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On the strength of his podcast and various appearances and mentionings in things today's first go-to-see-thingby was Garrison Keillor's second showing at the BookFest where he was mostly reading out and occasionally singing some of his sonnets. Although he can sing, when he sang he seemed to be compelled to append two extra lines of "whooow-ooo-owwwoo... ..oowowooo-wooo-whoahoooowww" to the end which didn't really work. He perhaps doesn't like the imbalance left after fourteen lines, though that could perhaps be better solved by writing two more lines of words.

After a short paddle around Swamp Charlotte's temporary bookshop-tent with its excitingly flexible floor we headed to the Assembly Rooms (or "Assembly at the Assembly Rooms" as the Fringe attempts to rename it in order to confuse visitors not already confused by the renaming of Teviot Row union as the Gilded Balloon (despite the fact that the Gilded Balloon clearly burned down seven years ago) and Potterow union as the Pleasance Dome (when it's nowhere near the Pleasance)) to meet David77 before Nicky headed home to work, leaving us to see the MAIT-recommended The Event, a one-man show sort of like the on-stage equivalent of the Advanced Driving Test where the performer describes the performance of describing the performance. If you liked Synecdoche, New York (or even if you missed it but wanted to see it) you'd like The Event, though I would recommend it to all. After The Event we'd wandered up the High Street to see if any target shots were arranging themselves, though the slightly autumnal breeziness seemed to have made things a little more businesslike and less promenadeful than they've been over the previous two weeks. At one point David was standing on a bollard to spy on people only to be crept up upon by Lord and Lady Findhorn (pleasedto(briefly)meetyou) who had somehow failed to get a picture of him on top of the bollard as they approached.

Also highly recommended is Part 1 of Mesrine, the film with the panache and suspense absent from the recent Public Enemies. Though it depicts a vicious, criminal scumbag it's excellently-shot, very well-scored and well-acted. Gérard Depardieu works well in a fat-old-guy role to the extent that he takes a minute or two to spot and Vincent Cassel is very good, particularly at the possibly-about-to-lamp-someone simmering look, especially when complemented by a silly bristling gangster moustache. Go quick, before Part 2 appears in two weeks' time.

After a brief tarry around the pillars beside the pavement at the bottom of Lauriston Place (where, when scrabbling in my pocket for my lens-cap when released from scenery-duty, I found the hand-adjustment knob from my watch (missing since Thursday morning)) we headed back eastwards for one of Palmyra's excellent falafel wraps and a sit in the Pleasance courtyard where a nice man in motorcycling trousers wafted badly-scented rollup-smoke over us and some loud women from Melbourne barked excitedly to each other two feet from my ear. Nicky reappeared just before David trotted off to attempt to get a shot I presume he either didn't get or didn't eventually use whilst we went to see Sarah Millican, possibly tricky to get tickets for if you haven't been already as she's in far too small a venue for her comic worth and is rapidly selling-out and adding extra gigs. Definitely worth trying, though.

Despite having a few things to do (involving, as always, some tidying-up) before Father-arrival on Tuesday evening (including putting the curtains back up as they've been in a bin-bag beside the bed for five months but would be of great aid to anyone attempting to sleep in the living-room over the course of the next week, as much for their noise-muffling abilities as their opacity) the rest of the evening was spent filling-in the last few days and remembering to prepare work-clothing and stick it in my bag before going to sleep rather than leaving it until the morning and probably forgetting again. I also attempted to see if the little watch-adjustment-knob could be restored to return analogue function to my watch but there must be a couple of additional spindle-components missing as merely replacing the knob did nothing.