These past few days have been fun, we have laughed a lot courtesy of Friend and Friend's son and son's girlfriend visiting. Friend has been most excellent, son and son's girlfriend have been lovely, the Fringe has been cracking. It's in the heart that the sombre note sounds. We brought Ralik's ashes home the day before yesterday. When I allow myself to admit that it hurts I realise that actually everything hurts. Still, we can smile and do, think and and move. Fringing with Friends is very healing.

We have a few shows yet to see, but so far it's been pretty amazing. I want to list everything here, and realise I'm very tired. This might wake me up.

Frisky's Reshuffle
The story behind this was that Friend's family watched Frisky's videos for years. Friend had bought these tickets as a surprise for his son. It was an incredible show, the basic idea is that Frisky (Laura Corcoran) sings well known songs in styles suggested by the audience. Have you really lived until you've heard the Death Metal version of Like A Virgin? She has a phenomenal voice, interacted with the audience beautifully, left everyone feeling wonderful. I cannot imagine anything she could do to make this show better. 10/10.

Shamilton!
Improvised Hip Hop Musical based on a historical character of the audience's choosing. On our night it was Winnie The Pooh. Ridiculous, insane, magnificent, 9/10.


Fly You Fools!
Parody of the movie The Lord of the Rings and as such requires an audience familiar with the film for it to work. Given that, it's utterly brilliant and near damn perfect. No surprise that it's a break out success. 10/10.


Mythos Ragnarok
We've seen this before but our guests were new to it. Mythos Ragnarok retells Norse myths via the medium of wrestling. It's moved to a big top venue where the stage is a ring surrounded by three quarter seating, much better than proscenium arch for this show. They're wrestlers rather than actors so no oscars are likely, but given that proviso my only criticisms are that they need to sort out their mikes/sound system for individual one-liners, and some could use different techniques, for example the Midgard Serpent could have used fighting forms that include constriction. But maybe I'm getting a bit UFC. None of this mattered. We all loved it, the audience cheering, booing, shouting advice, leaping up and down in their seats. Fab Viking panto. 8.9/10

Shit-Faced Shakespeare
Saw this before though most of our guests had not. Last year it was Much Ado About Nothing, this year it was A Midsummer Nights Dream. The premis is that a truncated version of a Shakespeare play is put on, but with a twist; one of the actors has been drinking for the past four hours. The idea is to see 'how fast the wheels come off this thing,' to quote the compere from not only this years performance but last years too. And there lies the problem. A second viewing, even with a different play shows the formula and repetitions, and to add to it, in last years Much Ado, the actors tried (or pretented to try) to play it straight. Here it was all a bit crazy straight off the bat which dilutes the joke. Still, most loved it and it was well done, leaving me with the sense that it's a must-see but only once. 7.8/10

James Phelan 'The Man Who Was Magic.'
Nicely done though if he's going to do up close work needing a camera, an audience member helping him out is not the way. Also, and this is just a personal preference, card tricks bore me to bits. Yes, they are a magician's staple but I just switch off. Much more absorbing was the mind reading stuff. This was extremely impressive. JP swears he doesn't use stooges and as far as we can tell, that's true. Two members of our group got involved in his routine, and they are still completely baffled as to how he guessed their words and numbers. Interesting. 7.9/10

The Black Blues Brothers
A tumbling show full of charm, this Kenyan troupe was featured in Time Out and The Times, and for sure, I'd call them one to watch. Mistakes were made in the routine but the big seller was the energy and smiles, the amazing feelgood factor and sheer awe at some stunning acrobatics. Solid 8/10.

Knight Knight
Controversy! This show was loved by most of us and detested by one. It's comedy based around a knight's love for his horse, and I thought it was excellent. Anyone who enjoyed The Fast Show might well appreciate the comedy of repetition shown here. But for those who don't, as the dissenter said, 'it's just lazy writing.' This production was a time filler between two shows previously booked, so we had to leave 10 minutes before the end. We told this to the door staff and sat at the back to cause least disturbance when we left. But I am going to go back and finish it because it was easily the most surprising and fresh take I saw this year. R tells me he would sooner poke both his eyes eyes out with a spoon than sit through it again. Eh, he's wrong and I'll go by myself. I can't give Knight Knight a rating til I've seen the whole thing, but I'm already inclined towards the upper 8s.

Space Hippo
If only there had been controversy around this, but alas, it was given a universal thumbs down by our group, with one of our friends falling asleep half way through it, and another giving it 2/10, lowest score for any show we've seen together. Space Hippo is a shadow puppet show, based around the premis of a hippo being shot into space. It's got really great ideas in it surrounded by a lot of sag, far too long. Of all the shows we have seen, it's the only one in which I checked the time. There's a great half hour here somewhere but it needs an editor of metal to chop and shape it into a proper show. I give it one extra point for the unique creation it could be. 5/10.

The girls are are needy right now. If I sit in the front room at all, there's quickly one on my lap and one beside me, possibly to comfort a sad human but my sense is that they need comfort too. Tomorrow friend turns up for adventures at the Fringe. It will be good for us though the cats, who prefer no change in any way, will find it stressful. Having said that, they know our friend. I know it's early but we must shift ourselves, attend to body and mind, try to make room for something other than grief. Hard though.

The vets bills have been paid, likewise the cremation and container, everything that needed to be done is complete. A few weeks back before any of this happened, R had made an appointment with a solicitor to discuss our wills. The questionnaire is somewhat sobering and we had to curtail the meeting because - well, it's all closing in a bit. We need more time.

We didn't scatter Surya's ashes and we won't scatter Ralik's. I would sooner be buried in a high place near the sea if possible and have a nice tall tree planted on top to help us all breathe. R said he would like his ashes scattered at the same point where my tree stands. Then would be the time to scatter the ashes of our dear pets. We will all be together and apart at the same time. I like the poetry in that.

And you, if you ever need to talk or read a book or just sit, you'll be welcome to visit. All trees know when to be quiet but I would expect mine to be quite a chatty tree.

Once, three champions of three different islands took it upon themselves to compete in subduing the devil. The first came from an island of warriors so fierce that none had ever defeated them. Their champion was the mightiest of their kind, and he broke the devil into a million pieces with ease, smiling until he saw that where there had been one big devil now there were millions of little ones crawling the earth in malignity.

The second came from a holy island where the churches and temples inspired all to piety, and devotion was so great that blessings fell like rain and wondrous miracles happened every day. From among these came the most sacred of priests who patiently preached to each of the millions of small devils. These fled from the divine thunder only to find each other, and formed once again into the great single enemy of mankind. The warrior and preacher looked at each other, wondering what to do.

The third was no real champion at all, but had been put forward by her fellow islanders because no one else would volunteer. She approached the devil, whose eternal angry mood was now worse after the battles and sermons, and promised that she had no desire to conquer, but wished only to offer him an exquisite pleasure he had never experienced. Sleep was her gift, purest sleep with a promise of no trap,no chains,and no dreams.

The devil could recognise all falsehood instantly so knew she was speaking true. In the millennia past neither he nor any of his kind, celestial or infernal, had experienced slumber and it occurred to him that, yes, he was extremely tired, so he agreed and drank the potion she made. Only the woman marked where he lay and to this day none know if it was beneath a mountain or under the sea. But the sleep was everything she promised and throughout it, all the horrors he had committed and encouraged others to commit fell away, the burning of his skin ceased, and he rested at last. He slept for so long that no-one remembered how much he had hated and been hated. By the time he awoke, Men had forgotten him completely. No more was he used as a mask for what they wanted to do. He was free and so were they.

Refreshed, he went out into a new morning of the world, and harmed neither himself nor any other forever after.