Freebie Fringe



Comedian and travel writer Tony Hawks (no, not the skateboarder) came in to sign some books for us while he was in town. Usually his adventures come around by way of drunken bets, the most famous being that he couldn’t hitch his way around the circumference of Eire with a fridge. He hadn’t arrived by the time I was about to head off home (via Rose St to go bikini spotting again, my new fave hobby). Luckily I bumped into Matthew and stopped to chat to him and Tony arrived a few minutes later, so I hung back to take him over to sign the stock and meet David, our travel buyer who is a big fan.



I teased him that we were disappointed he didn’t have his fridge with him, full of cold drinks for hot, thirsty booksellers (still no aircon on our floor). He laughed and said he didn’t, but he did have some free tickets for tonight’s show if we could make it. Naturally we were only too happy to grab a Fringe freebie. I managed to get hold of my mate Gordon and meet Alex, David and Olly at the gig, where we also bumped into our newest colleague, the incredibly petite Diane, who even Alex towers over.



The gig was fun and Tony regaled us with his own unusual brand of music, including some of those he wrote to try and have a second top ten hit (for his drunken bet in the book One Hit Wonderland). Not often you see a man dressed as a pixie playing a guitar, even at the Edinburgh Fringe. Afterwards we scampered off to nearby Teuchters for some very cold Czech beer. The French windows at the back room were wide open to the mews behind the block of Georgian buildings letting in a very welcome cool breeze, along with the sound of Saint Mary’s bells peeling away. My first Edinburgh flat was in Grosvenor Street, a few blocks away and the bells from this unusual three-spire church used to rouse me unwillingly from my hangover on Sundays. It was a fun night and Alex even managed to get as far as two and a half pints (although he suffered next day, but tried to insist it was not booze related). Gordon and I were there until closing of course.