Week 6

This week we headed off the Edinburgh for the fringe, hear all about some of the shows that we saw and some food recommendations.  If you haven't been to the fringe its a really great experience.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hi everyone and welcome to this week's edition of Catherine Loner's Guide to Life Podcast. So we're on week six, isn't it? I think week six. Should probably should have checked that before I press the record button, but I'm pretty sure it is week six, and I've left my phone in the other room, so I can't actually check. But there we go, we'll go with week six. Um yeah, how's it all going? Hope you're having a good week. Um hi to uh shout out to one of my listeners who I know is um going through a tough time at the moment and he's uh had a bit of an op. So um here's to you, you've done really well getting through it. Okay, and uh hopefully you'll be uh back with it um and up and about um you know in the near future. So what have we been doing? So this week running, been doing some bit well running. Well actually it was the week before, but um did a 1k and one mile run, so not separately, and then did a swim afterwards, and then uh then we went off to Edinburgh, okay? Oh, the teenager, also the teenagers uh pastoral A levels. Oh, wrong one, wrong button. Okay, and off to university in September. Uh yeah, so we went off to Edinburgh, which was great, got the train up there, really quite easy. And um, yeah, we had an absolutely fantastic weekend. So we went up on the Friday. Um we stayed for Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday, Monday night, came out Tuesday, and it was just an absolutely awesome sort of few days with just so much packed into it, it was unbelievable. Um, and I've kind of written some some kind of brief notes, but um, I did do so I said to do some social media stuff, and I've got like a little um microphone now, roving road mic, which was quite cool. Um, so I did a little bit of um stuff from there and on the mic, and um I was gonna interview somebody, but I actually didn't end up doing that in the end because we went to see the person that we know in a play called The Secret Society, which is a comedy, and these are the guys that do CSI um uh crime scene improvisation, and um yeah, so we we did that and and it was it was such good fun. And then afterwards we got like a piece of paper saying, right, go and promote, go and can I go and do this and go and take some um you know, like a kind of joke showy, sort of jokey gimmicky thing saying go and do this and go and do that, and um and I was like I was like I thought that's a really good idea, isn't it? Why don't I pretend that I'm you know seriously interviewing somebody who was at the meeting? So I did that and the social media's up there and the guys from Secret Society liked it and they shoved it on their story for a bit, which was quite nice as well. But then you know, I did spend quite a bit of time drinking in the bar with them, so it's not really a massive surprise, if I'm honest. Um, yeah, because we get to sneak into the performer's bar, it's great. Um don't know, I wouldn't recognise anybody else that was there anyway, even if I did see somebody that we that was particularly famous, I wouldn't have a clue unless they pointed somebody pointed them out to me. But anyway, it was it was so good. Um, and basically it was like a comedy thing that they'd written, but it was also representative representative, if I can see that word, rep this is first thing Friday morning, representative, that's it. I've got it out there now. Uh of uh, yeah, of kind of like parliament, because we were kind of like there were like four groups of animals, and um, you know, we were kind of like um we all when we before we came in, we all had like a sash and we were kind of like one animal and um we all kind of like split up into different sort of sections and yeah, so it's uh we were kind of all different animals, and one animal was like the top, and the other animals were kind of like at the bottom. Um, and it was just it was great because like one animal were like the lead of society, and then you it's like you had the separate the four different stages of society, uh, and the guinea pigs at the bottom, which was, you know, kind of rather no, you know, kind of quite ironic, really. And um, and the beavers were in control, and uh, and it was just and you hear all the kind of jeer jeering and shouting of stuff, and it sounded just like a load of like they are in parliament, the politicians jeering and shouting uncontrollably sometimes about different things just because they don't agree with it, and um and yeah, and it was so it was just great, and then you had like you know, the great leader and stuff like that, but then you know, one will rise and one will fall sort of thing, and uh that's kind of the motto of the play, but it was it was just it was really interesting, and so if you it if they they they do do stuff with it, so if you can go and see it, go and see it. And if you haven't seen um CSI improvisation, um there's that's on in London quite a bit, so go and go and see that because that's it's really good, it's a really funny show, and it's a different show each time you go. Um, and they have different actors in it as well, um, so it's not always the same people, just depends, you know, um who you have in each one. Uh, but as a um, so that was my fun social media. I did that instead, um, but it was really it was we had such a laugh doing it, and it was a bit bizarre, like kind of like, but I was okay, you know, just kind of get like being interviewed and like being on camera, just kind of getting used to that. That was interesting, and it was a bit of an experience. Um I've spoken about this before. That's one thing where social media is actually pretty good because it gives you confidence, and I've realized that I'm so much more confident as a person than I probably was, you know, a couple of years ago, purely for doing the podcast and or doing all this stuff on social media. Um, yeah, so yeah, if you haven't seen the social media, but it's on Instagram, it starts off with like the Secret Society and then and that and John's in it as well. Persuaded John to do it. Bless him. He was really good, he was up for that, so that was quite good. And uh, right, so uh let's uh what so what else did we get up to? So we did that, that was really good. Oh, we also did Silent Disco. It was last year when we were kind of in the in the bar in Edinburgh there, we saw these people kind of coming round, and um okay, so we did have a pause there. Um I had a text message from my boss because they're a bit short-staffed and I'm helping them out, and I don't have no idea. And that's obviously, you know, you kind of have to give your boss priority, don't you? So I got no idea now what I'm talking about. Um, I think yeah, so the the fun social media, go and check that out. Oh, we had some amazing food. So last time we went, oh that's right, silent disco. That's why I was talking about the silent disco I remember now. Uh yeah, so we'd seen these people kind of like with like headphones on, kind of dancing around. I was like, yeah, I want to do that next year. So um the teenager actually spotted it on the because if you go to the fringe, you can download an app and they've got all the shows, but there's bear in mind there's like 250 shows at like various, I mean there's probably even more than that. There are thousands of shows, there are so many shows to to kind of like choose from. Um, and yeah, so we went to see the silent disco show. Um, sorry, we went to see this, we went we went and took part in the silent disco and I do you know what? It was absolutely fantastic. So you pop your headphones on, you you know, you learn some dance moves before you head out to kind of try and get rid of some of your inhibitions, and we're all kind of like dancing around the streets, and we do like little mini shows um on the streets performing for a few people, and it's it was just it was absolutely fantastic, it was awesome. So if you get the chance to go and do it, it's um yeah, in Edinburgh, San Disco tours, brilliant, really, really good experience. Highly, highly recommend it. It was such a good laugh, and um yeah, so we had then we had uh some fantastically amazing food. We went to a place called the Whitehorse, Whitehorse um oyster and seafood bar, and the food there is really, really nice. Um, and we also got chatting to like a couple next to us because it's that kind of place, you know, you have a conversation with your table either side. Um, yeah, and so that was great. So what else do we do? We saw Jack Whitehall, oh, he was so funny. And uh my partner John Datshi said uh after the show, he said, um I said, Well, I was gonna ask you if you enjoyed that. He said, But you were laughing loudly the whole way through it. So I'm guessing it was a yes, but it was it was really good because he's practicing new material and he's kind of been doing a week up there um to see what works and what doesn't and which before he goes on his new tour. And and obviously we were the with the last night, so he tried some of the stuff, probably some of the stuff, and he'd probably tried different stuff earlier on in the week. So, but no, it's it's it's really really good. It was absolutely hilarious. He is so funny. So if you haven't seen him live, he he's well, if you like his comedy, um you know, I just I think it was really, really funny, really, really good. Uh what else do we do? We walked up to Arthur's Seat um as well, which I've never been to before, despite having lived in Scotland and been to Edinburgh a fair few times. Um so Arthur's Seat was it's like a I don't know why it's called Arthur's Seat. Um maybe if someone can like tell me and and pop it in a chat somewhere, um, in Instagram maybe, let me know where Arthur's seat, why it's called Arthur's Seat. Maybe I'll go and Google it. I don't know. I'll have I meant to have a look later on. Um but fantastic views, and we took some, you know, some kind of views up there, but there's a lot of burnt underground, underground, undergrowth up there, obviously, um, because of the wildfires, which was you know, um, but things were starting to grow back already. The weeds in particular are already kind of there. Um, and then say we we went to see uh another play as well, um, 11 and a half angry men, which is obviously based on like um 12 angry men. Um and that was uh that was that was really, really great, really professional performance. Obviously, it's about 12 jurors, and they're deciding the fate of this one person, but it kind of and it starts off where 11 go right, not guilty, and one guy goes guilty, and then that guy then manages to persuade all of the rest of the jurors to change their verdict to guilty, mainly because some of them are like, Well, I need to get back, I've got to get to work, or and you realise that the jury, when the jurors are kind of deciding the fate of somebody, you know, quite often they're thinking about their own life that they don't want to be stuck in a room and they don't want to be in a hotel for however many hours, they want to just get on with their own lives. Um, and then you know, at the end of it, um, they all kind of, you know, and the foreman calls out, right, okay, what do we think? And it's it's then 11 guilty. And the bloke that said guilty originally, he's like, not guilty, he's obviously not, he's obviously innocent, but I just you you guys kind of like saw me, you kind of made perceptions about me, um, which were completely wrong. So I thought, right, I'm gonna summit your characters and then get you to change your mind. So and it was just it was it was just great, really, really kind of insightfully, you know, we were insightful into the kind of like the thinking and how juries work and stuff. And it's only an hour, so it was really, really good. Um, what else are we doing? What are we doing what are we doing for food at food on Saturday night? I haven't written this down. We went to David, did we go to David Bam? I'm just trying to think we went to. We went to David Bam to a fantastic vegetarian restaurant up there called David Bam. Um and uh it was great because like John's not vegetarian, and neither am I, but I do eat a lot of veggie food. And uh so it was great that he was like, Yeah, okay, I'll give that a go. And it was lovely, and we had some really nice wine as well, but the the food was really, really, really quite nice. Um, I'm just trying to think where else we had a really nice meal somewhere else. Oh, that's right. So we had um we had lunch. I'm missing one place out. Oh, Friday night. We went for like a tapas Indian, that's right. And we went to the witchery as well. John treated me for lunch at the witchery. Oh, it was absolutely fantastic. Because like he's like, we checked before because you had to we had to book it before we went, and he was like all excited. I was like, I can get a table at the witchery, which was about a week, week or so before we went, and he's like looking at the prices in the menu going, Yeah, it's gonna have to be my treat. What an amazing bloke. But he's like, but but kind of his principle is that you know, sometimes he's gonna help pay for things because he knows I can't afford them, but he wants to go and do all these things, so you know, and it's a you know, but so but but we have conversations about it, and I feel a little bit guilty that I maybe can't pay my own way. Um so I do I always pay, I always pay half for something, you know. Um, but you know, it's a great situation to be in, and it's great that we can go and do all these things and have all these nice meals and go and do all these things. Um that's mainly really thanks to him. I wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for him. Um, oh yes, right, so we went to see Gary Starr classic Penguins, right? And this was a fellow performer um from CSI, it's uh a friend of ours who has said uh right, you've got to give him, you know, because we asked for show recommendations and he's like, go and see this guy. So I kid you not, and this is going on tour to New York, New York and London. So, you know, if this is your thing, right, go and see it. Um so what it is essentially a guy on stage, right, wearing a penguin jacket, right? And like, you know, like kind of like a Elizabethan ruffle thing, um, and that's it, nothing else. No, not even any panties, and it must have been pretty cold in that room, is all I'm saying, right? So, and like you're kind of drawn to it, okay? Your attention, you're not, you know, you're kind of drawn to it because it's a bit novelty, and this is this guy, you know, swinging it all about on stage and doing various things, and he's wiggling it in front of the audience. And I'm thinking that isn't there some sort of censorship thing here, which you know it's not really, it's not really appropriate. Um, but because it was appropriate, you kind of, you know, and anyway, I managed to locate my head so that the woman in front's head covered the the area that was in question. Wasn't too bad. Um, John thought it was absolutely hilarious. He was just killing himself laughing all the way through. I mean, it was really, really funny, and he did drag members of the audience up as well. Um, one of whom who also got naked. Uh it was just like it was, but it was entertaining. I mean, do you know what? When you go and see a performance, right, you want it to take you want it to take over your mind, don't you? And you want it to kind of um take you out of where you are in that particular moment of your life, and it's like an escape isn't for an hour, isn't it? Um so, or an hour and a half, or however long it was for or went on for. Um, you kind of want it to take you out of where you are, and do you know what? It did that 100%. I didn't think about anything else for that entire time other than what was going on on stage. And do you know what? If you've done that, you've absolutely nailed it, really, haven't you? And and it was it was really quite funny, but there were a few people that did leave. Um, so if you do have any issues with nudity, right, it's not gonna be your thing. Like my Uncle Pete would absolutely love that. Okay, it'll be right up his street. Um, but you know, it's so if you have any issues with nudity, because at the end of it that there's about six of them on stage. I was like, okay. There we go. You know, it's the end of the day, it's only a human body, isn't it? So uh, you know. Um yeah, it was just it was quite funny. Um weirdly amazing was John's actual description of it to other people. What do you think of Gary Starr's classic penguins? Weirdly amazing. Yeah, it's just yeah. It was yeah, it was it's gonna be it's one of those shows that I am never in my life ever gonna forget. Okay, so let's have a look. Okay, um, we did a bit of shopping as well. Yeah, I got some, I got some, I got a um a Santa playing the bagpipes because there's a Christmas shop in Edinburgh that's open all year round, so I went in and got a little Christmas decoration. I got one last year. I forgot to put it on the tree, but I've got one this year for my little tree. And um what else do we get? I got um soctopus, I got some Loch Ness monster trainer socks, which are quite cool, and some other cool funky socks. I know they've got soctopuses everywhere, but they had one in Edinburgh that you couldn't get there. You won't be able to get the kind of Scottish themed ones up there anywhere else. So I got them from there, that was quite cool. Um and then what else did we do? Yeah, we went to see uh a fantastic play called Stay a Little Longer, and you're not gonna go, you're not gonna won't be seeing this, it's a little theatre company, it was two people. Um right, so that so both of us were absolutely bawling our eyes out by the end of this this play, and really it starts off where the woman's kind of like practicing her wedding speech, um and you know, and she's like, Oh, I'm gonna get it wrong, and then uh fiance comes in um and they start chatting and stuff, um you know, about wedding plans and what have whatever else. And then they start talking about their relationship and how they met and how she fell in love with him and you know um what what their future plans are, and he's gonna have like um it's just an um a gallery um, you know, kind of opening thing, and he's you know about to have his art exhibited and they've been through university, that's right. They've been to met at university, um, and you're really kind of drawn into the story, and I and sometimes when you see a play, it's great, um, but this was fantastic because you're really drawn into the story from word go. Those two actors, okay, have you engaged right from the very beginning, and there was chemistry between the two of them, which we which was really, really good. Um and and then it kind of, you know, and then they're talking, and then it it kind of kind of moves on and transpires, and you know, she's opening, she wants the wedding to be perfect, and she's opening the champagne and they're drinking it, and she's like, it tastes horrible, it's ruining the moment, it's all gone wrong. Um and then it kind of transpires that actually it's kind of a ghost, he's the ghost, and um he's actually been killed in a motorbike accident um about a week before their wedding, or two weeks before the wedding. Um, and the speech that she actually does, and I'm starting to get tearful just thinking about it, and the speech that she actually was rehearsing at the beginning, which she thought was the wedding speech, was actually the speech that she was doing at his funeral. And it was just an honesty, well, it we had we had um we just we weren't bawling out, crying, really emotional. And then at the end, when as we're going out, they happened to play Myan and John's song, um, which was even more emotional. So we kind of ran, we just walked out of there crying our eyes out. We weren't the only people, there were a fair few people crying, you know, and to be that engaging to have an audience in tears, um, just shows you how powerful a performance and what fantastic they act as they were. So it's stay a little longer, it's called absolutely fantastic. Um, and then that's when we kind of met up with the guys from the CSI in the bar, and uh, you may have seen a picture of Espresso Martini. So we had several of those, and it's taken me a couple of days to recover from it all, if I'm honest. Um, but but that's part of it as well, isn't it? We didn't actually see a show on on that night. I said, well, let's not go and see a show on the last night, let's meet up with the maybe just to meet up with the guys and then just see what happens because sometimes in life it's always sometimes it's good not to have a plan to go and do something and just see where it takes you. And that's what we did with that night. And it was, you know, so we didn't actually go and see a play, and then we ended up going for a little Chinese meal with us this fantastic Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh, um, which all the Chinese people go to, so that tells you how good it is. Uh, and it was it was just absolutely it was great. It was such a such a lovely, lovely, um, lovely weekend. Um, but there are you know, whenever there's happiness, there's also a little bit of sadness because I was in um I was in the middle of watching the CSI improv and uh I got an I got a message from my friend Bev and I've connected I've after a few years I've I think I've told you I've managed to connect it up to the watch. And uh so and now I can see all the messages that come through on my watch, and it was unfortunately that um one of my um well someone I know, um, but someone I know from my previous yard um had unfortunately lost her horse. He'd broken his leg in the field because the ground's so hard at the moment, um, and and that's the reason why. Um and you and you kind of like it kind of things like that kind of make you appreciate how lucky you are, okay, that things don't last forever. And I'm also talking about this as well because um, you know, John had a conversation in the pub this week. Um, there's a guy that um had had uh you know that had unfortunately died in in locally, um, and they who they were just about to retire, and him and his partner are planning to go and do all these fantastic things at retirement. Um, and it's all of a sudden it's just taken away from them unexpectedly. And that's the thing, isn't it? Um, you know, we we kind of plan for all these things, but we we we don't know what's around the corner. Health wise, is something there's something that we can't control. Um Well, we can control it because actually I've realized now that we need to be a lot healthier, though I need to be a lot healthier than I am, which is why I'm making an effort to lose all this weight, not eat too much meat, not drink too much alcohol. You know, just do it every now and again. That's absolutely fine, but not do it consistently throughout the week. I'd just have maybe a glass of wine um or two at at the weekends and that's it. Drink more water, keep more hydrated because actually there's a lot to live for and there's a lot to see, and there's so much, you know, still that I wouldn't kind of go and do and try and you know, experience. But you can't do that um, you know, if you're if you're kind of not here. Uh so it is important for us all to kind of really keep fit and active and healthy. And this morning I've been out, I've ridden a horse for an hour and a half before sitting down to do this little podcast for you guys. Um so yeah, so that's the kind of yeah, no, so that's the kind of where we are at that one. That's this is week six. That was like that was what I got up to this weekend. And I do probably push it, and you know, people do say to me, you do too much. Um, but there'll be a time when I won't be able to do anything because we won't be here. So I actually, you know, need to get out there and need to go and do all these things and hopefully encourage other people to go and do other things as well. So if you haven't been to the fringe, go and check it out next year. I will be there again. Um, not sure of the dates yet, but we'll definitely be there again because it's just such an incredible experience. It's absolutely fantastic. We just had such an absolutely amazing time. Um, last year we went to see lots of little shows, um, kind of near where we were staying. This time we went to see the bigger shows, which a bit further walk away, went for nice meals, did less, but although we did less shows, we did more of other things, touristy things. Um, and and you know, we were kind of walking a long way as well each day. Uh yeah, and it was, you know, it was great, and we had such to say we had an absolutely fantastic time. It was really, really good and really, really well worth it. Um, Merlin enjoyed a few days off, so uh we're back to doing it. So um, you know, he's been he's went on a three and a half mile hack yesterday. And uh so we did a five-mile hack today up at 6.30 to go and do these things. Well, up at 5.45 and on board for half past six to go and do all these things. Um Pippa stayed at Granny's house. Uh okay. Flash went into Kennell's. Um, both come out, come back okay. Pippa was sulking a little bit with me because she's being abandoned at Granny's house, but there we go. Um, and I'll try and take some pictures of them because we went to a little maker's market to, you know, sort of to kind of support some of the local people. Um we bought her, or John bought her at like a kind of like tweedy flower. And a flash has got this in he's usually got a bow tie on, but he's got like this cool little mini tie, and it's fantastic. It looks great on him. So I'll try and take some pictures and shove those on the socials this week. I've been a bit quiet on socials, um, many because I've been absolutely knackered, um, and I haven't really come up with any any ideas of things to shove on there. Um, but there'll be more coming. I've I've I've I have I did record I've recorded a couple of um things on on video to go on YouTube, but when I look back at them, I thought, you know what, they're not quite right, they're not quite where I want them to be, and they're not saying what I want to be. So I'm gonna do a little bit more on that and do a bit more work. Um, take my time and get those right, and then I'll shove those up on YouTube um at some point. Um in the future, I'll try and aim to do that. Where are we? August. Yeah, she's uh away yet again this weekend. So I'll probably get around to doing it next weekend actually. I've got I've got more time next weekend. It's bank holiday, so I'm not here on I'm off on the Monday. Um, so that's quite good. So yeah, I'll try and aim to do it all next weekend, do some, put some stuff together and and get that up on YouTube, so that'd be quite good. Um, and I've got a little comedy thing as well, because because when I was um yes, when I was down in um chatting too in the in the bar with the entertainers um and the rest of the cast and stuff, um we were talking about stand-up, and there's a guy um who we know and he's like, Yeah, I want to do stand-up, and I was like, Yeah, I want to do some stand up. He's like, that's right. He's like, he said, I can't write it. And apparently you can do stand-up courses. So I'm like, all right, okay, so I've got the name of somebody who does a stand-up course in London. I'm like, yeah, that'd be fantastic. And I said, um, I said, uh, I said, I've written five minutes stand-up. And Don's like, have you? And I was like, yeah, I left it on your desk. I assumed you read it. He was like, no. I was like, oh right, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I have, it's there. And uh, so um, so what I'm gonna do is so I'm gonna be I'm gonna do a little video of it. Um I don't know when I'll I'll when I'm when I get time, which is obviously precious um and a and a precious commodity at the moment, but I'm gonna do my little stand-up thing that I kind of did as a podcast, but I'm gonna do it as like a bit of social media thing because I think that'll probably quite cool. And uh no, I get quite a few views on my social media thing, so we'll see how it goes, but I'm definitely gonna do that one. And um, yeah, and and and that because I also want to see whether or not um I'll see whether or not they got the guys think it's funny or not, because I want some feedback. I'm doing a little sort of you know uh Jack Whitehall or White House as I called him. Maybe it's related to Mary Whitehouse, I don't know. It certainly was after a couple of prosecos, that's for sure. Right, right. So anyway, um I'm gonna leave it there. Hope that you all have an amazing week, everyone. Um, and then we'll be on week seven next week. Um, yeah. Just sitting here thinking, haven't really written any notes about what I've been doing this week, next week. It's all been a bit crazy, it's all merging into one, but there we go. Anyway, have a good time every week. Have every week, have we have a good time, everyone, and I'll catch you next time.