Last of the summer wine (/prosecco/ale/gin)

What up people. It’s about time I provided you with details of my whereabouts because otherwise HOW WILL YOU KNOW how I’ve been spending my time? We can’t have life events going undocumented because I’ve got less than a year til I’m 30 and from then on I anticipate my memory declining and basically for me to be living at all times in close proximity to a packet of biscuits and my cat.

So let’s roll. In August, still on a Fringe high, I made my way to Copenhagen for a few days of pastries and walking and pastries and yet more walking with my dear friend Helen. Highlights included afternoon tea at the top of a tower, Kierkegaard’s grave, getting the train over the Oresund to Sweden,  two boat trips, riverside fish n chips n wine, patting the Little Mermaid, accidentally riding the oldest rollercoaster in Europe at Tivoli, Lego lions, Moomin mugs, ALL the goddamn pastries and being given a free chocolate milk by a newsagent. A dream of a trip, I highly recommend Copenhagz to you all.

A mini 6 year Durham reunion for three of us on the August bank holiday included excessive prosecco drinking in the gazebo, drunken Sworkit, river walks, brunching and general revelling in the beauty of our second home town. I also get to spend a lot of my time back in Durham now thanks to signing up to be a mentor for one of the colleges, looking after undergrads and plying them with free soft drinks, it’s all very exciting.

My birthday weekend featured extremes of tragedy and great joy, in the form of two Greek plays and an incredible pigsty cake. After another lovely manicure at the delight that is London Grace in Putney and celebrating our friend Jo’s engagement with some fizz, we headed to the Almeida for the Bakkhai (starring Ben Wishaw and Bertie Cavel) which featured some intriguing choral singing, a lot of general campery and a startlingly unconvincing head on a stick. Lots of good acting though. Sunday involved Konditor & Cook meringue and brownies in the groundling queue for the Oresteia at the Globe, which was pretty impressive, very bloody and featured a massive golden phallus parading through the audience at the end so everyone’s a winner.

Recent gigs:

Florence and the Machine – attended with my uncle Sean who has excellent taste in music and enjoys a little dance. Florence was absolutely the best I’ve seen  her and put on a massively energetic show with perfect vocals. So much joy. Supported by the Staves who I am now a fan of! Good folky stuff.

The Proclaimers – CLAP ALONG PROCLAIMERS. My palms were literally bruised after this gig, but they were so energetically insistent on clapping along that you just get swept up and before you know it you’ve got no fingerprints. I have to stress how beautiful some of their songs are too and how cracking the band were – Sunshine on Leith was a high point. So much audience love for the boys, an absolute roar of sound and energetic singing along, including actual marching during 500 miles, made it a super fun evening.

I finally got to welcome my uni girls to the north for a weekend of eating and fun. I dragged them to the beauteous Armstrong Bridge food market (wild boar pizza anyone?), Pleased to Meet You for copious gins, Lady Grey’s for copious ales, and the Fat Hippo for ultimate burger challenge. Quotes from the Fat Hippo experience include: “Delicious but at the same time horrendous”, “I just want to pay and I just want to die”, and “More of a personal battle than the Great North Run”. So in summary: highly recommended. As well as excessive consumption we also spent all our spare money on make up in the newly opened Kiko store, wandered round Tynemouth market and caused divisions with a game of Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit (it’s not for everyone).

In other burger news, I’ve been to the new Byron burger twice already – once for its opening night and a free burger (the rarebit burger, oh my lord) and once for a 25p burger accompanied by the epic chocolate milkshake. They’ve done a great job on the décor – the green tiles are a bit Ministry of Magic which I love – plus for those of us who remember it as a H&M there’s the novelty of trying to work out what section you’re eating in (I think I was in the casual t-shirts bit).

Miscellaneous:

A few weeks ago I buzzed off down south for two friends’ birthdays and experienced the Bombay Sapphire distillery which is a cracking day out. Lots of ingredient sniffing and awkward crouching by info loudspeakers, a talk about the gin making process and a free gin cocktail at the end. Next time you find yourself near Basingstoke (and let’s face it it’s just a matter of time) I suggest you drop in.

Further good news in the form of the birth of my dear school friend’s first baby, little Layton. Welcome to the world, tiny one.

The Gruffalo has been published in LATIN. I haven’t been this excited since…  well, since Harry Potter was published in Latin. Eheu! Gruffalo!

Could not be happier that Gogglebox is back (favourite quote so far – “If a squirrel was in your house you would lose your mind”, oh Siddiquis I love you all), plus Dowton obv, and have also decided to get into Strictly this year, mainly on the basis that Jay McGuinness is amazing and I cannot stop watching his Pulp Fiction jive.

Ok that’s it, no more spewing of my calendar entries for now. More regular stuff to come – particularly because I’m soon heading to one of the TWO cat cafes that Newcastle now has. Welcome to our new furry overlords.

Brixpig x

Edinburgh Fringe

This August was my first trip to the Edinburgh festival and wooaah I can’t believe how long I’ve gone in my life (28 years at time of festivaling) without experiencing it.  I’m going every year from now on. I am lucky to have many friends who live in the 'Burgh who are happy to grant me free floor space so I can spend all my money on tickets, and this year my hosts were my best friend’s lovely older sister, brother-in-law and nephew Henry who is an absolute prince among babies. This also meant I got to experience the whole other festival realm that is baby shows, including:

Bach to Baby, a classical concert held in St John’s church – beautiful live cello and pianist music with a rippling undercurrent of screaming infants. Peace and chaos smashed together amongst the pews. Henry’s feedback is limited as he mainly napped through it.

Baby Loves Disco, hosted in a proper bar at Electric Circus – DJ, disco lighting, Twitter shout-outs, banging tunes plus free juice and rusks = my ideal night out. Complete with chillout rooms, dressing up rooms, dad dancing competitions and a constant sense of anxiety that you might trample on a toddler whilst vigorously joining in with the YMCA. Henry’s favourite aspects featured the corridor and a door he enjoyed opening and closing.

Anonymouse at the Botanic Gardens – a very cute show featuring the seasons and one tiny mouse’s agenda to impose his poetry on a field-dwelling hippie. Babies were engaged with knitted fruits, hot stones, exciting actions, storytelling and sensory experiences (best of all was the real snow created by a grated block of ice). Henry’s feedback seemed to be positive as he was reluctant to leave.

Back in the adult world I was on a comedy agenda and made some banging choices:

Massive Dad 2.0: Step Up 2 Massive Dad – feat. my mate Stevie. Three hilarious women nailing sketches in light-up sportswear. What’s not to enjoy. Go see them they’re on at the Pleasance RIGHT NOW, you won’t be doing anything better with your life. Don’t wear a brooch.

Max and Ivan, The End – dark and silly scenes between a massive cast of doomed townspeople all played by Max, Ivan and an audience member who in the show I saw was an absolute dick (expertly handled and eventually booed off). Big fan.

Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets: Minging Detectives – urgh we went rogue on an un-recommended sponta-show. The title promised excellence, in reality we ended up with a sweaty man in a Punch and Judy box performing dated and occasionally slightly racist jokes about TV detectives. Upsetting.

Funz and Gamez Tooz – looooooved iiiiiiiiiit. Recommended by my mate Bex who does kids radio and is an all-round legend, this show equally delighted kids and adults and resembled Shooting Stars in its rebellious and ridiculous nature. Reckless sweet throwing to hype up the kids, inappropriate games of hide and seek, sparkly platform shoes, dark undercurrents of ex-girlfriend related pain and some satisfying egg-smashing, water-pistol fighting went down a treat.

Jessie Cave, I Loved Her – so much social media resonance within this show, particularly the audience’s collective gasp of horror on accidentally hitting ‘like’ on a boyfriend’s ex’s photo from three years ago, and the Instagram filter recitation. Wacky and disarmingly honest observations about relationships featuring shadow puppetry, what’s not to love.

The Pin, Ten Seconds with the Pin – really informative workshop on how to write sketches feat. helpful examples and technological wizardry. The vertical bed sketch made me weep with joy.

James McKay, Boy with the Moomin Tattoo – my old teacher and classics summer school mate performed a greatest hits session of his poetry, interweaved with themes and readings from the Moomins, as if he had personally designed the show for me. Beaut.

Just an excellent couple of days soaking up beer and atmosphere in the delight of a city that is Edinburgh. See ya next year.

Brixpig x