Adventures in Edinburgh

Four nights of sharing a bed with Peter Goddard, is not everybody's idea of a fun filled adventure, but sometimes, in the name of comedy... compromises have to be made. This was one of those times... With my baggiest ugliest PJ's packed, I was Festival bound and ready to see some Comedy.

On the 20th August 2009, our Edinburgh journey began. We drove to The Holly Bush, Cradley Heath, on the outskirts of Birmingham, where Peter did a very sound job of compering a lovely comedy night and I mumbled my way through a ten minute set, with enough laughter for me not to feel too miserable after and advice from Peter to watch the rambling in future. Fair enough...

The night ended about 11 and we got back in the Rover 1100 and found our way to the big road (yes, the motorway) Northbound...

We shared the driving through the night and through the nasty rain and no one needs to know who drove which bit and what delightful service stations we refuelled and did our peepees at. It took ages, we bought comedy c.d's and songs of the seventies to keep us chipper, because apparently the bedwetting indie drone of 'Elbow' is not conducive to night driving. By 6 am, we had reached our Edinburgh pad, actually in nearby Leith.

This location worked out ok, Peter frog marched us up the long hill to the City Centre every morning without fail, so at least we were getting some exercise, even if we hardly saw a piece of fruit or a vegetable all weekend. A half hour trek at Goddard Pace certainly gets one ready for a pint and a comedy show...

Day one - and after only four hours sleep, we were off... Looking for information about what to see and where to see it and ready to immerse ourselves in comedy. We walked into the City and after we'd had a pint and quick stop for a Gregg's pasty by some wheelie bins - Yes, this was full on glamour -we were raring to go!

In four days, This is a list of the shows we saw/other notable things we did...

Friday 21st August
It's got Jokes in it -Hannah George, Catie Wilkins, Lou Sanders and an open spot
Alex Maple's Press Release, felt a bit bad for Alex as it wasn't a very full room and the audience seemed a bit quiet. There was free chocolate though and we enjoyed the show anyway.
A gig at the Dragonfly - Toby Brown and several other comics
We ate a pizza.
Get Happy (can't remember who was on, I was very tired, by the time this began at 11 pm)

Saturday 22nd August
City of the Dead Tour (spooky walk ending in Edinburgh Vaults - my choice - a good tour to be fair, but not enough vault action...)
We then had a bit of a gap, mincing about, finding our feet, (they were at the end of our legs all along) buying tickets for other shows over the weekend and drinking beer.
Evening - Dan Antopolski at the Pleasance Dome (Amazing show - Mucho funnies.)

We went to Brooke's Bar and 'mingled' with the stars. Well, we got outed as 'Audience' and asked by anyone we knew who happened to be there: "How did you get in?" - Oh, what little faith!! A fair question - No, we didn't have credentials or connections - we had just walked in, having arrived early, before the doorman clocked on! Easy Peasy :)

Sunday 23rd August
In full swing now, we knew our way around, we had shows to see planned, we were cooking on gas!
North-South Divide, Charlie Talbot and Dave Gibson at the Beehive (still impressed by the lovely funny, charming Dave Gibson.)
Yummy kebab lunch with Alex and Mads.
Robin Ince's Book Club
The Hotel - Amazing experience, look this one up, it was very funny and truly unique.
Glenn Wool - A good show with uncomfortable seats.
Get Happy - with four open spots including William Lee (joking about eating pets - how does he think of his material) Peter Goddard providing a strong(ish) close to another wise shaky open spot section and Adams and Rea headline.
Scary late show, hosted by our buddy David Hardcastle with a whole gaggle of fairly new comics all telling in-jokes and just larking about to a bored audience of "C-Venues" staff. Left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, this one. Perhaps I was just over tired by that point!?

Monday 24th August
Go Go Go Coffee Show - Caroline Mabey (loved CM's work here - very enjoyable.)
Bussman's Holiday (Jane Bussman) This was gritty, topical warzone comedy - an interesting fixture in our fun packed schedule. Good too.
The Fudge Show, Patch Hyde and Adam Tempest (comedy in a fudge shop - yum yum)
Get Happy, Headline Imran Yusuf, with a very scary t-rex impression.

It seems odd to wittle down four days of comedy fun and mania into a fairly ordinary looking list and I'm no reviewer, so I've kept the comments to a bare minimum. I just know that Peter and I had a terrific long weekend and looking back over this list, we did pretty well on the amount and variety of shows and performers we saw.

Totting things up - it seems like we got to 15 shows in 4 days and saw somewhere in the region of 40 performers. I'm excluding The Hotel's performers from the count (too many people involved) and the really late Sunday show of no name that I'm aware of (I'd just rather forget that). All in all, I think we did pretty damn well on our weekend of comedy learning and laughing.

We drove ourselves home on Tuesday, tired and weary, listening to more sounds of the seventies and feeling smug at the wonderful times experienced over the last few days. From Edinburgh to Walthamstow, via Battersea, we'd clocked up around 10 hours efforts. It is only a shame that I got a crack in my windscreen - which happened with Peter at the wheel - I dozed off for half hour and he breaks the vehicle, bloody men!!* That will almost certainly blow any savings made from not travelling by train, which would have been a four and a half hour journey, spent snoozing and reading and supping Pimms.

Oh well, Peter says we mustn't think of it like that and I am glad we made the road trip. It was all part of the adventure and I wanted driving practice and certainly got that. I'll take the train next year and leave the car at home, but not even a cracked windscreen can chip my memories of a smashing great weekend.

*Your share of the auto-glass bill will be in the post imminently Pete...

In other news. I have to go the gym now. Blinking heck. I've not been in two months. ARSE!

Cup Cake

I just ate a cup cake. It is only 1 hour and 40 minutes to weigh in, but cup cakes don't really weigh that much, so it seemed harmless enough.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm cake.

This is where the cake was from: www.cupcakeemporium.co.uk

Arse, I still haven't read any books. Soz, I know after my amazing toe-dip into film reviews last week, you can barely wait for the first of my book reviews to arrive on this page. Perhaps I should break myself in easily with something like a volume of the Mr Men.

I did watch Slumdog Millionaire on Sunday and really rather liked that. It's old news now, that movie, so I'm not going to practice my reviewing on that...

Oh did I mention? ... Before any of that (the cake and the film) - Barry and I had a lovely trip to the zoo on Sunday and we saw the baby lions playing. They were very very sweet...

Barry even promised to buy me a lion cub (and a puppy) x

Huzzah.

Not really.

The cubz were effing gorgeous though.

Evil Barry, not getting me a mini-lion. Who does he think he is?

Northampton & The Cubblers

See What I did there?

Cobblers? Cubblers?

I am so besotted with the beautiful new cubs at London Zoo. They are simply gorgeous. I am going especially on my non zoo Sunday to see them this weekend and am beside myself with excitement. I've even surprised myself on this one... Jo & Excitement are not two words to be put together lightly.

Went to Northampton last night with Norm. It was a really nice gig. Norm kept calm when we got caught in traffic for 45 minutes before even getting off the North Circular and really put his foot down when we did make it to the M1 to get us there only twenty or so minutes later than planned...

The crowd was friendly. I wasn't on until 5th of 6 comics and that meant I was performing about 11 o'clock when some people had scarpered home, but still I felt like I had some nice moments where I engaged with the remaining crowd (still plenty of people). I didn't just stick religiously to my material either. I think I might have been just shy of 10 minutes, but not too far off that mark. The other comics all seemed to do well and everyone seemed happy.

Norm did good for his 40th gig and after it all, he got us both home safe, even though it was an ungodly time of the night.

A fun time was had by all.

That film I went to see on Wednesday with Sprogs was creepy. Odd and creepy. Enough said!! Antichrist by Lars von Trier. The premise is two people grieving for their dead baby and how the husband tries to help his wife as she struggles to come to terms with that loss. She goes a bit bonkers to say the least.

The film was quite slow to get going though and two people even walked out of the cinema after about 45 minutes, but the tension did build up as it progressed. Although surreal and gruesome, the ending was worth the wait. (Even if when you are at the 11.30 showing and the ending happens at 1.30 am on a school night.)

If you do see it, you'll never be able to look at foxes the same way again. Or crows. Acorns could leave you a bit wobbly too... Rusty old scissors? You'll be avoiding those for sure! Gosh, I should be a film critic. I think I have hidden talents. ha ha ha.

BUT, Don't waste your time at the cinema. Go see the Lion Cubs. cubs cubs cubs cubs. I just love those cubs. I hope Barry is bringing some strong sedatives with him for this trip to the zoo on Sunday or he could have an overwhelmed Oglet on his hands!!

Sorting Things Out A Little Bit

So I still haven't read any books. I did look up an insect I saw on the tube in my big British Wildlife book to find out what it might be called... It was called a Forest Bug. I am going to see a film tomorrow too, so watch this space for what I thinks to that. . .

I have this little rash going on just by my eye and my nose and it has been bothering me a bit, but I kept putting off finding out how to try and fix it. I went to the chemist today. The lady there gave me some EMOLLIENT cream. The jury is out on whether the EMOLLIENT cream will help, but I guess the point is - I did something about it...

In other news: I did a gig last week, which wasn't amazing, but got me back into things comedy again. I'm doing two more gigs this week and another gig and a few days jaunt to Edinburgh next week. I haven't done much to find a new job yet, but I've been a bit busier at work, which takes my mind off how much I hate it all for some of the time anyway.

AND I just signed up to a charity based 12 week channel swim style challenge to try and shift my fitness up a gear over the coming months. You see you swim the 22 miles, over the 12 weeks, in the comfort of your local pool... Barry has offered to cover me in goose fat before each session (for added channel swim experience authenticity) but I think that might eventually just clog up the filter at the Virgin Active pool.

Oooh, why not stop by my fundraising page to donate money to the peeples with spinal injuries? Or not. It is there anyway.

http://www.justgiving.com/Oglets-Big-Swim-09/

OK, I have to go or I'll be late for this shin dig gig at Manny's.

CATS

When stuck in a rut with one's bloggage. Do not fear: Please return to the funny kitty pics that have served so well in hard times before:

This just made me chuckle. Is it wrong to say spaz attack?

This just struck a chord for some reason...

In case that writing is a bit tiny on this "Your Mama Loves U" pic - it Says: "even if the other kids calls u fat, she knows uz jus fluffy.

Pickies courtesy of...
http://icanhascheezburger.com/

I still haven't read any books yet.

To Blog Or Not To Blog.

I'm not blogging anymore. There is no money in it anyway. Or is there? Norm has a new blog and it is covered in adverts. I bet he is raking it in now. Have I been super naiive? Could I retire on the ad hits from my blog alone? With only 6 followers to date, I'd better not bank on that. I've never been one to assume everything has to end in a pay cheque and I'm not sure the blog really benefits from being plastered in ads, but what would I know. . .



But no, I haven't quit blogging just yet, I do keep meaning to blog. Only 3 posts in July? That is shocking. All of those posts at the start of the month - so no posts since July 2nd? Again - it is a shocker, where have I been? What has been going on with me?



Well...



I've been in a mini lull. There are a lot of things I haven't been doing like I should...I only gigged twice in July too. Work has been a bit hard going. I haven't been to the gym. WW plateued at only 2lbs weight loss. Its all gone to the dogs!! Gone to the dogs, but still no puppy :'( Poor Ogs.



I did have a fantastic time in Cornwall. It wasn't sunny every day, but we did have a few lovely hot afternoons/mornings and one whole hotter than hot day on the beach. And little tiny toddler niece loves the beach too, so everyone was pleased with that. Constantine Bay was as beautiful as I'd promised and I think even Mum and Dad were taken aback by it. We ate out all the time. We visited places like the Eden Project and Tintagel Castle. I turned 33. It was a really nice family break.



I only had one tense moment, when by Wednesday, used to suiting myself 24/7, I felt like I had overdosed on 'happy family life'. I felt myself getting tetchy and grumpy for no good reason, but after grasping a few hours to myself on Wednesday morning, I put my smile back on. We all had a lovely last day or so and found our way to Friday morning and goodbye time, with everyone in excellent spirits...



I stayed on for a few more days with Vicky, for lots more eating, drinking and Cornish merriment, then sadly it was time to come back to London.


I've been back at work for nearly 3 weeks now and they have not been the happiest or the proudest 3 weeks of my 'career'. The boss has got wind of the fact I am - at best - coasting, at worst - drowing (in boredom and despair, rather than being overworked...) Oddly enough - he has started to get a bit shirty when things don't always get done as requested. Who knew? These managers can be so unreasonable at times!!



I did have a very nice gig in Eastbourne on the 17th. Thanks to Peter G for inviting me along to that.



Roger's tail seems to be looking pretty good after a few nasty bouts of finrot earlier this year and the cats are in fine fettle, so that is nice.


No point in detailing all that has been going on in July at this late stage: July, as they say, has been and gone. August lies ahead of us with a whiff of wonder, the parfum of promise or is that just more rain in the air? Anyway, it is August now, so it is onward and upward for this here Ogs...



Perhaps I'll try and switch to a more topical blog for August on a trial basis. Hey, I could even attempt to look at the news, read a book (or maybe read an article about a book). Maybe I'll watch a film between now and September. Lets face it, writing about me and the things I haven't been up to, is getting a little tiring... for all concerned.



Well there we have it - I am back up and running and more to follow soon, we hopes xx Sorry if it is a bit of a slow re-start, just as well I'm not reliant on that advertising income just yet...