Another slow wake up. If my mind serves me correctly, about 12pm! I had my first hot breakfast of bacon ready to start the next day. We had booked in a tour the day before called Mary King's Close. It is a tour of an old close that is underground as over time it has been built upon. The Old Town (Royal Mile) was gradually built up and this is one of very few old Closes you can access that is underground. A Close is basically an alleyway down two buildings that had houses you can enter off it. Not just houses, but pubs, shops etc. I was keen to munch down some Maccas before we had the tour as it started at 3pm so we went and got some junk food and ate it in about 10 minutes. Really quite disgusting but awfully satisfying at the same time.
We got to the Royal Mile on time for the tour which i was quite excited about. It's called Mary King's because she was a girl that lived there. The tour was run by a women who acted and dressed as a person from the 1500's. It was actually pretty cool. We headed downstairs and it was such a strange sight to see this Close now covered over, almost eery. The tour guide took us through houses there and also a pub and a place where they housed cows. They are all just shells now with some replica props...i mean it was hundreds of years ago! People lived in such terrible conditions it really is unimaginable. She explained to us that people pooped in a bucket over the course of the day and then at night time people just chucked the poo bucket down the sloping Close. So feral. It then ran down into a lake that used to be where Princes Street gardens are now and just stunk to high heaven. When women committed a crime they are drowned in that river. Imagine all the shit you'd ingest. Truly disgusting. She then tells us that Dr's didn't live a long life. It might have been due to the fact that when people gave Dr's urine samples because they thought they were sick they tested them by drinking the urine. Yes you read right, DRINKING it. The stories continued along this vein to the point that i have never been more relieved for the invention of the sewerage system. It was really cool to hear stories going back that far though as that's as far as i have ever gone in my travels. Any history I've learnt in my travels so far has been more recent. After the tour, which i highly recommend, we walked around for a bit.
We checked out some bars hoping to catch some free Fringe. Unfortunately there wasn't much going on at that time. We also checked out the Pink Bus art installation by accident. Interesting yet some what creepy. After this we headed back to the flat for dinner and to chillax before the next show. We ordered some Chinese food, delivered by a guy who stands at your door and doesn't knock. I think you are just supposed to 'sense' hes coming. The Chinese was really adding to my full fat diet weekend. Giving me even more reason to check out the local swimming pool soon. We then guzzied up and got ready for the Stephen K Amos show. I was quite excited about this as he is a headline act here for the festival and I've seen him on Australian TV and he's quite funny. It was held in the Edinburgh University gymnasium. Can i just say, FUNNY. One of the best shows I've seen recently He had me at the beginning when he had two girls come on stage and do the Single Ladies dance, to which he then joined them. If you have the opportunity to see him, do it. His show was called the Feel Good Factor as he just wanted you to leave feeling good, and i think we did. After the show we headed back to the flat and some zzz's.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Fringe Weekend
With Tim coming to visit it was planned to have a Fringe weekend, aka see some shows and drink some beers. Tim got in in the afternoon and i met him at Waverly station. It had been raining all day and continued to rain so it was a typical welcome to Scotland. We went back to the flat and got onto the computer and also read the festival guides to pick out what we were going to do. After much deliberation, we booked a couple of shows. It is surprisingly hard what to pick given the huge amount of stuff on and also because you can really just go on what the reviews and ads say as most of the comedians and artists i had never heard of. The ones i had heard of i had mainly seen and it's not fun seeing the same comedian more than once.
After a disco nap we headed out for food and some drinks before our first show. It was still raining which made getting through the crowds of umbrellas on the Royal Mile a painful experience. I was glad i wasn't seeing the Tattoo that night. We ended up going to Bobby's Bar in front of Greyfrier's Church. I had seen the menu before and i thought it looked good. We got a drink and was then told serving dinner was now over. Granted it was about 9pm. So given the Grassmarket is so near by we headed down there as there are plenty of places to eat there. We stumbled on a Italian restaurant. Shock horror, i ate the pizza. It was OK actually, first alight pizza i had since arriving (except for the Marks and Spencer pizza which is surprisingly good). After some serious food stuffing i had developed a food baby.
We then headed to George Street where the show was. We had got tickets to Best of the Fest 09. Basically each night of the festival a selection of comedians (3 and one MC) would do the show. I guess it's a taster for their shows. We went to Wetherspoons before and had a pint then it was on to the midnight show. The show was HILARIOUS. We saw Fred MacAuley, Wil Anderson (again), Matt Kirshen, and Greg Behrendt. Fred was a surprisingly funny Scott. I liked Greg the most. I was curious to see him as he was one of the writers on Sex and the City and he wrote He's Just Not That Into You...and we all know that book! I love seeing good comedy shows, really lifts your spirits. After the show we headed back to the flat ready for the next day.
After a sizable sleep in we headed over to Udderbelly (third time for me) to see Pythonesque. This was theatre and meant to be some what of a tribute to Monty Python. They basically went through the story of the Pythons through sketches that had a Python flavour. It was quite funny but i must confess, i did keep wanting them to do Python's famous speeches. I yearned for a Parrot Sketch, or a Cheese Shop sketch....or even the Argument Clinic. Ah well, funny none the less. By the end of this i was pretty starving so we headed onto the Royal Mile to hunt for some food. We ended up going to Wannaburger. My choice really. We managed to get a seat outside where you can people watch in the thousands. And the burger...v. good.
After lunch we headed to Tim's mates place. Tim knows a few fellas who now live in Edinburgh. They were heading out that night and we planned on joining them. From their place (well i did go home and change, i don't go out in a tee and jeans!) we went to the bar. I cant remember what it was called, Smith something, not that it matters. Some drinks later and some hippy music playing due to the Woodstock anniversary celebrations going on in the pub, we called it a night.
A good day was had.
Royal Mile street theater
Royal Mile street theater
with Tim
After a disco nap we headed out for food and some drinks before our first show. It was still raining which made getting through the crowds of umbrellas on the Royal Mile a painful experience. I was glad i wasn't seeing the Tattoo that night. We ended up going to Bobby's Bar in front of Greyfrier's Church. I had seen the menu before and i thought it looked good. We got a drink and was then told serving dinner was now over. Granted it was about 9pm. So given the Grassmarket is so near by we headed down there as there are plenty of places to eat there. We stumbled on a Italian restaurant. Shock horror, i ate the pizza. It was OK actually, first alight pizza i had since arriving (except for the Marks and Spencer pizza which is surprisingly good). After some serious food stuffing i had developed a food baby.
We then headed to George Street where the show was. We had got tickets to Best of the Fest 09. Basically each night of the festival a selection of comedians (3 and one MC) would do the show. I guess it's a taster for their shows. We went to Wetherspoons before and had a pint then it was on to the midnight show. The show was HILARIOUS. We saw Fred MacAuley, Wil Anderson (again), Matt Kirshen, and Greg Behrendt. Fred was a surprisingly funny Scott. I liked Greg the most. I was curious to see him as he was one of the writers on Sex and the City and he wrote He's Just Not That Into You...and we all know that book! I love seeing good comedy shows, really lifts your spirits. After the show we headed back to the flat ready for the next day.
After a sizable sleep in we headed over to Udderbelly (third time for me) to see Pythonesque. This was theatre and meant to be some what of a tribute to Monty Python. They basically went through the story of the Pythons through sketches that had a Python flavour. It was quite funny but i must confess, i did keep wanting them to do Python's famous speeches. I yearned for a Parrot Sketch, or a Cheese Shop sketch....or even the Argument Clinic. Ah well, funny none the less. By the end of this i was pretty starving so we headed onto the Royal Mile to hunt for some food. We ended up going to Wannaburger. My choice really. We managed to get a seat outside where you can people watch in the thousands. And the burger...v. good.
After lunch we headed to Tim's mates place. Tim knows a few fellas who now live in Edinburgh. They were heading out that night and we planned on joining them. From their place (well i did go home and change, i don't go out in a tee and jeans!) we went to the bar. I cant remember what it was called, Smith something, not that it matters. Some drinks later and some hippy music playing due to the Woodstock anniversary celebrations going on in the pub, we called it a night.
A good day was had.
Royal Mile street theater
Royal Mile street theater
with Tim
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Working Girl...sort of
This week was a slightly more happening week on the job front. I met with an agency in George Street who had contacted me regarding an application i put in for a HR Administrator role. I met with her and she told me my resume was excellent and that she'll put me forward. So we'll see how that goes. I do tke this all with a grain of salt 7 weeks later. Whilst there she mentioned that she had another job i might like to do for some extra cash. This was then followed by a giggle so i had no idea what to expect. Apparently she needed to find someone who could work at a Kwik Fit garage. Basically, a mechanics, calling customers and letting them know that there MOT is due. A MOT is basically the UK equivalent of your car registration. Kwik Fit is a chain of garages across the UK. I told her i'm not really into cold calling and couldn't do it but she explained that they are existing customers so it wouldn't be too bad. Kind of like a reminder call if you will. Well this didn't interest or excite me but i need money. It pays 8 pound an hour which isn't too bad. Luckily also, it is only for 3 hours per day. I think that's all i could take! So i signed up to do that on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon from 3pm.
Other than that i continue to apply for jobs. Probably only about one a day. It's slightly disheartening to hear from the recruiters that the jobs i apply for get around 150-200 applicants at the moment. Awesome.
So i headed to the garage on Wednesday and Thursday. I did my shifts and did some serious clock watching whilst doing them. On a plus side, the manager is very friendly and it is a nice place to work. On the double plus side, i also got let off early on both nights. He said he'd pay me the full 3 hours but i really only did about 2.5 hours each day as he wanted to leave. The customers on the phone were pretty nice and only got one hang up so i cant complain too much. By theend of the week the manager complimented me and told me i was great and hoped to see me come back next week. I can smell a referee, which could be handy! Not much else to report. I did FINALLY get my Bank of Scotland card in the mail, so i now have a UK bank account. Only took about 5 weeks. Now all i need is some money to put in it. ;)
My other flat mate also moved out during the week. The one i never met till she came to move her stuff out. So she was gone by Monday. Dam left quite a bit here that i'll chuck out shortly if she doesn't show up. The land lord has also been in (didn't knock, jst waltzed in!) to clean up then room ready to advertise. It wil be interesting to see who ends up being my new flat mate. I'm so used to having just Totty and myself it'll be different with 3. I'm told the land lord prefers girls, shcok horror, so i wont be expecting a bloke.
My mate Tim from high school also contacted me during the weke about visiting. Perfect timing giving there is currently a spare room in the flat! So i'm looking forward to that and will start planning what to do ver the weekend. With the festival there is just too much choice which can make it just as hard!
Over and out.
Other than that i continue to apply for jobs. Probably only about one a day. It's slightly disheartening to hear from the recruiters that the jobs i apply for get around 150-200 applicants at the moment. Awesome.
So i headed to the garage on Wednesday and Thursday. I did my shifts and did some serious clock watching whilst doing them. On a plus side, the manager is very friendly and it is a nice place to work. On the double plus side, i also got let off early on both nights. He said he'd pay me the full 3 hours but i really only did about 2.5 hours each day as he wanted to leave. The customers on the phone were pretty nice and only got one hang up so i cant complain too much. By theend of the week the manager complimented me and told me i was great and hoped to see me come back next week. I can smell a referee, which could be handy! Not much else to report. I did FINALLY get my Bank of Scotland card in the mail, so i now have a UK bank account. Only took about 5 weeks. Now all i need is some money to put in it. ;)
My other flat mate also moved out during the week. The one i never met till she came to move her stuff out. So she was gone by Monday. Dam left quite a bit here that i'll chuck out shortly if she doesn't show up. The land lord has also been in (didn't knock, jst waltzed in!) to clean up then room ready to advertise. It wil be interesting to see who ends up being my new flat mate. I'm so used to having just Totty and myself it'll be different with 3. I'm told the land lord prefers girls, shcok horror, so i wont be expecting a bloke.
My mate Tim from high school also contacted me during the weke about visiting. Perfect timing giving there is currently a spare room in the flat! So i'm looking forward to that and will start planning what to do ver the weekend. With the festival there is just too much choice which can make it just as hard!
Over and out.
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