I had a nice little e-mail from Jason D asking me to promote his blog here. Anyway, he's an expectant Dad (his words), and as The Boy seems to have turned into a Man, it struck me as a good time to pass over the baton of 'Daddy Blogging' to Jason. He's only just started so I expect he could do with some support. My only words of wisdom to him are "it's over before you realise it'. So good luck to him. And his partner. And their forthcoming baby…
The cleaner hadn't been coming in to the office for the last few weeks since the people who rent desks from me moved out. I called and texted but nothing until I got this which I am still trying to translate
"Hi I am not doing the cleaning last day 19/04 I was doing and were moving so much for clearing on 19/05 and returned on 29/05 before I spent most my number and told me he'd call me to spend the new address and am waiting until now. Was the high lord of the front of his desk, most if not changed I'd still the cleaning if you like I will this weekend sorry for the bad"
There is a certain order in life that should not be disturbed. At meals times first the meat and two veg, then the pudding, getting dressed its put on pants before trousers, in finance its earn some money before you spend it and for old male entertainers its ask before you touch. One of the other orders that guides my life is watch the film at the cinema before you see it on TV. Its a good rule that's kept me out of mischief most of my life. But this week things were turned on their heads a little.
We were great fans of The Trip the series that followed Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as they ate their way round the Lake District in the finest restaurants. At the time there was a lot of confusion as to what was 'real' and what was 'entertainment'. The PR worked well for them, and the show got great reviews. I'd recommend the DVD if you have a few spare quids. This year, they repeated the exercise by driving round Italy in a soft top Mini. It was still good…very good indeed…but obviously didn't have the originality of the original (!) and felt a bit more scripted. What we hadn't realised is that whilst we in the UK saw it as a six part series, the rest of the world saw it as a two-hour film. We went to see that this week, with the promise of a Q&A with Brydon and Coogan to follow. The film version was better than the TV series…not just because it was more focused, but because it had a different balance and a more rounded approach to its humour. I suspect that unless you went on the same day as us you will have missed it…it was one of those live broadcasts to 180 cinemas around the country. If you did, buy the DVD…as for the Q&A I suspect it was a mistake. The question master was up to Parkinson standards, and his questions were at best week, tweeted in questions were banal and the ones from the audience were not up to much either…the dynamic duo clearly wanted to make more of it than they could. But the concept was great. And actually this new-fangled idea of seeing something first on the TV and then at the cinema worked rather well. Change can be a good thing.
Grandma in Cyprus has not been well. Not well at all. And I've sat here like a rabbit in headlights wondering what's best to do. She's in my thoughts all the time and I hope she recovers quickly.
