Variety

A good night’s sleep and then we walked over to EFI to meet V for some coffee and a catch up and some planning. Lovely to sit outside in warm (even hot!) sunshine, then a hop via bus down to see the Titan arum plant flowering at the Botanics….no stench now but just like when I saw it before it’s a bizarre looking thing, more like a stage prop than a live plant. We also enjoyed looking round the rest of the tropical plants on our way through the glasshouse and learned a lot about the fly eating plants and an amazing vine style alstroemeria that had a globe of flowers like a hanging Christmas decoration.
From there we walked through the gardens and down to Stockbridge to get an amazing sandwich from Mootz’s general store….fresh focaccia-like bread with a range of different tasty fillings. We ate our half each sitting outside whilst waiting for the bus. It was 10 mins late which was a bit stressful as we were running on a very tight schedule to get up to the Traverse, and we had to run from the stop when we arrived but just arrived in time. Absolutely lovely little play with music called A History of Paper…..so poignant, with humour and clever staging. We loved it. Wandered over to the Grassmarket for K to finish her half of the sandwich and we had a cup of tea but the sun had disappeared and the clouds were gathering by then…we wondered if it would rain.
We walked over to Cowgate to try and find the two girls dressed as boobs that we’d met on the High St yesterday as they’d said there would be some free tickets today but we couldn’t see them. Wandered up to the Hight St again to try and find them but no luck, but as we waited by the entrance of the Cowgate venue we bumped into their Dad who had the tickets so we were able to go in to their show, Identities. It was a funny and cleverly put together show about breast cancer told from the perspective of the woman’s boobs….bit madcap but they got a great reaction from the audience and it was lovely to see them realising it had gone well.
We came out and it was definitely chillier, so we decided to come home for a while. We had some snacks whilst chatting to Ad, then relaxed on the sofa watching some Olympics and vegging out a bit. One last show…back to the Traverse for My English Persian Kitchen. This was a very novel idea…the actor told her story of fleeing from an abusive husband in Iran, being helped to get a plane to London by her parents, and her struggles to settle in. Whilst she did his, acting out her flashbacks, she cooked a Persian noodle soup which she then offered to the audience at the end. The smells of the herbs and onions cooking throughout the show were very tantalising! Good idea for a very different type of drama.
Walked home via a packed out Bristo Square to make some Bircher muesli for the morning and watched a bit of wind down TV before bed. A good day!