Planning Out my Literary August

Image: EBF

Today is an exciting day: the Edinburgh Book Festival tickets go on sale.

The last think I wanted to do was sleep in and miss the 8:30am ticket office opening, the result being that I couldn’t get to sleep last night for all the excitement last night.

Earlier in the day I’d run through the programme of events in detail, highlighting my first choice events and mapping them out onto a calendar to see how my August would look. I knew it would be busy but it looks like being even busier than that!

There’s a chance that there could only be two days where I won’t actually be in Charlotte Square for one thing or another, but that all depends on my ability to get hold of the tickets.

Anyway, it’s 6am as I write this and I’ve got a bit of a wait so the coffee is on!

I spent a good couple of hours in the coffee shop yesterday morning. I did a lot of work on the London chapbook during a couple of pleasant hours. I think I missed the best weather because when I left, although it was bright, the clouds were starting to close in again.

Those crazy cads, The Red Arrows, were at it again. This time as I was waiting for a bus in Princes Street when an arrow formation of 9 jets roared up from Leith, over Holyrood, up the Royal Mile and over Edinburgh Castle, all the wile trailing the red, white and blue behind them. It was an awesome sight!

All the RAF activity on the skies over the past 24 hours is because Edinburgh hosted this year’s Armed Forces Day celebration. I’m normally away in Blackpool when this happens and enjoy the fireworks from Central Pier but as that isn’t happening, I got to see this instead. Here’s what they looked like:

I worked on BACCARA a little during the day but I’ve got a lot to organise and tie off before I go away for my annual holidays, which means a lot of other things to do, also. I was hoping to get the garden trimmed but it just keeps on raining and so I can’t get to the lawn.

Instead, I got wet inside the house and cleaned out my tropical fish tank. It’s running on empty at the moment and needed a proper deep clean. I’ll leave the water to recycle for a few weeks then start restocking it again.

Right, there’s still an hour and a half until the box office opens so I’m going for a shower and to read that coffee. If I’m lucky and get hold of the tickets I want by a decent time, I’ll head into town to pick up some holiday items.

Have a great Sunday—peace out!

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