130 reviews so far… 17 more and we will have beaten hairline 2007! Come on hairline reviewers, I know you lot can still fit another play just before breakfast!

And to you, readers, this second half of the fringe at Hairline is going to be even better, you’ll see!

Not that all day Thursday it’s been much more bussier… This weather is letting us all down! Come on clouds, go away! We want to enjoy the Royal Mail full of people flyering! We want to enjoy a pint at the end of the day at The Courtyard, or the Udderbelly Pasture, or the Spiegel Garden (go to the Spiegel Garden the rate of hot people per square metre is amazing… Edinburgh has never been this gorgeous!). So let’s hope the weekend looks good weather wise. We want to go to Fringe Sunday at the Meadows! Should be fun!!

I’m going to start with Spot the Spaniards. They are absolutely everywhere, so it will be an easy game. Fear not, I feel I am allowed to play this game and comment on their Edinburgh invasion, just a smuch as Chris Rock can do ‘funny remarks’ about black people and not be branded a racist, since he himself is black. I am in fact of Spanish origin myself, so there is no Spaniard-cism (in search of a better word that can encompase the ‘racism towards Spaniard’ idea) here.

So, here are some tips on recognising Spaniards, which will make the game a bit easier:

• Spaniards will always walk in groups of 3, 4 or 6. You will rarely see them in pairs, and never on their own.
• They will have with them a rucksack, plastic bag or handbag from where they will extract neatly packed lunchboxes for the day, Edinburgh guides, maps, packets of cigarettes, water bottles, an umbrella, a spare pair of socks, and a tatty old digital camera.
• If they have to go eat somewhere (since they forgot their luchbox), you will find them in the epitome of high cuisine. McDonalds.
• In McDonalds they will be the ones who go to the till and say: Eeeeer… Hellow, wuan Big Mak meniu, por favor. Seconds later, whoever asked for the Big Mac menu, will turn around to her/his Spanish comrades and will shout and laugh loudly about how he/she said por favor, instead of please.
• Once with their meals at their tables, they are the ones who realise they did not ask for Ketchup, so will huff and puff till Manuel or Maria, who did a year of English at a private language school, offers to go to the till to ask for it. I mean, he/she knows far better English than the rest of them. He/she will, then, go and say: Ketchup, please. The rest of the group will look at her/him amazed, wondering if they will ever be able to master the language so well.
• They also are the ones who, at the queue to go into a show, will ask if the show is in English.
• They are the ones who ask if there are subtitles in Spanish for the shows.
• You will find them concentrated in corners smoking three cigarettes on a row, moaning about the smoking ban.

The two top tips though, and the easiest way to spot them, I have left for the end, so have your pens ready, since these tips will make you, without any doubt, win the whole game:

• They are the ones who, in the middle of August, are wearing, scarves, gloves, woolly hats, and huge winter coats.
• They are the ones who, even under all the gear, are still blue and shivering with cold.

This is just one example of what you can find in the Royal Mile any given day in August:

Some random guys doing some… random stuff… It was all very random indeed… but not just random though! It was Fringe-random!

After an hour, we had to dash (Fringe-dash?) to see Tom Allen at the Gilded Balloon (recommended people! Read the review) so we took a picture of all the flyers we got given:

That is a lot of flyering! Next time I shall take a suitcase with me, you end up with your hands full of papers! And I’m one of those guys that keeps everything till the end of the Fringe, which means loads of flyers around my room for three weeks!

So, after Tom Allen’s show, we ended up bagging two free tickets to see Fiona O’Loughlin, who turned out to be quite good (had never heard of her to be honest…), and after that, we went for a cheeky drink (we deserve it! We work hard!) at the Gilded Balloon’s bar:

As you can see, it’s press passes on the ready, newspapers, magazines, flyers and our pint of Strongbow… All in all, amazing day! We did call it a night after the one drink though (more reviewing tomorrow) mainly because this is what a drink does to us:

For the record, that is not me… It’s just one our reviewers… Bed time for him I say! Or is that Fringe-bed time…?

So, we are ready to go, with tickets problems and all (do I have to be the first to comment on the appalling situation we are seeing with the Fringe Office new ticket system? Come on! It’s been in the newspapers for the past month or two! They should have sort it out by now…), but worry not, it will all turn out to be fine by the end! We are all very excited here, not only because the Fringe is back, but because we have a fantastic new website (cute huh?), some cool new features (we are stalking people! and also interviewing them! unless we end up in prison for stalking them.. sigh), and some fridge cool red bull. What else could we ask for!? Ah, yes. I know. We want you. We want to know about you, your opinions, your comments, your input! So don’t be shy, write to us or leave comments! And if you see us down the street, stop us, chat to us, we are only too happy to meet you guys, and exchange views (and pints!).

So buckle up people, Thunderbirds are go! I mean, Hairline is go!!!