Dominic's Diary

Postcard from Edinburgh

I've been in Edinburgh for 8 days now, having been to the UKUUG Linux 2003 conference and loitering to take in as much of the Fringe as possible in four days, with, variously, Armijn, James and Richard. I also did some touristy things like climbing up towards Arthur's Seat (didn't go all the way due to a lack of time) and buying some whisky (something I've been meaning to do for a while). I may write a full conference report at some point, but that'll have to wait until I'm back at base.

Some of the shows I've seen have been surreal, some excellent, and some just plain odd. Monday was The Flirt Lab, a reasonably funny female double act, Tuesday was Express Excess, a mixed bag of standup and comic poetry... and audience survey of the best way to die. Later we saw Jo Brand (okay, but past best).

On Wednesday James and I went to see The Three Musketeers, which Richard was doing techie stuff for. After meeting up with Richard and quenching our thirst we went to see my favourite of the week, Newsrevue 2003, which was an amazingly slick performance - a sort of live action musical Dead Ringers, only better. I highly recommend this one.

Yesterday, undefeated by the volume of shows, I went to see Shakespeare's Italian Job, which came a close second. As a technical show it was brilliant; I never believed
it was possible to do so much with a Mini Cooper on stage, much less three. Then, after a rushed dinner with Richard and the rest of the Musketeers crew, I went off to see Ross Noble, who was excellent, and then Big Howard and Little Howard Show, a rather bizzare interactive animated show run on a couple of Macs. It was an original idea, and worked reasonably well, but at the same time some of it was rather cringe-worthy.

Now I must have some breakfast, wander into town, and catch a train.