A lot has been going on over the last couple of weeks so this post is an abbreviated version of everything. We went to the Edinburgh Fringe for 5 days, then off to the Highlands for a long weekend and stopping off in Northumberland to visit the Roman Fort at Vindolanda.
| Fringe Show | Comment |
| My Mother Had 2 Faces | Day 1 – An interesting start. A woman talking in public about her relationship with her mother. A therapy session for her and we paid for it. |
| Alfie Moore | The ex policeman who we have seen before and features on BBC Radio 4 was, as expected, hilarious. |
| Dr Phil Hammond | Dr Phil a retired GP talked about how to get pleasure from life. He was funny and at the same time hit upon some home truths. |
| Brothers | Day 2 – a drama produced and acted by homeless and people with mental health issues. It was poorly written and the acting was abysmal. We felt sorry for the players. |
| Revenge: After the Levoyah | A two person Jewish play which was fast action, high drama with both actors playing all the parts. The story of what happened after the death of their grandfather. It was cleverly done and very enjoyable. |
| Joni Mitchell | The singer played the gig as though she was Joni Mitchell, explaining the parts of her life between her most popular songs. A very good show to end the day. |
| Shakespeare for Breakfast | Day 3 – You can’t go wrong with a bit of Shakespeare and the promise of coffee and croissants. A light hearted look at the Tempest. |
| Myra’s Story | A one woman play which turned out to be the highlight of our week. She told the story of a homeless woman and how she came to be living on the streets and an alcoholic. She cleverly mixed humour with great sadness. We both left in tears. |
| Fleetwood Mac | After the drama of Myra’s story we needed something uplifting and this was perfect. A very good band playing all of Fleetwood Mac’s hits. |
| Nina Conti | Nina Conti has lifted ventriloquism into the 21st century. She asks people from the audience to come on stage, places a mask on them, then proceeds to put words into their mouths. An hilarious end to our day. |
| John Hegley | Day 4 – Some free time to spend in Edinburgh’s Galleries before heading to see John Hegley. He’s a surrealistic poet and you never know what to expect. The man is crazy and a great deal of fun. |
| Dara O’Briain | To round off our Fringe experience we went to see Dara O’Briain. He is quick in his delivery and very funny. It was a wonderful finale to our time at the Fringe. |
We continued our Scottish adventure by travelling up through the Highlands to Tony & Jude’s on the Moray Firth. We had a relaxing time – good company and excellent food.
Finally we headed south stopping overnight in Northumberland to visit Vindolanda.
They have been undertaking archaeological digs since the late 1960s and there is another 200 years of work to be done to uncover everything. We really enjoyed the 3 hours we spend wandering around the site and the museum of artefacts.
We arrived back in Lincolnshire with horrible colds – another gift from Scotland.
