First things first. She tells lies you know. The woman over there. She promised me that she wouldn't play with the site any more and I go away for four days and she plays with it again. And the line about me thinking that Chris wouldn't be good was also a porky. Oh, I was worried about meeting him but I had no fears about his acting talent. No, he's not scary - he's lovely but that wasn't the point. To tell the truth if the O&OD hadn't have been with me I wouldn't have still been there in the foyer when he finished the play. He writes my favourite character - well it might be more precise to say he used to write my favourite character - and he was the first person I read here. So of course I was a bit apprehensive. Scared witless actually. O&OD thought it was hilarious and she only knows half the story.



Well, we went, we saw, I got blisters. Nine plays, two museums, one exhibition and many mugs of coffee and stuff ( OK cake) in four days. We're hard core us. I love Edinburgh all year round, O&OD only loves it at Festival. It's too grey and looming for her - and that's exactly what I love about it.



Alan Cumming in The Bacchae was amazing. No, it wasn't just because he was on stage in a short kilt and not a lot else. How very dare you! Although it certainly didn't hurt. He owns every stage he steps on and his performance was wonderful. I don't remember seeing this classic done as humorously before either so a round of applause to David Greig for his adaption. It had a number of theatrical moments which caused a collective gasp in the audience and can I just send a good slap to the ear lug of the Times Reviewer for revealing what they are. That is not what a review is for.



Macbeth outside in the dark with actors on stilts, fireworks, flames and motorbikes is probably not for the purist but I adored it. O&OD has just finished an outside performance and while she really liked it, part of her was thinking about how they got it passed the Health and Safety Regs. There are so many shows on Fringe that folk do have to spend time drumming up an audience and they spend a lot of time on the Royal Mile and around doing just that. The witches here, not content with balancing on the tallest stilts I'd seen ever also had their faces covered with a veil. The man who should have been watching out for one of them on the publicity trail, was banging away on his drum, grinning at people and led her under the traffic lights which caused her to duck sharply so as not to get a green light in the mush, only to have one of her stilts stick in the cobbles. I don't know how to swear in Polish but I think I heard her do it.

O&OD and I are both techies not thesps and when you do that you do watch things with a different eye. So yes we did notice that the lighting cues had obviously got misplaced in one show - that can be the only reason for the black stage from where the actor was emoting - it couldn't possibly be due to the actor forgetting the blocks could it? We quietly applauded the lighting op who fixed it but swore a little too audibly. And yes we did notice when one play which was supposed to take fifty-five minutes finished twenty minutes shy. The look on the Production Manager's face was priceless and the Director looked as if she was about to vent her spleen to the cast. Loosing five minutes on that timing would have been excusable but twenty - we reckon they must have missed a complete scene.

Chris was wonderful. I could leave it there but that would let the Rainbow Slider and Scally off too easily. I'm used to watching people I know act from both back stage and in the audience and sometimes, a lot of times actually, you just can't separate the person you know from the part they're playing. However, after two minutes I forgot it was Chris and he was Ed with the best New York accent, which didn't slip I might add, not even when he had to cover for his Lead fluffing his lines. His monologue was really clever and I must remind him to use it as his pick up line. It obviously was working on the man sitting behind us - his date wasn't too happy though! Although it's true he did look cute. All in all he excelled on the stage which was a bit unfortunate for his lead as the contrast in their performances did him no favours. And I'm not just being nice to him because I know him. We did mention that at one point we were going to go and wring the necks of the lighting crew who were gabbling and there was the wonderful moment when a stage strike was lit for us all to see. Techie things. But then O&OD and myself are Scary Marys as Production Managers so that's understandable.

Now I have to think of actually starting the diet we've warned you about and have to go back to work tomorrow. All good things must come to an end.