And, in one fell swoop, there goes summer!

Remember they said that it was going to be a scorcher and everyone ran out to B&Q to buy all this fancy garden furniture, how we all bought a nice shiny new bbq – well, in fairness, it was hot – it’s just that it rained A LOT! And still it’s raining!

But I’m not going to on about this cos I had a nice wee sunny August all to myself…

August

Sunshine started really when Caitlin got her GCSE results…I was in Edinburgh for the technical rehearsal for Lochhead & Laula: Love, Love, Love and I’d asked her not to tell me her results on the phone – AT ANY COST. But of course when I called her to see how she’d got on, she was home alone and she got on ‘fine’!

‘Fine’ thought I, ‘she should be euphoric…aw naw, she musn’t have done well!’

‘aw, didn’t you get your results then?’ (me
‘yeah’ (her, totally non-commitally)
‘just tell me how you get on’ (me)
‘no’ (her)
‘just tell me!’ (me)
‘no’ (evil child)
‘Caitlin…’ (me, slightly threateningly)
‘no’ (cheeky, evil child!)

And so it went…I had to wait for TOO long before I found out that my special-wee-intelligent-beautiful goddaughter passed all of her exams with flying colours! No surprise really, but extremely gratifying!

We had a lovely, celebration dinner with them – 5th year looms large now…!!!

And so did our show at the Assembly rooms...tech rehearsal was great although Liz and I were both pretty nervous about it. It was a small production, but dealing with the folk at the Fringe was extremely expensive and a little intimidating. Everything costs money, you know, if you want an extra spot light it would cost a certain amount, if you wanted a line in one of the brochures it would cost a certain amount…and so on. So much so that no-one makes money from the Fringe, apart from the Fringe!

Anyway, we got there with our lo-tech show, ready to be told we’d need all this expensive stuff (I was waiting for a bill for toilet roll), but then we met the stage manager – George from Glasgow who had worked in music and theatre for as long and Liz and I have done – COMBINED! What was a potentially difficult set up, went like clockwork and was so relaxed, nothing to worry about!

So, why was I worried?

Well? I don’t know really – I think it’s because we had a script to work to – it was like a real, proper stage show…you know Liz said something and I said something back to her and so it went on…

It was fine though; I think it came across well. Except one night, I said my line to Liz – the one I was supposed to say – and she just sat staring at me, smiling! Argh…I was sure I’d got the correct line…why wasn’t she speaking to me…HELP!!!

It seemed like an eternity, she was just looking at me, smiling, the millions of faces in the audience were just looking at me, smiling – ARGH!!! We sat like that for what seemed like an hour! It was one of those stories you hear where the person ‘freezes’!

But, thankfully, I’d watched enough biography channel shows to know what had happened – true enough, Liz froze. And me, being the consummate professional (!!!), managed to ‘feed her the line’! Hey, how cool does that sound?

It reminds me of my run as a real actress – for SOP in Glasgow. We did Britain’s first ever Equity Professional Mixed Abilities Cast show…it was called Johnny Be Happy – about a punk rocker who had been hit on the head by a lighting rig and, after being a nasty punk rocker called Johnny be nasty, the dunk on his head turned him into Johnny by Happy…

Am I setting the scene yet?

Well, get this; there was one scene where I got to play a rat? Seeing it now?

I don’t think I have to say much more except to admit that my acting abilities were absolutely appalling, I really should have stuck to singing.

Thankfully though, the music for that show was written by the world famous Scottish songwriter Michael Marra.

Anyway, back to Edinburgh – we managed to claw it back and it was a great run. We had some great houses (thankfully none of the horror stories you hear about the Fringe where only one person turns up) and we had lots of audiences who laughed with us and cried with us in equal measure; Lochhead and Laula: Love, Love, Love was a great success.

So much so that we intend to tour it early next year…watch this space.

I saw a few other things at the Fringe, but something that really blew me away was a show called Mercy Madonna of Malawi. I guess the title is self explanatory, but just incase…it’s a take on Madonna’s adoption of Mercy, the wee Malawian girl…it raised a lot of questions…Should Mercy have gone or should she have stayed…potential adopters have to stay in the country for two years before they can adopt – needless to say, Madonna hadn’t stayed there for that time.

Anyway, whatever your take is on the subject, it was a great production. New York based Scottish writer, John Kielty, wrote the music. After seeing our show, he’d asked me to come along and give a wee singing workshop to the cast!

Wow, what a thrill – there were tears…it was incredible.

And, as if that wasn’t enough for an aging hippy – I had to get off the stage in Edinburgh, drive for three and half hours up to my next gig at the Belladrum festival – and I thought those days of sing and dash were over…apparently not…can you tell how upset I am about that?

Even better, Caitlin came up with me. We got to go to this fantastic festival – Belladrum is like Glastonbury only smaller and posher – we also got to stay for two nights in a really lovely wee hotel in Drumnadrochit! So, all the fun of the festival without the staying in the tent – bloody perfect!

It was a real laugh though, I’d just come from the Edinburgh Fringe where everything was organised with military precision…you’re onstage at 1820 hundred hours and must be off stage by 1919 hundred hours. Your turnaround time is 20 minutes and if you go to the toilet, woe betide!

Then, there I was at Belladrum, asking what time was my rhymetime, where was it running, how many folk would be at my songwriting workshop, where was it running, what time was it running and how long did I have off before my show later that night and, blah, blah, blah…

Well, after all that time at the Fringe, I expected a full itinerary, however, I was at a hippy festival now – after all my questions, each answer was something like…

‘acht, we’ll wait and see…’ or ‘hmmm just start whenever you like’…

It seemed I wasn’t the only hippy around!!

Still, we had a fantastic time. Caitlin was all grown up, hanging around at her first festival – trying hard to look like she was there with someone other than her godmum!! Only joking Caits, I know you love me and think I’m the coolest ever auntie!

In fact though, it’s she who is the coolest, because we came back down and went straight to the Fringe gig, Caitlin came along AGAIN and was the stage crew AGAIN! We got her an Access All Areas pass – magic!

On the last night of the Fringe, we had a double celebration...we celebrated a great, successful run. However, Liz and I weren’t the only two folk who had had a ‘run’.

Earlier that Sunday, Amanda competed in her first triathlon – I was able to go along and hang out and cheer her on through her transition stages. It starts of with swimming then cycling and finishes with running.

She came off her bike in the pouring rain and was a bit fed up cos she was soaked through, however like the trouper she is, she embraced the running part thoroughly…she came over the finishing line after an hour and fifteen minutes, smiling her head off and saying that she’d enjoyed every minute of it – absolutely amazing – in fact, she came in SECOND in her class in her first ever triathlon – how cool is that???

She is now in training for Glasgow’s 10k…

I, however, am not – I am actually in training for chocolate eating championships!

Which is luck really as my uni pal - Lies from Belgium –came over for a weekend in August. She brought her two beautiful children, her lovely French husband and, crucially, lots of chocolate!

It was a lovely weekend and one where (I think) we had our last fire of the year. The sun even came out – no chance to melt the chocolate though, I’d already eaten it!

Also, August found me in Dublin...two of my friends were having a naming ceremony for their beautiful new baby.

It was another special time...it makes me realise how blessed I am…

Bring on September…come ahead if you think you’re hard enough!!!!

Until next time…stay dry

Carol