72a James Lane

4 years. Found by Tom. Lived in by 7. Terrible shower  Great sofa. Emptied and cleaned for the last time today. Fin.

Terrible upkeep of this Blog

So what Have I been up to I hear you cry.....


Work
I have left.....all part of the life changing thing that is this move. I have made some great friends there and it has been an interesting 4 years. I did have fantastic leaving drinks before I left and the leaving presents I got were so incredibly thoughtful including a personlaised darts shirt. My kind colleague Laura also made me a Bad Thing cake that tasted as good as it looked. I am now unemployed......

The Royal Wedding 

H had the genius idea (one of many) of us all having a mobile street party dressed as royals from throughout the ages. I decided on Richard III, hunch back and all and even went as far as to learn the 'Now is the winter of our discontent' speech. We started our day by watching the wedding with 150,000 other people in Hyde Park and then pub crawled our way to Cleaver Square in Kennington. It is no exaggeration to say that we had our photo taken 200 times including a set up one by the News of the World. The bastards didn't print it though. We are also did TV interviews for 4 foreign news channels. We  There was mixed tolerance in the group for the attention....I personally loved it.  

The ceremony went well.

Home

Spent a few days up North at home. Didn't do anything in particular except hang around with my sister and my Niece and Nephew. They are walking around and that is just chaos. My sister is has the patience of Jobe and is fantastic with them. We took them into the local town and I pushed them around the supermarket as my sister shopped. If you pause near a shelf for a second the whole lot is coming off. The other highlight was having an outside bath at the farm. My sister and Bro in law have an old iron bath under a huge tree at the bottom of their garden. You fill it up, light a fire under it and 30 mins later bobs your uncle. It was very  relaxing  and the kind of nonsense I can't get up to in Leytonstone. I loved it.

H's Birthday

BBQ on a roof terrace with great views over London. Sam's red hot jerk chicken. Fantastic Company. Then Punk to finish it off. 

Catch Up

I have been frightfully busy (lazy) so I will give a brief update on what I have been doing. In no particular order.


Bloody Cinderella


Had the first couple of rehearsals.. All going well. Certainly better than the recording session. The first rehearsal was on the same days as the Grand National. I put £5 on West End Star (how sad) ...it didn't finish.


Rugby League


H got free tickets to watch Harlequins v Castleford at the Twickenham Stoop.  It was my first rugby league game and I have to say it is a great sport to watch. I love Union but there is something to be said for the flow and simplicity of League. It was also helped by the fact it was a dramatic 24-24 thriller. 

The was a minutes silence at the start for the troops serving overseas. H and I both have friends in the forces and as we settled for the minutes silence it was announced that it would started and ended by a light gun of the Royal Artillery. Everyone fell respectably silent and then my head was suddenly full of an ungodly noise as the cannon fired. The 'light gun' caused the whole crowd to duck and one chap behind us to  exclaim "JESUS!". His exclamation was such an unconscious, heartfelt and loud way to start a minutes silence that H and I had a nightmare minute stifling laughter. I have never felt so close to being a disgrace. 




Work


Going into my last week of work after 4 years of working there. I am looking forward to the change but there will be a lot of people I will miss. Leaving drinks on Wednesday night.

The Bad Thing for those who don't know

Return of The Bad Thing

Sunday was given over to a Bad Thing rehearsal in Chiswick. It was great to get us all together for the first time since before Christmas. The practice was all about getting us ready for being the main act (god help them) at Pixie Day. We had a brutal cut of our possibly tired set list and learned a few new tunes including the rock classic The Boys Are Back in Town. The Bad Thing is one of my great pleasures in life. Being in a band is great. It  has all the camaraderie if team sports without the communal bathing.
  

Singing Update

So was I wrong to be so nervous about my recording off Bloody Cinderella?.......Of course not. It was simply THE hardest thing I have ever done in performance.  It was like no other singing I had ever had to do. The detail and control needed to match the other performers recordings was very nearly beyond me. I did have one moment when I felt i couldn't do it and had to be consoled and cajoled by the director. I think this return to performance is rekindling my dramatic side. In the end (5 hours later) it went well and I should hopefully get the recordings Wednesday...First rehearsal Saturday. 

Mugged Off

Helped my talented friend Andrew Scott Butler film this for the BBC's funny in 15 Competition

Mugged Off - watch more funny videos