enjoy the cider too! And the jams, pickles, drinks, sandwiches... in fact anything that we ate or drank they wanted to do so too! We had a delicious chilli burger for lunch, with some lovely refreshing homemade lemonade. We also spent rather a lot of money stocking up on various chilli products, yum! Can't wait until next year! Think it'll be our fourth one, it's that good!


Check out the fringe at: http://www.edfringe.com/
Miss E's play: http://eonnic.wordpress.com/
http://www.soundandfury.org/
http://www.myspace.com/destheray

Check out the chilli festival at http://www.chillisgalore.co.uk/pages/westdean.html

When Ice Cream Rules!

Only one event when this happens, Ben&Jerry's Sundae on the Common!
Ohhh yes! A day out where the queues for ice cream out number the queues for beer by at least 50:1!
Mr S and I spent a lovely afternoon sampling the delights of B&J's, drinking cider and generally chilling out listening to bands that we had no idea who they were, though they were pretty good! We were waiting for the headline act, Human League!
It was Mr S's first B&J and I think he rather liked it. It was well funny when we 'mugged' the 'Wich laden tray carrying lady as she departed the serving area.. she made it about a metre out the tent before the whole tray was gone. Even funnier was that it was the adults that had carried out the mugging, not a single child (no matter how blond ringleted blue-eyed cute looking they were!) was involved!
We also encountered one of our mates, Mr S.W., on his stilts and carrying the rubber chicken again. This time the children won with the mugging of Mr S.W. and the adults lost out!
We made the mistake of having a cider and four ice creams within half an hour! It was brilliant! Though also meant that we needed to leave without seeing Human League as both of us felt a little ill and decided that we really couldn't wait in the rain that started just to see them!
I'd have to say though that the highlight of the day was when we were about to enter B&J's... there was a couple, of which one had a ticket to get in and the other didn't. So I asked if the needed one, they said yes, so I gave them one of the extras that I had. The looks of amazement and happiness when we said that we didn't want money, or a drink for them, was just incredible. And I think made their day as well! And, consequently, ours!
Can't wait until next year's one... already have people lined up to join me next year!