{"id":1930,"date":"2011-08-06T10:49:25","date_gmt":"2011-08-06T09:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2011-08-13T17:44:21","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T16:44:21","slug":"edinburgh-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh: Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So bad am I at self-promotion that not only have I not mentioned on this dusty old blog that I&#8217;m performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve even mentioned that I&#8217;ve been doing stand-up comedy. But I am, so that&#8217;s cleared that up.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not planning to do a day-by-day reportage of my showbiz Embra lifestyle (last night I was out until half 11 and knocking back diet coke like there was no tomorrow, and there was a tomorrow and I know because that&#8217;s where I am now) but that&#8217;s how it will begin because it&#8217;s all new and shiny and I have tiny anecdotes to share.<\/p>\n<p>I travelled up on Wednesday &#8211; that&#8217;s the eponymous Day 1. Using my special geek powers, I procured for myself an advanced purchase first class ticket at a very reasonable price and sat back on the train while the nice people from National Express East Coast poured free food down my gullet at regular intervals. I must&#8217;ve had 25% of the ticket cost back in complimentary meals. I didn&#8217;t even need dinner later on.<\/p>\n<p>My best laid plans to use those four-and-a-bit hours of the journey to do something productive &#8211; read a book, revise my set, listen to podcasts, write material &#8211; failed completely. I flicked through a free copy of <em>The Independent<\/em>, completed 65% of the crossword, listened to my iPod on shuffle and sat back waiting for the next delivery of gratuitous grub.<\/p>\n<p>Within two hours of arriving in Edinburgh, I&#8217;d seen five people I knew, including meeting a friend who lives in Edinburgh in the queue for the very first show I&#8217;d booked. That says less about my dubious connectedness and more about the nature of the Edinburgh ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>I have rather overdone going to see shows the first few days here but they&#8217;re in preview and therefore much cheaper. Using my awesome spreadsheet skills (all right, so I can&#8217;t do pivot tables), I optimised savings and did a bit of critical path analysis to allocate shows to the optimum days for the most efficient use of time. In doing so, I saved \u00a345 off the full price tickets, although this was slightly undermined by putting one of the carefully planned shows in my calendar for the wrong day and missing it. C&#8217;est la vie.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I learnt today:<\/strong> Central Edinburgh is loud. Where I&#8217;m staying is loud. Sleeping is hard.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended show:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edfringe.com\/whats-on\/comedy\/colin-hoult-s-inferno\">Colin Hoult&#8217;s Inferno<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Obligatory plug: I&#8217;m in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edfringe.com\/whats-on\/comedy\/three-man-roast-free\">Three Man Roast<\/a><\/strong>, 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan&#8217;s Wake on Victoria Street &#8211; free entry. Also at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edfringe.com\/whats-on\/comedy\/amused-moose-comedy-awards-showcase\">Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase<\/a> at the Pleasance Dome, 4pm on <strong>August 17th<\/strong> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edfringe.com\/whats-on\/comedy\/amused-moose-comedy-awards-showcase?day=17-08-2011&#038;performance=33%3A8467#book\">book online<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So bad am I at self-promotion that not only have I not mentioned on this dusty old blog that I&#8217;m performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve even mentioned that I&#8217;ve been doing stand-up comedy. But I am, so that&#8217;s cleared that up. I&#8217;m not planning to do a day-by-day reportage [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1164],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edinburgh-festival","tag-edfringe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Edinburgh: Day 1 - No geek is an island<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Edinburgh: Day 1 - No geek is an island\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So bad am I at self-promotion that not only have I not mentioned on this dusty old blog that I&#8217;m performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve even mentioned that I&#8217;ve been doing stand-up comedy. But I am, so that&#8217;s cleared that up. I&#8217;m not planning to do a day-by-day reportage [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"No geek is an island\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-06T09:49:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-13T16:44:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Will\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Will\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Will\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300\"},\"headline\":\"Edinburgh: Day 1\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-06T09:49:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-13T16:44:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\"},\"wordCount\":447,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300\"},\"keywords\":[\"edfringe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Edinburgh Festival\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\",\"name\":\"Edinburgh: Day 1 - No geek is an island\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-06T09:49:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-13T16:44:21+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Edinburgh: Day 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"No geek is an island\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300\",\"name\":\"Will\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/edd7c0105cc6a39125db7653749feae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/edd7c0105cc6a39125db7653749feae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Will\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Edinburgh: Day 1 - No geek is an island","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Edinburgh: Day 1 - No geek is an island","og_description":"So bad am I at self-promotion that not only have I not mentioned on this dusty old blog that I&#8217;m performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve even mentioned that I&#8217;ve been doing stand-up comedy. But I am, so that&#8217;s cleared that up. I&#8217;m not planning to do a day-by-day reportage [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/","og_site_name":"No geek is an island","article_published_time":"2011-08-06T09:49:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-13T16:44:21+00:00","author":"Will","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Will","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/"},"author":{"name":"Will","@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300"},"headline":"Edinburgh: Day 1","datePublished":"2011-08-06T09:49:25+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-13T16:44:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/"},"wordCount":447,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300"},"keywords":["edfringe"],"articleSection":["Edinburgh Festival"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/","url":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/","name":"Edinburgh: Day 1 - No geek is an island","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-08-06T09:49:25+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-13T16:44:21+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/06\/edinburgh-day-1\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Edinburgh: Day 1"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/","name":"No geek is an island","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/143a6b60a322d001fdc07f2007384300","name":"Will","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/edd7c0105cc6a39125db7653749feae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/edd7c0105cc6a39125db7653749feae1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Will"},"logo":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2019,"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}