Day 397

Today was a fun day. I got to take my Wee Daftie to her first ever show in the Edinburgh Festival. 

Now. Working in hospitality in Edinburgh, the month of August can be mental. Working on the Royal Mile, running a cafe that was next to the Fringe Box Office, for four summers and four Festivals meant that I was a close as I could get to being I the Festival without actually having a show. (Though I frequently consider creating a one woman show, “Tangently Does It”) 

Working as the world’s greatest bar wench in the pub for as long as I have, I know what busy is. Tourists, regulars, performers, festival staff, all like to come and hang out for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then many after dinner whiskies. Unrelenting, unforgiving, unbelievable, unreal and my favourite time of the year. No matter how busy we get, I always make time to see shows and enjoy the amazing smorgasbord of culture, art, comedy, science, literature, performance art, dance, theatre, music, dance. And as many shows as possible. 

Last year, having a very new Wee Daftie to deal with meant I didn’t take full advantage of the greatest time of the year like I usually would. Understandable but also quite odd. I mean, I was still busy and we took a couple of days to wander the streets and gardens but no actual shows so the usual frenzy of Festival Nonsense with Numbnuts was definitely missing. 

Now that my Small Human is a slightly bigger human, I decided I need to continue on the path of making her like the things I like. That’s parenting, right? 

The first show was actually chosen for us by one of my Mammy Mates. She was taking her daughter so a group of us decided to all go together and introduce our small humans to some light opera. That’s right. The first show I took my Wee Daftie to was a show called “BambinO” by the Scottish Opera. 

I think Wee Daftie’s favourite part of the show was the ticket…

I have to admit, the show was fab. It was so great to have Daftie snuggled in and listening to the music. She sat up and seemed more interested when the baritone was singing (he was fantastic. It all was but he was exceptionally good) but she was more than happy to be part of an audience. You can never really tell how your small human will react in a new situation. Especially when the situation requires a bit of stillness and said small human is a fan of the exact opposite. 

It was so lovely for me to share one of my most favourite things (Festival shows) with one of my favourite people (I am talking about Daftie here. Not the baritone. No matter how good he was, I do like her more. Just.) 

The funniest part for me was when she decided to go for a walk for the last five minutes of the show. She can’t walk by herself yet but really like walking while holding hands. You can tell she wants to get moving by the way she slides down your legs, holds onto your hands and delicately lurches forward. It’s a subtle move and usually results in a very slow progress to nowhere. But it is fun and I love seeing her gaining more confidence in herself. 

She’ll be walking us both to the shows soon!