Ready Steady Cook – 15th November

It’s that time of year again when we take a trip to see Ready Steady Cook being recorded at Capital Studios in Wandsworth. At this time of year they record their Xmas specials. Hoping for some z-list celebrity of the calibre of Toby Antis or Bobby Davro, we unfortunately got 2 young Scout Leaders. Not exactly the panto dame calibre we were hoping for. Still we got to see Gino D’Acampo preening himself for the girls… urghh.

Sufjan Stevens at the Barbican Hall, 3rd November 2006

I must be getting old, sitting down for nearly an entire gig, it’s either my legs, or it’s the band and surroundings. We went to see Sufjan Stevens perform at the Barbican this week. A very twee sit down affair, very little standing was done, some ran down to the front as Sufjan threw out blow up supermen or santas to the crowds. The only dancing that was done was during Chicago.

Sufjan and his troop of musicians arrived on stage dressed as butterflies, resplendent with their fairy wings, how much more twee can you get?


In fact how much more special can you get? I’m a sucker for the little gimmicks, throwing the blow up supermen out to the crowd during Man of Steel. Throwing out Santas for the Christmas songs. The mad little stories inbetween each setting up the premise to the next song. Sufjan makes an engaging host for the evening.


And it helps that the music was so fantastic. Mostly playing hits from Come on feel the Illnoise, the highlight for me was the The Predatory Wasp. The only downside came when we had to leave before the end to catch the train back.

Can you find Rudy?

Well it's nearly Christmas folks. Have you started the shopping yet? I started to think about it, does that count.

Anyways, how do you guys fancy winning some toys?

All you've got to do is find Rudy?

Birthday Bowling Ali!

Saturday 23rd September

It's party time again. This time Ali's 34th, sorry 24th birthday. Starting quietly in the new favourite hang out of the Hawley Arms. (Whose that in the corner? Is it another media has been?) We had a couple of quiet drinks here.

We moved on to the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes for the Pins and Needles club. There were few bands playing tonight, and the place is a lot busier than it was last time I came down. We're not booked to Bowl til midnight, so we have a bit of time to kill.

All Smiles from the Birthday Girl. The game is to see how many White Russians the body can take....

Keeping with the Bowling Ali theme, I bought this for her birthday. The game is Strollin' Bowlin'.

Great fun, with a wind up bowling ball with little feet, you position it and hope it strolls towards the skittles. (And it all folds up afterwards into a handy little case.)

Ali was very excited to be Bowling for her birthday, so much so she even bought along special bowling socks. Question is would they bring her luck?

Shiny shiny socks!

Aren't bowling shoes great!

There ended up being much starting and stopping... our bowling lane had a breakdown at our excellent bowling skills, and so we had to move to another lane. Scores were lost, twice. Who was the winner in the end...?

I think the winner in the end has to be Ali. There are vague memories of her getting a Strike, which is more than most of us achieved.

Post Ali Strike celebrations.

And somewhere amongst this we did some indie dancing, drank more white russians that scientists would say is possible, and had some good old fun.

That's Numberwang!

4! 44.4! 0.4! 4444!

Have you played Numberwang yet?

Why not?

It's the latest crazy quiz show and now you can play it too!

Watch it here, then play the game yourself.

Wangernumb!

Dylan Moran - Like Totally, Live at the Hammersmith Apollo

I’m sure you all know I have a slight obsession with the Dylan of Moran. I think if I counted up all of his shows that I’d seen, I’d be in to scary numbers. I could well be out of my teens of times.

He is the genius behind the magnificent Bernard Black and Black Books. He’s in the best romcomzom, Shaun of the Dead. And he is reported to soon be in Too Much Too Young, written by Paul Rose, whose blog here, tells of another sitcom he’s putting together with Mark Heap (another Simon Pegg chum.) All very exciting.

So if there is a Dylan show, I’m there. Tickets are purchased in the blink of an eye, without waiting to check to see if friends can even make it. Not wishing to crane my neck for the entire show, I refrain from getting Row A seats and settle for the middle of Row B. As it turns out that is in direct range of the cherries, but luckily we’re not hit.

Dylan tells us he’s a compulsive, coming on stage as he does with a coffee, a bowl of cherries, whilst there is already a glass of water and red wine on his little table. He takes swigs and eats from them all, inbetween taking drags on the cigarettes he pulls from his pocket. But he decides he doesn't really want the cherries and chucks them at the audience.

The evening winds around topics such as children, they make you realise how little you know. Religion, "People who turn to Jesus tend to be people who haven't done that well with anyone else." And living in other countries, “The German language is like a typewriter eating tinfoil." California, is a state where the ability to lift things apparently equates to power. Meaning Mr Schwarzenegger of course. Lots of little funny lines strewn amongst Dylans shambling ramble.
All the while 2 screens behind him have projected on them his sketches. During the interval I go off to get copies of the £5 Progamme, signed no less, to get my hands on more of his funny cartoons and artwork. All in all a great evening, as always.

Party Time!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!
If they were me,
If they were me,
And I was you and I was you,
If they were me and I was you,
Would you have liked a present too,

Like this one...

Yes that's right I had a very much Doctor Who themed Birthday. With the above Cake, which was exterminated. 12 lovely inches of David Tennant, as a Doll. And a Tardis Wardobe.

But of course what you all want to know is, did the photos come out from my party! Or are they all blurred because I was too drunk to keep the camera still long enough to take a picture...

Starting off well I think

Mark and Pete

Adam and AndreAlistair, Paul and Siobhan
Francis, taking it easy
Somewhere around this point, a glass was raised to Cardinal Puff by Mike, Ben and Dave.

Okay this is where they start to get blurry...
And everyone is getting headless

Tim moved, that's why it's blurry! Honest
And this is some of Craigs fast northern soul moves caught on camera. That is why it is blurry.

I was completely sobre, any blurred pictures are merely you're blurred vision.

...Have you been drinking?

Thank you to everyone who came. Thank you for all the cards, presents and most importantly the drinks.

Cheers!
x

Holidaying in Dorset, 19th - 26th August

Thanks to the wonderful ebay me and Tim managed to secure a lovely, recently refurbished little self catering cottage in Dorset for £205 for the week. Not bad you might say. Cheaper than going through the usual internet searches of B&B's and hotels, trying to get a last minute deal, where they think £650 is reasonable just because it's peak season.

The cottage was on the Isle of Portland, famous for it's lighthouse, Portland Bill. We stayed in Fortuneswell, bit of a run down area really, but the locals were nice enough when we visited the pub across the road for one, and left many, many pints later.

And Fortuneswell did have the best takeaway curries at Cafe India. I think bar maybe a couple of nights we had curry from here. All of it excellent.

We managed to do a fair bit of sight-seeing. To get to Portland you have to travel through Weymouth, or at least try to go around it. Weymouth is exactly what you would expect from a traditional seaside town. Tacky shops selling inflatable alligators and sticks of rock, Fish and Chips on sale at every corner, and lots of families taking advantage of the hotels on the esplanade.

Lyme Regis

We sat on the docks, with some chips, and watching the boats coming in, and going out again.

Coming in, and going out again...

If you're staying in Portland then you've got to go to Portland Bill obviously.

I managed to get quite a few good pictures of the Lighthouse and the surrounding Coast

A little further round the coast we found a tiny little secret pebble beach, complete with beach huts, down a very windy steep path.

Random doesn't quite cover it. From Marie Stopes cottage full of stuff taken from shipwrecks, to scary looking stuffed owls to skeletons of dead cats. Next to the road leading to Church Ope Cove, we found the Portland Museum, and paid the small entrance fee to look round the bizarrest collection of old stuff.

Back around the otherside of Portland, nearer where we were staying, is Chiswell Beach, and the road leading from the Mainland to Portland.

A very picturesque 23 mile stretch of quite pebble beach, (18 miles if you read some websites and booklets.) Good for mackerel fishing we were told.

Imagine this was me...

I know, weird isn't it.

But honestly...

Yes, I donned a wetsuit and buoyancy aid and went kayaking over the ocean. Twice.

I may even be persuaded to go on it again.

And now the only reason for going to Dorset...

Monkey World Dorset!

One of our favourites Terri, here eating carrot, then spitting it out.
Colourful Crocheted Blankets are the thing to have in your monkey cage...




The sweetest baby gorilla... and her mum.

This one wasn't to impressed with my camera.

Monkeys. Worth a trip to Dorset all on there own.