growth

This afternoon was Alain de Botton at the bookfest, plugging his latest book about work and talking solidly and coherently about it for the first forty-five minutes without stopping, getting boring or waffling. Were it not for Mr Fidgety in the seat next to me the time would have passed extremely quickly. We've some of his stuff already on a bookshelf and another in the pile of stuff waiting to be read in a bag somewhere (hopefully in the flat) so the latest will have to wait though it does sound quite interesting, though as much for seeing how such work is perceived when studied by someone not directly engaged in it than as for the philosophical interpretation and writing.

There was time for a disappointing coffee and dry cake, wander, poke at the Botanics, wander, coffee and a twenty-minute stand around before going into Trilogy at St Stephen's, formerly full of usually-worthwhile stuff during the Fringe when it called itself Aurora Nova but shut last year as the bloke responsible claimed it wasn't financially viable. This was getting the best reviews of any show there but we didn't spot it until it was too late to get there when my dad was up. Despite being two hours long excluding two quarter-hour intervals it didn't drag at all, making the odd point here and there in between less serious bits. Not as good in terms of the quality of performance as previous things held in the venue but well-intentioned and earnest enough to warrant a recommendation to see it if you can spare 2¾ hours on Monday night as the calendar on the fringe site indicates there are still some tickets left. It's evidently quite invigorating for the participants, particularly the volunteers who either dance at the start or go onto the stage for the naked rendition of Jerusalem at the end where the acoustics of the building come in handy at last after making it slightly difficult to pick out some of the words earlier on.