Another day off from seeing shows was quite refreshing.

It was nice catching up with Dave for a while after Three Man Roast, before heading off to the gym. My ankle was giving me a bit a gyp so I pathetically switched from heading to the gym to heading back to the flat – actually to write yesterday’s blog post, but if I start referencing the writing of blog posts in these blog posts, it’ll all get a bit meta, and dangerously Tristram Shandy.

A defining feature of my previous Fringe trips over the last decade has been resorting to all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets (and specifically the now defunct institution on South Bridge) for quick and easy meals. I’m quite glad that I’ve been eating well enough that it’s taken 17 days to reach that point but I did cave last night and stuffed my face with aplomb (shredded and deep fried).

Then I went to bed.

Then I got up and signed up for online Countdown. Well, not Countdown. Apterous. Although some might say it’s a bit like Countdown.

I played a few games. I lost them all but a couple I might’ve won if only for not having got used to the screens for entering my numbers and conundrum answers.

Already I’m concerned that it could be dangerously addictive.

What I learnt today: You can replay old games of Countdown online as if against genuine contestants.

Recommended show: Amused Moose Laugh Off Final 2011

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast (★★★★ – whatsonstage.com), 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at Tricity Vogue’s Ukulele Cabaret at 9pm on Sunday 21st at The Three Sisters (that’s free entry too).

Yesterday evening did not go according to plan. It’s nothing very exciting but I thought I’d tease that up front.

Actually, I have nothing else to add. We did our show. I had an evening nap then went out for a curry and then decided to have an early night. As I was going to bed I got a text asking if I’d like to go to a bar. I said no because I was having an early night.

I couldn’t sleep. I got up and went to a bar for an hour. That hour became nearer five hours. The end.

In the absence of anything more interesting to say, here are a selection of other blogs from the Fringe:

• Alex Holland
• Dan McKee
• James W Smith
• Peter Broughton-Rates
• Anna Lowman

And here is a photo of me as a spaceman. Enjoy.

What I learnt today: Sleep is for tortoises. And I wish I were a tortoise.

Recommended show: Sleeping.

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast (★★★★ – whatsonstage.com), 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at Tricity Vogue’s Ukulele Cabaret at 9pm on Sunday 21st at The Three Sisters (that’s free entry too).

Not only does the Edinburgh Fringe operate in a different time zone from the rest of the country, it also bends spacetime itself. Without the anchors of news, television and office life and with the same shows running daily, it’s very easy to lose track of which day it is. And where you are. And who you are. And why.

I’ve had to remind myself what I did yesterday by looking at my calendar. I may have left my brain on the Royal Mile. Right now, it’s probably being juggled with an apple and a football to an audience of intense indifference.

After our show (nice once again), I hotfooted it over to the Pleasance Dome to do the Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase. After two weeks of doing a long set almost daily, it was a bit weird going back to a tight five minutes, but it was nice to get the chance to see a range of other stand-ups I’d never seen before, including Zoe Lyons, Sy Thomas and BBC New Comedy Award winner Angela Barnes.

The main event of the day was another one-off (ish) event: the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society. Hosted and curated by John-Luke Roberts and Thom Tuck, it was a entertainingly random as that combination suggests.

Highlights included Tom Bell’s interrupted storytelling, Marcel Lucont morphing into Alexis Dubus, Isy Suttie’s bizarre songs, Joe Lycett’s rubbish American comedian John Roast, and the unique Tony Law. Meanwhile, Michael and I were provided with a redacted Scrabble set for additional entertainment during the evening.

Oh! Wait! I have forgotten something important. Something that happened right at the beginning of the day.

This from whatsonstage.com:

Though I had uncertainty as to whether this show would be an extremely diminished reinterpretation of a Dean Martin event, or some kind of bizarre Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall-esque feat of comedic contortionism – Three Man Roast turns out to be an extremely solid compendium of nerd-centric standup by Alex Holland, Will Howells and Dan McKee.

We are now officially a four-star show. w00t!

What I learnt today: The ASCII code for a star is 9733. As in ★★★★

Recommended show: The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society at 11pm on Tuesday 23rd August.

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast, 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at Tricity Vogue’s Ukulele Cabaret at 9pm on Sunday 21st at The Three Sisters (that’s free entry too).

Another nice show (I know I keep saying that but thankfully we have had a lot of nice shows). It was also the second outing for my as-yet-unmentioned new cardigan, which, it has to be said, is getting pretty much the same reaction as my old cardigan (nothing – it’s just a bit of knitwear).

One of my uni mates was in the audience so I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with her before heading to Helen Arney, Matt Parker and Steve Mould’s comedy science show Festival of the Spoken Nerd.

I’ve been to several editions of FotSN in London, in a lovely but cramped room above a pub. The Edinburgh “Best of” show was in a much, much larger room – and still cramped, as nerds from across the city poured in, attracted by the promise of maths, physics and fact-checked jokes.

I found a spot right at the back of the room where I could see the screen (not wanting to miss a single graph) and ended up sat on the bar for the duration of what was (unsurprisingly, based on previous experience), a funny and educashunal show. And I’m now one Helen Arney CD heavier – hurrah.

(I use parentheses too much in these posts, don’t I? It probably says something deep about how my mind works. And the lack of redrafting.)

The day concluded with the antidote to Edinburgh, the always fun Comedy Countdown.

Dan Atkinson’s misanthropic hosting is a joy; James Sherwood makes a wonderfully scatological Susie Dent; Paul Sinha was in suitably abusive form, especially when the audience shouted down his solution to one of the numbers rounds, which was frankly much more elegant than theirs; and Danny Pensive nearly had me on the floor with laughter when he reached into a Poundland bag and pulled out a homemade Wordy outfit.

What I learnt today: How super-absorbent polymers work. And how to spell “objector”.

Recommended show: Comedy Countdown (again)

Obligatory plug: I’m in Three Man Roast, 2.35pm weekdays and Saturday 20th at Finnegan’s Wake on Victoria Street – free entry. Also at the Amused Moose Comedy Awards Showcase at the Pleasance Dome, 4pm on August 17th (book online).