Breakaway Blinds and Breaks Away.
Yesterday was a day off in name only really, as I had lots to do, but it was
cherished nevertheless, what with coming at a time when my energy was starting
to wane.
It didn’t begin
well. It began with pain, when I opened the venetian blind in my bedroom on waking up to have it collapse on my head. Thankfully my cat-like reflexes
came to play pretty quickly, with me managing to both move out of the way of
its downward trajectory as much as possible while also catching it, which would
have looked impressive if anyone had seen it, but I’ll never know if they did
as they would have to have been in the building opposite and feel the need to stop me on the street to compliment me on my blind-catching prowess, which is pretty unlikely, but I live in hope.
I won’t mince
words, by the way: it was fucking heavy. It was also not exactly the gentle
warm-up into my only day off that I'd hoped for, not least because it meant I had to get in touch with the letting agents to see if they’d be able to come and fix it as I couldn’t do it by myself; I sent them an email with photos
of the aforementioned kamikaze blind and the fittings it came lose from attached, to
make the job doubly clear. Once I’d done that, I took a taxi to an industrial
unit on the other side of town (because I know how to enjoy myself) to return
the projector stand I’d hired earlier this week to replace my broken one, which has since gone to the Great Audio-Visual-related Products
Retirement Home in the Sky (or a landfill bin on Cowgate to be more precise).
On returning to
the digs, I gave the lettings company a call as they hadn’t answered my email,
and arranged for them to come and fix the blind in the afternoon; conveniently
at the same time I had an interview scheduled with the student
radio station Fresh Air FM at the Pleasance, thus saving me the awkwardness of
being in while they did it; I’ll do anything to avoid awkward human-interaction.
I had arranged to
meet my PR’s assistant Amber in the Pleasance Courtyard ten minutes
before the interview was due to start; this being the first time we’d met. We
quickly popped to the bar (where I ordered the first Irn-Bru of my life on her suggestion; she said she was practically surviving on it at the
moment) before going to the studio. On arriving, we met the DJ, Sam, who told us
the station’s live feed wasn’t working, something I had suspected was the case
when I’d tried to listen to it over breakfast to no avail; trust the radio
station to not be broadcasting on the day I was there. Instead we recorded an interview for
their podcast, which was fun, before I said goodbye to Amber (who told me she’d
had to stifle her laughter during the interview, which I
took to be a good sign) and quickly sped to the Underbelly Med Quad to watch
Tom Goodliffe’s excellent show Coffee Run, though I found myself
trapped next to a guy in the audience who was manspreading to the extent that he nearly put my neck out.
Today saw me back
on the Fringe treadmill with my show at midday, though I have to admit I felt refreshed from a day away (although I could have done with
another one). Unfortunately, I only had two people in, which had the potential
to be truly tooth-pulling if it weren’t for the fact that they were clearly
having a good time. The venue’s tech manager sat in too, which helped, but it
was still a lot of energy to expend for a tiny audience. That said, I
still gave it my best, as you should never chastise the people who’ve taken the
trouble to come to your show for the people who haven’t. Hopefully, the rest
of the week will pick up from here on in (and I don’t have any more run-ins with my bedroom blinds if I’m lucky).
