Wittertainment Adventure, part II
Last time we saw our intrepid traveller, he was at the right place waiting for the queue. Well, now he is in his hotel room after mildly interesting afternoon of wittertainment. Sorry about the spoilers.
To get back to the story, I noticed that a queue had formed and joined in. I thought about going to bathroom before join the queue, but didn't. So, whole time queueing I pondered if I will lose my place if I pop into toilet. Finally, when they announced that they will let us in in an half hour, I asked the people next to me, if they'll watch my place and went looking for a bathroom. After doing my business (number one, if anyone is interested) and as I was decending stairs, I noticed an unmistakable coif in front of me. Yup, it was DrK.
Soon I also saw Simon Mayo. I was also going to tweet:"DrK looking at hiis phone. Maybe he's tweeting.", but thought that it would be too much cyberstalking. Eventually they started to let people in. I was worried that at the last moment there would be some problem like misprinted ticket or the event is only for people paying their licence fee to the BBC and I wouldn't be let in, but I got in alright.
I just followed people in front of me and got a pretty good seat on the first row after reserved seats. I liked the bag we got even though DrM was not impressed by its contents. He talked a bit with the audience explaining thinks and then the show started. I was quite impressed how fluently they moved between news from the studio and the live show at the theatre. But I guess you get that doing a daily radio show live. Having an audience doesn't change things that much.
Since I live in Finland, I've never actually heard Simon Mayo's daily show fully. Just the podcasted bits of it. The first guest was Alan Cummings and they compared Edinburgh Film Festival to Cannes. DrK told how he hated Cannes that is more about marketing than films themselves and you have international round table where Finnish journalist ask "Have you been to Finland? What do you think about Finland? Do you like Finland?" etc. So, it was quite fitting that when they were trying to find furthest traveller, I raised my hand and told that I was from Finland. I even got to interview Ian Holm. They also had us cheer to horses at Ascot and gave us coffee, pop corn and pick'n mix.
After the show I sheaded back to hotel. I was once again a bit lost and decided to have a lunch in Subway. From the registre I noticed that it was Lothian Road Subway and I knew where I was. It got a bit confusing when at the next street corner I found out that I was actually on Home Street. But that just meant that I was closer to hotel and soon I was close at a familiar looking park. I crossed the park using nice paved path that had "no cycling" painted at the end of it. Then I noticed that the lawn had small white flags with small holes next to them. I was at Bruntsfield Links, which is one of the oldest golf courses. I think I prefer cyclists to the golf balls. After crossing the golf course, I was still lost, but luckily I once again saw familiar looking place and found my way back to the hotel, where I wrote the first words of this blog post.
After a bit of rest and a shower, I went to a corner store and bought some sandwitches, toothpaste and a proper map. That explained my confusion. I had placed my hotel on the wrong side of a wrong park. At the hotel I cursed my choice of eating at Subway. The hotel bar has a hamburger menu that looks delicious. I'll try it tonight. But now I have to finnish because I've had breakfast and am ready to go to see the city.
To get back to the story, I noticed that a queue had formed and joined in. I thought about going to bathroom before join the queue, but didn't. So, whole time queueing I pondered if I will lose my place if I pop into toilet. Finally, when they announced that they will let us in in an half hour, I asked the people next to me, if they'll watch my place and went looking for a bathroom. After doing my business (number one, if anyone is interested) and as I was decending stairs, I noticed an unmistakable coif in front of me. Yup, it was DrK.
Soon I also saw Simon Mayo. I was also going to tweet:"DrK looking at hiis phone. Maybe he's tweeting.", but thought that it would be too much cyberstalking. Eventually they started to let people in. I was worried that at the last moment there would be some problem like misprinted ticket or the event is only for people paying their licence fee to the BBC and I wouldn't be let in, but I got in alright.
I just followed people in front of me and got a pretty good seat on the first row after reserved seats. I liked the bag we got even though DrM was not impressed by its contents. He talked a bit with the audience explaining thinks and then the show started. I was quite impressed how fluently they moved between news from the studio and the live show at the theatre. But I guess you get that doing a daily radio show live. Having an audience doesn't change things that much.
Since I live in Finland, I've never actually heard Simon Mayo's daily show fully. Just the podcasted bits of it. The first guest was Alan Cummings and they compared Edinburgh Film Festival to Cannes. DrK told how he hated Cannes that is more about marketing than films themselves and you have international round table where Finnish journalist ask "Have you been to Finland? What do you think about Finland? Do you like Finland?" etc. So, it was quite fitting that when they were trying to find furthest traveller, I raised my hand and told that I was from Finland. I even got to interview Ian Holm. They also had us cheer to horses at Ascot and gave us coffee, pop corn and pick'n mix.
After the show I sheaded back to hotel. I was once again a bit lost and decided to have a lunch in Subway. From the registre I noticed that it was Lothian Road Subway and I knew where I was. It got a bit confusing when at the next street corner I found out that I was actually on Home Street. But that just meant that I was closer to hotel and soon I was close at a familiar looking park. I crossed the park using nice paved path that had "no cycling" painted at the end of it. Then I noticed that the lawn had small white flags with small holes next to them. I was at Bruntsfield Links, which is one of the oldest golf courses. I think I prefer cyclists to the golf balls. After crossing the golf course, I was still lost, but luckily I once again saw familiar looking place and found my way back to the hotel, where I wrote the first words of this blog post.
After a bit of rest and a shower, I went to a corner store and bought some sandwitches, toothpaste and a proper map. That explained my confusion. I had placed my hotel on the wrong side of a wrong park. At the hotel I cursed my choice of eating at Subway. The hotel bar has a hamburger menu that looks delicious. I'll try it tonight. But now I have to finnish because I've had breakfast and am ready to go to see the city.