I took a day off the fringe, what a chance to recuperate. I flew to London to do the last episode of Stranger Than Sci Fi with Dr Jen Gupta for BBC Radio 4 (and I wonder if I’ll ever get over saying that I do work for the BBC). Then I had a lovely dinner with my dad and twin, and we had Vietnamese soup and then exciting dessert. With some sense of vague health guilt. It was delicious though.

Then I stayed overnight at Tiff Stevenson’s house and patted and fed her very grumpy cat.

Flew back early in the morning to do Radio in Edinburgh and then after my show, had Political Animal with an all Bugle cohost Lineup. It was lots of fun and went for twice as long as it was scheduled to go for. Having Zaltzman arrive in Edinburgh to run long and spending time with Tiff makes me feel much more at home here.

I don’t know what happened to Wednesday. Presumably I did some gigs, and I did Late N Live, which starts at 1am and is known as a bear pit. It was actually a lot of fun - I get a kick out of proving I can do rough gigs (an upside of starting out in Australia)

I got home about 3am to a phone call from Melbourne to sort out logistics for the [redacted name of fancy thing] Stand Up Special I’ve been commissioned to do, and because it’s Savage I have opinions on how it ought to be done.

It’s an incredibly odd and satisfying thing to be allowed and encouraged to do the work I love, after some years of feeling to a certain extent that I was doing it in the teeth of a lot of people, and in a sort of contrarian way.

Suddenly having roadblocks turn into green lights is offbalancing and delightful, like suddenly having a bed of nails turn into a bed of clouds. Similarly too, the fear that the bed of clouds will evaporate from under your feet is everpresent and disconcerting and I have to resist the urge to sprint forward reckless of my health and personal life, in case it all goes away. I’m lucky enough to have people who love me who will call me out on my cloud strategies as well as take some of the weight when it’s all nails. This metaphor has gone too long.

Today I have two late shows, and should be having a nap *right this minute* but my brain wouldn’t slow down and I realised I hadn’t done an Edinburgh update for a few days. So in lieu of a nap, you get a very long metaphor and a bit of a ramble.

Talk again soon.

P.S. If you’re in Melbourne, do come watch the filming of Savage. I’ll bring you in for free. It’ll be fun. Thankyou.

Xxx

A