Trip to Milan - 21st November

Another trip to visit a supplier, this time flying to Milan. I know get me and my jetsetter lifestyle. Obviously it was hard work pretty much the entire time. One night out in Bergamo though did mean I get to sample the local Milanese cuisine and their hospitality. After asking if there was anything on the menu that could be considered a Milan speciality dish I ordered the ossobuco, milanese veal.

Having eaten twice my weight in food, I had to decline the traditional italian coffee at the end of the meal. And by coffee, I mean the shot kind. Our hosts took amusement at our coffee drinking ways. Latte and cappicinos are breakfast to them. Drinking them after 10am is seen as barmy behaviour!

Since we didn't take coffee our hosts felt the need to offer us something stronger still. Looking at our Italian counterparts faces and the bottles of whiskey that were displayed around the restaurant I knew I couldn't decline the offer this time.

What I wasn't expecting was a bottle of Grappa half my height to be wheeled out. It felt like most the restaurant had turned to stare at the English girl attempt to drink a shot of their rocket fuel. In grand ceremony style a couple of shots were poured for me and one of my hosts. A proper event, photo's were insisted on.





I don't think they could believe I downed it without wincing or eyes watering. Turns out whiskey prepares you for most alcoholic surprises.

Dallas 3rd - 7th November 2007

I went on a work trip to Dallas, Texas this week. Staying in the Galleria Hotel and shopping Centre.







This ice skating rink was on the bottom floor of the shopping centre. My hotel room overlooked it so that on Saturday night I could see all skaters having a disco. And every morning we ate our breakfast in the corner bakery with this view. With little kids, in costume, practising their routines.



If you are ever in Dallas, I can recommend all of the places we ate at. Sushi Samba, for good cocktails and sushi at the bar. Steel's and Houston's for good restaurant eating. And if you're ever at the Galleria, then try out the Grand Lux Cafe. It's part of a chain, and is built in a grand art deco fashion, apparently based on a Venetian theme. I loved it. It had the best slow roasted short ribs and has great wines to choose from like the Francis Coppola's.



Possibly the most scary thing I saw was the giant store American Girl. Nothing can prepare an English person for what lies in this shop, (sorry store.) Masses of american women buying their daughters dolls that look like them, with hair and skin colour matching. They then buy matching outfits for their daughters and the dolls. And when I say daughters, you'd imagine I was talking about 2 to 6 maybe 7 years old wouldn't you? There were a few of these, but an unhealthy amount of teenage girls, with matching dolls. Apparently promoting Good, Wholesome, American Values, I could see the appeal to the parents. But I couldn't understand why so many teenagers were there. All in all the weirdest place I've been in a long time.

Oh and did I mention there was Hair Salon for Dolls there. Oh and you could book seats at the American Girl bistro. Tables complete with seating for you, your daughter and her doll! That's right there are seats at the table for the dolls. Truly bizarre.



I did have a little bit of time to do some of my own shopping, so I bought plenty of Dallas souvenirs, magnets, snow globes, a Dallas Cowboys jumper and all the usual tat.

The only thing I hadn't managed to get by the time we were ready to head for the plane home was the one thing I really wanted, a Stetson. With an hour spare until check in time, we were taken to Cavenders Boot City. Cowboy heaven. 15 minutes later I was the proud owner of a Rodeo King Cowboy Hat. Now all I had to do was get it on the plane...

I had 2 options really, ditch the huge box and wear the hat through customs. Mmmm, since technically this was a present for Tim and his hat size, it was going to look a little silly on my head, being as I'm a bit smaller than he is. And he'd probably appreciate the gift in it's box. So I plumped for option 2, risking taking it on as an extra piece of luggage and hope they didn't charge me for it.

Far from charging me for it, I got nothing but jokey remarks from everyone as I went from check in to the plane. Even when all my items got jammed in the x-ray machine, and one lone shoe made it out, all I was given was advice as to how to store it when I got it home. Always upside down in case you wondered. It's seen as bad luck to store it the right way up. That and it keeps it's shape better the wrong side up.

Bloomsbury Bowling Ali

On Saturday it was Ali's Birthday party, starting with drinks around at hers and Craig’s new flat. Tim and I arrived mid afternoon in order to get a sneaky peak at their new surroundings and enjoy a bowl of homemade Chilli aka “Craig Con Carne.” Whilst the boys went off to Monkey Chews for a swift few pints, me and Ali drank our way through 2 bottles of very nice, cheap wine from the off-licence below, whilst getting ready for the evening to begin.

It was arranged for everyone to meet at the flat, prior to heading to the Perseverance on Lamb Conduit’s Street. By the time we all piled into the taxi to get us there, we were definitely on the giggly side of drunk. We’d purchased snacks for the journey. I went for Frazzles. Rose went for a packet of Bombay Mix, and on Tim’s suggestion went for the packet where the food looked slightly more day-glo, it turned out to be a lot stronger than she was used to. There ensued a very funny, very long discussion over whether it was possible to buy non-spicy Bombay Mix.

At the pub we sat with a few locals, and a woman whose child was in Great Ormond Street Hospital just around the way, and had a pleasant chat until it was time to head for the Bloomsbury Bowling Alley. The club night this week was Casino Royale, the same night that they have up at the Barfly in Chalk Farm.

Big grin and a big gin from the Birthday Girl!









The big love in begins....








(Photograph by Sonia©)

With the chocolates that Pete bought looking a little worse for wear than we did, Ali decided to tackle the big box of delicious chocs.

Decisions decisions...





Hurry up dear...





This is how you do it...



Since the queue at the bar was bordering on the ridiculous, (I was there for 30 minutes trying to get served and neither person beside me had been served either.)

There was only one answer to the problem... buy in bulk. That means 2 white russians per person on every trip, with maybe an extra beer each too.

Or...


















After many hours drinking, (did we start at around 5?) we had our bowling alley booked for 1am. Playing in pairs, at this point in the evening, was always going to be messy. Drinks were spilled. Team partners forgotten. Glasses broken, and not stollen.





No one seems to remember who won, though I do remember celebrating coming a surprising second; a position won more or less by my team mate Craig with only hinderance from me.

Then before you know it, it was home time. We staggered our way from Bloomsbury to Camden, before catching buses in our relevant directions.

Just time for pole dancing on Euston Road...







And be nice to your buildings, hug a wall today.

A new way to blog!

I'm hoping this works. I'm now blogging on the move.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

It's apparently International Talk Like a Pirate Day, arrghh.

Shiver me timbers! Should you wish to talk like a Pirate, (and I don't think we should be confining this to one day a year), then you can learn more about the language here.

Lab Rats - 7th September

I went with Caroline and Adam to see the recording of a new sitcom, Lab Rats yesterday. It's written by Chris Cooper and Chris Addison, and stars the latter, along with Geoffrey McGivern, Dan Tetsell and Jo Enright, Chris's usual motley crue from his radio shows.

Seeing this first episode being recorded I have to say I'm looking forward to it appearing on tv. It had some nice set ups to jokes. I'd expect it to be looked upon as a science geek brother to the IT crowds computer geek. It's being executively directed by Armando Iannucci and is going straight to BBC2; no faffing around on BBC3 first.

I won't spoil any of the jokes, but I'll give you the set up. Lab Rats is set in a research laboratory called Arnolfini, part of St. Dunstan's college, set up to make some money for the college by carrying out research for other people. However Chris's character seems to be the only sensible one in the lab.

I'd recommend going along to see an episode being recorded, there are still tickets available for shows every Friday until the 12th October. Be aware though it takes a while for them to record each show. Our recording from the studio doors opening to the finish time was 4 hours. We were kept thoroughly entertained the whole time by the crew and the warm-up, comedian Patrick Monahan. I had to leave an hour before it finished to make sure I caught my train home, however Caz and Adam stayed to the end and got given cake by Chris for their patience.

Polyphonic Spree - Astoria 3rd September

This gig was moved from the Scala to the Astoria after I got tickets and got all excited about seeing the Spree in the relatively tiny venue in Kings Cross. Still the Astoria isn't massive, it would still feel intimate.

Unfortunately there's a tube strike starting just as we'll need to set off to get there. Meeting up with Tim at Victoria station I had visions of the chaos outside at the bus scrums. We headed towards the number 24 bus stop round the corner and within minutes were happily sat on a bus on our way to Tottenham Court Road without having had to elbow or fight our way on.

Having given ourselves plenty of time to get there, we arrived shortly after the doors opened. I'd called the ticket agents earlier in the day to try to get start and finished times so that we could work out our route home accordingly, either walking, bus or taxi to Victoria. Of course the assistant was no end of help, pointing out the doors opened at 7pm, information I was party to, it being the only time stamped on the ticket. When we got to the Astoria we were surprised to see the band times, the Spree on at 8.10, off at 10.10, with the words "Strict Curfew" underneath. This was all good for us, we'd have plenty of time to get to Victoria later on. I imagine there would be a few disappointed people arriving at 9 to find they'd missed half the set.

Inside the venue there was barely anyone around. The support act, ox.eagle.lion.man were on stage performing. They're a cross between the 80's and Interpol complete with a gold spangly jacket and deep voice. A lone girl, in full on 80's regalia, stretchy black short skirt and flouncy blouse, was dancing like a whirling dervish when her equally 80's friend turned up. Since these girls were keen to make a spectacle of themselves it was impossible to ignore them as they waved their backstage passes around like winning lottery tickets. At the time in a game of Nothing-Lookie-Likey I commented that one looked very "Peaches Geldof." Of course now having found out who ox.eagle.lion.man are I realise it was in fact one the Geldof spawn, possibly two, as the other wasn't identified at the time. Peaches has been supposedly dating Fred "o.e.l.m" Macpherson for the past few years, (when she's not on the arm of Donny "get a haircut" Tourette or Noel "Why on earth would you... Courtney Love?" Fielding of course.) The band squeezed every last possible minute and more out of their set, adding 3 songs at the end when they were told they had time left for only one, leaving the roadies shaking their heads at the side of the stage.

I didn't come to see the Spree on their last tour because I felt I had possibly run my course with them. I saw them 11 times between 2002 and 2004, and then decided it was probably best to go cold turkey. It did feel like I'd abandoned the cult. Now three years on, there's a new album, and I felt it was time to renew my membership.

As is custom at both Spree and Flaming Lips gigs the Town Crier came on to introduce the band. This time with his son, who was, we were told, in hospital with a broken neck some months before but with the positive energy from the Spree and the lads own strong will had recovered to be able to join us today. So far so very cult.

After a little audience participation of shouting "Fragile Army," (could this possibly be a form of brain washing?), the town crier left to be replaced with a red band of material pulled and stretched across the stage, obscuring the view of the stage from everyone. We then waited patiently as we could hear the band warm up and play. Then in the middle of the stage a hole began to appear in the fabric as someone cut it, it slowly taking the shape of a heart. Then out popped our leader for the evening, Mr Tim Delaughter.

The curtain was removed and 23 band members were revealed. The first things I noticed was there was no theramin player, they had an apple mac, and all the backing choir looked younger and now have proper little dance routines for every song. It took until the 3rd song for me to realise they weren't wearing their white robes. They now all had Spree issue fragile army clothing.

Every song in their set seemed like a classic, or should I say cult classic... The latest album blending into their set along with oldies like 'Soldier Girl' and the song used by Sainsbury's 'Light and Day'. We were treated to a 'campfire' version of It's The Sun.

There was a break about an hour in, as members peeled off the stage one by one, finally leaving Mr Delaughter and the harpist on stage. Sometime after they'd all left there was a commotion up in the balcony. Looking up we could see a white robed procession, as Spree members made their way through the crowds. Minutes later trombonists and violinists were heading passed us towards the stage. There was then a further hour of Spree classics with a few special treats thrown in, including one Tripping Daisy song, Sonic Bloom. There was no David Bowie this time, instead we got a rendition of Nirvana's Lithium, creating a Spree happy mosh pit. All too soon it seemed the Spree were saying goodbye to us, asking us to remember them and to buy their new album.

It felt strange leaving a gig so early, but it gave us just over an hour to skedaddle and get our last train from Victoria. By some miracle we arrived at Victoria in time to get an earlier train. Rounding off a lovely evening nicely.

Star Wars in 1 and a half minutes

Enjoy!

If.com Award Nominees

So the nominations are out for the if.com awards, or the Perrier Award as it used to be. I haven't seen any of these shows, so placing a bet on a winner is going to have to be done on knowledge of the comedians and past winning choices.

Main Award Nominees:
Andrew Lawrence: Social Leprosy for Beginners & Improvers
Andrew Maxwell: Waxin’
Brendon Burns: So I Suppose This Is Offensive Now
Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Roadshow
Pappy's Fun Club

I love both the Andrews and would love if either one won. Maxwell has been overlooked every year, not even getting to this shortlist stage before. Andrew Lawrence I've seen a number of times, including once as a warm up for the Red Hand Band at the Underbelly in Hoxton.

But chances are they'll either give it to Brendan Burns, you know, the old hand, it must be his turn, like last years winner Phil Nichol...

Or it'll be Pappy's Fun Club, something new that the TV execs like.

And best newcomer nominees are

Jon Richardson: Spatula Pad
Micky Flanagan:What Chance Change
Tom Basden: Won't Say Anything
Zoe Lyons:Fight or Flight

I've only seen Tom Basden perform and that was with Cowards; they might go with him I guess.

Winners are announced on Saturday.

If I wore glasses....

Kentish Town Carnage - Fatboy and Slim

Friday night we took a trip up to Kentish Town to see Charles and Eddie, sorry Craig and Eddie DJ at the Abbey Tavern. Fatboy and Slim (their words not mine) now have a regular slot on Friday playing everything from Ska to Punk, Soul to Indie.

After 3 pints at Quinn's with Dave and Caz for old times sake, (can you believe are old Camden flat now has double-glazing?) we then headed up to the Abbey. Within minutes of getting there I managed to spill 2 pints... I hadn't expected the 'wooden' table with 8 or so pints on it to be so light. It was either that or my superhuman strength after 3 drinks that led me to spill them whilst trying to move said table.

I wasn't the only one, as the evening wore on and people became more worse for wear, the table was knocked a few more times, leading to broken glass and a slippy floor.

Still you've not had a good night until a few drinks have been spilled. Isn't that the saying or did I just make that up?



It was a good night though.

Lord of The Rings and Spamalot in one day

Tim was telling me about his summer holidays of yore and how he'd sit in the cinema for the whole day. Watching four films in a row to pass the time. But even I think I may have gone one step to far booking theatre tickets for Lord of The Rings and Spamalot on the same day.

Lord of the Rings was up first, which was just as well. Getting the serious showy spectacular one, which needed some concentration, out of the way first. Had we done this 3 hour epic in the evening I think our leg muscles would have given up on us completely in the cramped seats and I'd have been even more confused than ever as to whether it was Aragon or Boromir on the stage.

I bought the tickets with the help of a website called Theatremonkey which helped me choose my tickets, (which I then bought on seetickets.) Theatremonkey gives you a seating plan of each theatre, telling you which seats to avoid at all costs, which are good for the money and then the ok seats.

It worked out brilliantly, sitting in the Upper Circle, in row F, we had a clear view of the whole stage. A warning to those silly enough to go spending the top whack of £60 for stall tickets, make sure you can see. You may be at the front but you'll probably see less than I did. There are also helpful theatre goers comments about their experiences for every theatre,which are worth reading before you plump for the cheapest ticket high up in the gods.

And so on to the play, it's true what's been said about the stage and staging. The revolving circles, rising and sinking throughout to create a moving landscape is fantastic. Silly things like 15 minutes before the show is due to begin the hobbits are all out on stage playing and catching fireflys. (So it's well worth arriving in plenty of time.)

Or during the mini break between the interval and the ending where everyone is 'entertained' by orcs running through the crowd. Scaring one poor woman to death on our tier , much to the amusement of everyone else.

Then there is the simplicity of having Gollum descending from the roof, head first, appearing to be climbing down trees branches that make up the stage curtain. I mean I knew he was on a wire, (and he was being played by a fully grown man who was more spritely than Gollums 600+ years,) but I believed it's magic just then. There were many more pieces of jiggery pokery using lighting making people disappear in blink of an eye that I can't explain.

All in all it was worth going for the staging. However I will just say for anyone whose seen Clerks II (You Tube Clip), it is just some little blokes walking, and walking again, and walking, oops there goes the ring...

Spamalot was as far across the otherside of the spectrum as it's possible to be when in the west end. Purposefully so. Here were digs at the very thing we'd just been to see. The stage had a much more sparse homemade feel, all very much fitting in with the Monty Python ethos. This was always going to be against the grain.

Without the any of the actual Monty Python team in the musical, we were going to have to heavily rely on the cast filling their shoes and us believing in them. A bearded Peter Davison (my second doctor who for anyone counting*) playing the Graham Chapman role of King Arthur could certainly pass for him at a distance. And did a very fine job. The guy playing Not Dead Fred and Prince Herbert was quite a sweet character, who endeared himself to the audience.

At first I was worried when I read that Evil Charlie from Coronation Street was playing Sir Lancelot. As part of one of his early roles he kept smirking, it was too reminiscent of his previous Corrie incarnation. But actually the role of the french soldier needed it and so he pulled it off, making us laugh. After that it became easier to like him. Perhaps I shouldn't say how he finally buries any memory of his alter egos womanising ways...

The standout member of the cast, by a mile, was of course the Killer bunny rabbit, though his part all too brief...

Run away!

But if you forget about lovely bunnies for a minute, then actually the standout actor (by a fanged tooth) was Lady Godiva, a character not even in the original film. Hannah Waddingham won a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for this musical and it was easy to see why. Her vocal range was both breathtaking and eclectic. And with perfect comic timing. Every style of singing was covered, sometimes several in a few seconds. But more importantly, she had the best lines and all the best songs. The obligatory love song, sung as such, taking the piss out of all those musicals which have one, The Song That Goes Like This. (I was reminded of one such song i heard just a few hours earlier.)

After she had been off stage for some time, the 'watery tart' came on in front of the curtain to sing of her woes that her part hadn't turned out as she was promised by her by agent. Whatever Happened to My Part? Perceptive of the writers to realise the characters presence is being missed the audience. For all the great actors on stage, the monty python jokes could, if your not careful, just end up sounding like schoolkids in the payground repeating the night befores tv. With this girl included it gives the show it's pizzaz.

Anyway it's worth going to see it, if not for her, then so you can get yourself a pair of Killer Rabbit slippers or hand puppet.




I got the latter with it's own spamalot carry bag. And was tempted to buy by much more.

We made it to the end, we just had our hour journey home. Tired but happy we'd done the theatre marathon.

* First sighting - David Tennant Glastonbury 2005

Albino Squirrel

Ok this isn't the best set of photos you will ever see, but this is our garden, and the elusive albino squirrel on our bird table.

Big Fish, Little Fish

Tim went sea fishing a few miles off the Isle of Wight with a few of the boys yesterday.

This is Tim, very pleased with himself, having caught the second largest fish on the boat, not only that but a fish so rare the guy running the trip hadn't seen one in several years. Needless to say they threw it back after taking this photo.



He brought back 18 lovely mackerel, 6 of which we cooked on the barbecue last night, and the rest have been frozen for another day.

Squirrels at war

The squirrels have attacked again. See what is left of our bird bath in the middle of our garden.



Okay we should have fixed it properly to the base. We know for next time.

A Day out in Whitstable

For Craig's birthday, rather than do the same old pubs in Camden or Soho, we took a day out in Whitstable.

Me and Tim had to travel all the way into Victoria to get the train out again, so by the time we arrived in Whistable we felt we really had travelled for a proper little holiday.





There was some Champagne* and Whitstable Ale for the journey.





The train station is a fair walk away from Whitstable. And it wasn't long before the champagne made it's presence felt on a few bladders. With no public toilets or public houses in the vicinity an alternative was needed. We luckily came across a village hall coffee morning. As the rest of us waited, and waited outside we began to fear the worst - perhaps some of our party had been kidnapped by the old grannies and were being forced to play on the tombola for tins of sweetcorn. Fortunately they escaped before we sent in the rescue crew. In the end they'd only had to buy a couple of fairy cakes to gain their freedom.

We continued on our way, heading down towards the fishing docks. We were a week too early for the Whitstable Oyster Festival, however there was plenty of seafood on offer, including oysters. I had 6 oysters and an anchovy/olive combo which I should have known would be too much of a salt fest to actually eat. After jokes about winkles being the rude parts of fish, and cockles, you know they are too?! we wandered up the beach to the pub, The Old Neptune, where the beer garden is the beach.

The beach in whitstable for those who haven't been is a bit on the pebbly side. So not a beach necessarily for sunbathing unless you (a) have a reclining deckchair or (b) like to relax with a stone massage.









A bit of stone skimming.



A man swimming with his dog...










As the tide slowly went out we watched as someone appeared to be sitting on the water.



We quickly realised that this was actually a submerged jetty. The boys went off to explore. Racing down there to warn the others that it might be slippy, Tim in his haste, did exactly what he was trying to tell them not to, and fell on the slippy green algae.



There was no hiding his falling over, he had a lovely, sore, green wet arse.



The weather was quite nice walking along the streets. Cloudy but warm. Here on the beach with the sea breeze it was considerably cooler but still refreshingly pleasant. Now given the cloud and the wind it's easy to see how we then missed some of us were getting sunburnt. By the time we came to leave the beach for food, I had a nose red enough to use as small patio heater.

After a nice fish n chips in the 'warmth' of the chippy, we headed back to the beach for another bar and a few more drinks.

Ali accosting a small child for it's strawberry.














Craig trying to stop that pesky sun from burning.








You've heard of Codpieces? Well here's the latest in new fashion, as modelled by Craig here... a Scallop piece.

After a lovely day by the sea, with a few sunburnt, beer heavy heads we got the 9.30 train back to Victoria so that we could get our last train back to Surrey.

*Please note Champagne is evil. I am not allowed to drink it. I did not touch any of this. It's evil I tell you.