We had a posh night at the Fowey Hall hotel in Fowey, where, if you know where to look, you can see Dawn French’s massive house/estate. Fowey Hall hotel is ace, it’s the kind of place that supplies wellingtons and fishing nets for children, hens strut free-range stylee across the lawns and there is an indoor pool and an out door trampoline. I used the pool and had the best scallop starter ever. We discovered the hotel last year when I was gigging at The Daphne du Maurier festival – one of those gigs you only really get invited to once in a blue moon, it’ll be on again this May, check it out if you live nearby.

Fowey Hall

Chairs in Fowey Hall

Painting in Fowey Hall

Then we stayed with friends in Zennor, which is right down the tippy old tip of Cornwall where there are no trees! And from there we journeyed to Rock, did the ferry to Padstow thing, the St Ives thing, the St Michael’s Mount thing and ate fine victuals, including glorious squid overlooking St Ives bay.

Padstow Ferry

Misty St Michaels Mount

Squid and Chorizo overlooking St Ives bay

I also bought a numbered Ben Nicholson print from the St Ives Tate, I will post a photo when Ive got it framed, I love Ben Nicholson, he was married to the sculptress Barbara Hepworth, I love her too, she had triplets, I’m intrigued by triplets, twins are mad enough, I can’t really get my head around quads or beyond.

Since I last blogged, I’ve been trying to write a new stand up show, I can’t tell you how vile this is- so vile that when I did do a gig I bottled out of trying anything new and kicked myself all the way home.

I’m still on the Loose Women rota, which kept me pretty busy last month when we had the chicken pox/shingles outbreak/scare, when anyone with so much as a shaving rash or a pimple was sent home ‘just in case’. Its all back to normal now (!) and I’m usually just in on Fridays, which means I’ve got no excuse not to get on with this bloody new show- if only I didn’t keep getting distracted by Twitter, or Phoebe’s box set of 30 Rock and Made in Chelsea (Ch4 OD). Onwards……

THIS MONTH I HAVE

READ The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Booker prize winner) a beautiful, elegant and sad tale of sexual attraction and the consequences of an affair.
Also- ‘Wicked Girls’ by Alex Marwood, a real page turner… what happens when your past catches up with you?

SEEN British Design at The V and A, a badly put together exhib of fabulous things, go and see it and try not to get cross about how it has been set out. Looking at the tiny golden suit that Marc Bolan wore, nearly made me cry, he was so small and now I am so old!

WATCHED Birds of a Feather- live on stage, in Richmond with my lovely old mate from the Grumpy Live shows, Linda Robson, plus her son Lou, whom I adore, plus, the uber ace Lesley Joseph and of course Pauline Quirk. A night of much love and laughs for the ladies.

I also bought some chocolate brown desert boots my first pair of Clarks shoes for a hundred years!

So, apart from having a spend, I’ve gigged and been on Countdown and written a telly review for The Mirror – ironically as it turns out, since the day I filed the copy all our tellies conked out and I know there are many more exciting things to do, but when you physically can’t – all you want to do is watch The Voice.

Talking of doing other things, the old man and I went to the ballet, we were guests, it was ace, we went to the Colliseum, look at these pictures

It’s the most beautiful theatre and the ballet – ‘Anna Karenina’ was wonderful too, maybe because I read some Wikipedia notes before I went so I vaguely knew the story and maybe because they simplified it beautifully and so it was really easy to understand. Anyway, we had a ball and we shall attend more dance!

Ooh yes and we have seen the Hirst, you have to see the Hirst if you can, its hilarious and touching and mad and over the top. People can slag him off all they like, but he put Britain on the art map at a time when no-one else was making any waves, he’s our Warhol, it’s not just about whether you can draw some fruit in a bowl, sometimes it’s whether you can figurehead a movement and create a path for a load of other new artists.

His massive ashtray still stinks just as much as it ever did.

God, I used to love smoking so much!

Anyway I’ve managed not to get shingles in the recent Loose Women chicken pox/shingles outbreak, which ended up being more hysteria than reality, at one point it looked like the entire panel was crashing down, with people being send home with dodgy shaving rashes and the merest hint of a temperature but in the end only Andrea and Janet S.P had the dreaded shingles and just one of the bosses was off with the pox. The day Jane McDonald was wrongly diagnosed I was motor-biked over from another job in Chiswick to take her place at the last minute whilst a DO NOT USE sign was hung on her dressing room door, turned out she just had tiny spot on her chin!

Right that’s your lot, I need to go downstairs and loll with the Sunday papers… Laters….

THIS MONTH I HAVE

BOUGHT – the yellow mack and the suede boots – yey!
READ – Jo Jo Moyes duvet wetter, ‘Me Before You’, seriously, I cried so hard I nearly had to change the sheets.
SEEN – Art and ballet oh and the British design exhib at the V and A, a messy show but with some fab bits, we weren’t allowed to take photos so I took a pic of a pillar in the V and A’s most beautiful café in the world.

BEEN – to Bromsgrove to do the very final ‘Old Dog New Tricks’ touring show, this has been my favourite show to perform and I’m terrified about having to write another, arghhhh, on that note.. I’ll let you know how I’m getting on in a couple of weeks…

Hello all, well I’ve done 52 and it’s ok, it feels pretty much like 51, but with a bit more cellulite.

I got some lovely presents and have been very badly spoilt so that’s good.

In other news, I’ve mostly been at home trying to write some new stand up, this is the most torturous part of the job, it’s just miserable and you can’t believe it can take a whole day to write one measly joke, which you then try out on stage and dies on its arse.

Thing is, there’s a huge amount of stand up around at the moment, heaps of really good people doing really interesting stuff, I was reminded of this when me and the girl went to the Chortle Awards – a good natured do at the Café De Paris, lots of old faces, lots of new faces, lots of talent. I also had a night out with my old panto pal, Kellie Shirley who took me along to Kings Place to see the all female sketch group ‘Lady Garden’ and friends, I’d heard of the girls over the last couple of years but I’d never seen them live, they were great, so were their guests, a mixture of more sketch groups plus some straight and some character stand up. I don’t think anyone on that stage was over thirty that night and they all had something, apart from the girls, I particularly liked Sheeps and Totally Tom for fabulously detailed writing and performing.

I also went along to BAC to see ‘You’re Not Like other girls Chrissie’ which Phoebe and I had seen a couple of Edinburgh’s ago and wanted to see again. Caroline Horton is a great little actress/writer, I’m really keen to see what she does next.

Enough about other people, back to me, I ‘ve been eating out loads, now this isn’t like me as I’m far too mean to enjoy restaurants, but I have to say Goodmans on Maddox St with Dom Joly was a great treat, we ordered three portions of lobster tails and I had a whole roasted onion with mine, because I know how to live. Mr Joly was on fine form.

I’ve also had a light lunch and the new and fashionable Delauney on The Aldwych, a sort of sister restaurant to The Wolsley, lovely room and if you choose carefully, its not too pricey for eg the old man had a sausage sandwich!!

Less successful was a dreadful meal at Indigo @ Number 1 The Aldwych, just dreadful expensive food, fortunately I was with an old school pal so we were talking too much for the food to matter, but it was awful.

Enough restaurant critiquing – work wise, its been the usual mix of Loose Women, writing and the occasional gig. Ooh I had a hideous moment on Loose Women – Alex James from Blur was on talking about rock and roll and cheese and he was witty and charming and right at the end – when the cameras stopped he turned and said ‘we have met before’, well dear reader, I thought, ‘ooh when and fancy you remembering when I don’t’ and he said ‘I saw you at that cheese gig’. At this point I could have crumbled into very fine parmeson, the cheese gig was my nemesis, it was one of the worst corporate events of my career and one where I had to leave via the kitchens and hail a cab down a back alley, such was my embarrassment. I slunk back to my dressing room, beetroot, I will never be able to look Alex James in the eye again.

GLASGOW DAY

Apart from that I have been to Glasgow and back – I did the Citizens theatre, its one of my favorite venues for stand up so it was worth the trip even though the train journey home (5 carriages instead of 9) was pretty horrendous.

GLASGOW NIGHT

Oh and the sunshine, what glorious sunshine, what a wonderful bare feet week, all about to break on us, apparently as the the bank holiday weekend approaches, so does the snow!

You couldn’t make it up…

Cheers

THIS MONTH I HAVE

READ – Jo Jo Moyes, ‘Me Before You,’ a book that made me sob, if this isn’t made into a film, I shall eat my hat/or another meal at Indigo.

BOUGHT – Just a t shirt from Cos, I’m taking it easy on the clothes front.

SEEN – Apart from the theatre stuff me and the old man went to see the Ben Nicholson/Mondrian exhib at the Courtauld gallery, no photos allowed though weirdly you could take pics of the permanent collection and what a collection!

VAN GOUGH AT THE COURTAULD

This is where the famous Van Gough ear painting sits, plus a load of Cezanne’s and Matisse’s, basically, all your favourite A level Art birthday cards are in this space.

CEZANNE AT THE COURTAULD

I’m also watching a lot of old Otto Preminger films at the moment, the ones I can remember off the top of my head, all of which I would totally recommend are, Laura, Angel Face and Anatomy of Murder, you can’t go wrong with a bit of old black and white movie now and then. I’m going to watch all Premingers films in case I ever need to do Celebrity Mastermind , sometimes it’s good to have a plan.

I don’t know where February went, but now it’s March and maybe things feel a bit more exciting, I’ve been gigging, gigging is good for me, it gets my heart racing, it’s cardiac, a bit like rowing, maybe I should do the Olympics!

To be honest I’ve only done three gigs, a charity in Brighton for my old pal Henry Normal in aid of Amaze Brighton a charity that offers support to parent of kids with physical and behavioral problems and a couple of Art Centres down South, Exeter and Dartmouth to be exact.

SOMETIMES COMING HOME FROM GIGS CAN BE LONELY!

So me and the longsuffering Mr George (the tour manager), hit the road in a hire car and spent a couple of nights in a self catering pad in Exeter which is only an hour or so away from Dartmouth – all v organized.

We were so organized we even snooped round the Cathedral, which is like being in a massively ornate rib cage – followed by a quick pilgrammage round the shops and lunch at Wagamama – well done Exeter, nice trip.

However Dartmouth managed to top Exeter by having a ferry to get from one side of the Dart to the other, is there anything more exciting than a three minute ferry ride… at night?

Anyway, good gigs, nice to be back in the saddle, so much so that we have announced the Autumn tour ‘Eclairious’ which will head off at the end of September and roll round the country ‘til mid December

In light of this yet to be written show, I did a shoot with an ace photographer Sarah Dunn – the new images will be splashed all over this site very soon no doubt, I have to say, Sarah and the make up girl Paola Rekabarren did a fantastic job, if only I looked like I do in the photos in real life!

In other work related stuff, I spent a few days on a secret job, which I will tell you about once I’m allowed to open my fat gob!

Book wise, the new novel, ‘Life, Death and Vanilla Slices’ will be out on the 5^th of July- which is v exciting indeed, though I have a feeling that’s the dates all the summer books get pushed out, so I have to make sure mine doesn’t get lost under a tide of ‘Holiday reads’.

Ooooh, off work now and onto CULTURE, I have seen stuff, the old man and I saw The Pyjama Men at The Charring Cross Theatre – which I liked but didn’t love (ace perfromances, muddy story telling) dinner after at Byron – (excellent top endish burger chain).

A few days later, I saw Toby at the Soho Theatre with my old mucker Julie Balloo, a real life sister double act, playing out their warts and all relationship on stage that had me howling – loved it. Can also recommend the food at Soho Theatre – yum, I am horribly greedy at the moment.

Art wise, I have seen the Picasso and the Hockney, the Picasso is great, but in a lousy set of bunkerish rooms at Tate Britain, whereas at The Royal Academy the Hockney just sings. Its possibly one of the maddest, most full on things of home grown beauty I have ever seen. The man is truly great and anyone who doesn’t agree can simply fuck off!

Anyway – just to finish off on the work front, I’ve just got back from a couple of nights in Manchester doing five eps of Countdown with Nick Hewer who is a telly mate and a man who makes me laugh a lot.

I’d never even seen the show before, it was a hoot, despite having to stay in the crappy Marriot V and A Hotel over the road, which was truly awful in just about every way!

Fortunately the old man and I managed to escape the  hotel restaurant and trot around the corner for a shared T bone at Carluccios after filming on sat night and sloped off for brunch at The Corner-house (devilled mushrooms on toast) before catching the train back to a ridiculously sunny London today.

I will never ever stay by choice in a hotel that charges £15 for a days use of the internet – which is what Marriot’s charge!

THIS MONTH I HAVE

BOUGHT – some khaki jeans that make my arse look enormous and a black shirt – yawn, not exciting.
A couple of cocktail rings from Accessorise – which look a lot more exciting that the Ten pound price tags suggest!

SEEN – The Artist – haven’t we all? Very sweet but not much else!

Ok gang, that’s your lot, I’m fifty two this coming week, so I shall probably be too busy sulking to blog for a while…

x

It was the panto that done it, I suddenly thought, as I heaved myself off my dressing room chaise long (true) for the umpteenth time to go and do some wand waving that it was pretty pointless working this hard if I wasn’t going to give myself a big fat treat at the end of it. Lo, the holiday idea was born, Miami popped into my head and I checked with Mr Dom Joly who is my unofficial travel agent whether it was a good Eclair clan destination, he said ‘definitely’ and told me where to stay. We couldn’t afford any of his hotel suggestions, so opted for the still very fabulous but just within budget, Soho Beach House – huzzah, it was ace.

PHOTO SOHO BEACH POOL

Have you ever been to Miami? You must go, go now, no one should die without seeing Ocean Drive. Ocean Drive is wonderful, hundreds of ice cream coloured Art Deco hotels line the Ocean road, there is sand, there is sea, there is jaw dropping architecture, what’s not to like?

MIAMI DECO HOTELS

Miami beach is wonderful, stretches of fawn coloured soft sand with plenty of room for everyone and water warm enough not to shrivel your toes, I think it’s my favourite beach in the world and I’ve seen about…. ooh, five or six famous beaches

ME ON THE BEACH

Sunshine wise, we weren’t particularly lucky – we didn’t have endless blue skies and yellow sun, but every day was a flip flops, t shirt and a cardi day, so compared to London’s cold snap, I was laughing my little fat fake tanned legs off.

The good thing about cloud is that it stops you from just slobbing out on the beach, we did exploring big style, I tell you I can be a very competitive sight see-er-give me a guide book and I do like to tick stuff off.

We did an open bus tour, Im a sucker for a jump on jump off, and on this one we jumped off in Little Havana for steak, fried plantain and a Cuban beer. We did the shops down Lincoln Drive – though lets face it London will always be tops for shopping – we did the Wynwood Graffiti Walls, a couple of art galleries, the fabulous Wolfsonian Museum and we ate.

PHOTOS WYNWOOD KITCHEN AND GRAFFITI WALLS

MIAMI MODERN ART

WOLFSONIAN MUSEUM WISHING WELL

DECO THEATRE INTERIOR

We ate a lot of eggs, I did the egg white only omelette for breakfast slightly too many times and we made Katy eat green eggs and ham, which turned out to be basil sauce on poached eggs. My favourite new eating sensation was a goats cheese, bacon, apple, and arugula salad with crab claws on the side, yum, I’m also a fan of a salad with a pomegranate dressing which I have already tried to copy at home, sadly my kitchen is not as good as the hotels.

GREEN EGGS AND HAM

We also ate in the fashionable Scarpetta’s in The Fontainebleau Hotel next door – we did this by accident, jet lagged to the tits, not realizing that it was one of those impossible to get into places. Wish I could remember what I ate, but I know it was delicious and there was some very nice mosaic work round the bar.

Talking of bars, booze was phenomenally expensive, this turned out to be a blessing as I managed the entire holiday without even a whiff of a hangover, this is a relief as it means I can confidently say that I’m too mean to be a complete piss head. Anyway, I mustn’t get too boring about my holiday as I am home now and it over for ever and I’m not sure when I will be able to afford anything quite like that ever again (unless I get offered panto again) ???????

Since I’ve been back, I’ve managed to see the David Shrigley ‘Brain Activity’ exhibition at The Haywood, Shrigley manages to put comedy into art, something I don’t think any other artist in this country manages to do quite so triumphantly – go if you like animation, paintings, taxidermy, sculpture and big eccentric laughs.

Ooh yes, finally, just before I left for Miami (did I tell you I have been to Miami?), we Loose Women were invited as nominees to the NTA’s at the O2. We were up for best chat show, but inevitably lost out to Alan Carr – oh well it was quite a nice night out, if you like being stuck in the middle of nowhere! Also I made New Magazine’s ‘Worst Dressed’ list due to my penchant for snot green tights and refusing to take my coat or scarf off on the red carpet because it was cold. Meanwhile, the TOWIE girls bravely showed their tiny vajazzled goosebumps to the paps.

THE NTA’S

Right kids, that’s your lot for this week, I must get on – now that I have finished the novel, (due out this summer), which I hope you will buy in paper rather than kindle form, as writers lose a third of their money on kindle sales (and I’d like to go to Miami again).I need to get on with the ‘secret’ film script and the ‘possible’ play and the ‘fingers crossed’ new stand up show.

Laters……

20th Dec

Writing this in the dressing room, feeling very sorry for myself, I’ve got some lurgy and sound even more like a croaking toad than ever, I’ve also got a temperature which is making for some v clumsy wand action.

This is hard work, all I do is the panto, I can’t even get a bit pissed on a Saturday night because we do two shows on a Sunday – moaning aside, the kids in the audience really love the show and although I’m not really cut out to be big with the under tens it’s nice to see hundreds of kids completely wrapped up in the story.

Reviews so far are pretty good too, with 4*s from both The Telegraph and Time Out.

I think the fact I haven’t had a day off in a while has played a part in feeling so rubbish, when I’m panto free I do Loose Women, which I have to say, by comparison is like a holiday and I’m looking forward to next years dates hugely, I’m also trying to get Xmas wrapped up – literally, most presents are bought and what I haven’t got it’s too late to worry about.

Me and the old man are plotting an escape in the New Year, Miami seems to be the current likely destination, but I’ve no idea when were going to get the time to actually book flights and hotels.

27th Dec

Well I was right, I was poorly and for the first time in a thirty year career, I had to take two days off with laryngitis, ghastly, but if you’ve got no voice, you’ve got no voice and there was no point giving it to everyone else, as it was, one of the girlie dancers was off too. Thing about missing shows is that you get all paranoid that everyone thinks you’re skiving. Which I wasn’t – so I came back asap to demonstrate how ill I’d been by looking and sounding like shit – which was easy.

Anyway, I got better and I had a marvellous Xmas day off with ace presents and no big family fall outs although my sister kept us waiting for dinner until I was nearly unconscious with hunger.

I didn’t rate Xmas telly much, I found Dr who really odd and terribly phallic, whilst Downton opted for a happy and slightly soppy ending which I thought was a cop out – still enjoyed it, though not as much as the series 2 DVD of Modern Family which the Eclairs are currently ploughing our way through.

Food wise, this Xmas has been all about the ham which Phoebe glazed on Xmas eve and sits in the fridge calling to me, hmmmmm yummy ham.
Right, it’s nearly five and I’m between shows and I need to forage for food, I wish I’d bought some of that ham with me, I would just eat it with my hands, right too hungry to type, laters.

28th Dec

Apparently in panto land there is a ball traditionally held every year for all panto performers across London and the regions, it’s being held tonight at Croydon’s luscious Fairfield Halls, it’s a chance for all the casts from all the different productions to dress up and mingle, let’s just say it promises to end in rivers of sick. Guess who couldn’t think of anything worse? ME! that’s right, I shan’t be going, for several reasons, I don’t need to feel tireder tomorrow than I do today, I daren’t drink and panto and the idea of trying to get home from Croydon at three in the morning fills me with horror, anyway I bet there won’t be any food and I’ve still got the ham waiting for me in my cosy house, oh ham, tonight belongs to me and you.

31st Dec

Well good gossip post Panto Ball, unfortunately not mine to tell, but well done to a particular dancer from our cast! Have to say the wings were strewn with bodies the day after, it seemed like everyone who wasn’t on stage was in need of a lie down.

Anyway in even more exciting news we are going to have a holiday, we are going to Miami and I am very excited indeed! All the sales are on in Richmond town but now that I have purchased a holiday, I am back in tight fisted mode, though sometimes when I’m bored between shows, I go and try a jumper on in Jigsaw across the road.

Thank goodness for my trusty iPad, which I have just learnt to hire films on, saw a v saucy one with Tilda Swinton having it off all over the place, the other day!

Am now watching Grand Hotel.
Anyway it’s time for Act 2

5th Jan

HAPPY New Year, sorry all this has been coming in dribs and drabs, I’ve never been so busy or so completely knackered, I keep promising to wake up early and do things, But I can’t get out of bed!

When I first did a show at the Edinburgh festival, I thought it would kill me, then when I did a West End run, I thought the matinee days would finish me off, now I have done panto, I realize all the other stuff is for babies, panto is hard core.

Anyway, I have attached some photos of the past few weeks, I ‘ve had a great time really, although I’ve moaned my head off, at least we did get Xmas and New Year off and I have got some lovely presents and we watched the fireworks from our roof on New Year’s day and I know really that I’m a very lucky girl – so I’ll try not to whinge too much (but I probably will).

Here’s to 2012! x

We open tomorrow, but I’m not as freaked out as I would be if they hadn’t seen sense and cut the song. Yes, it’s official, there is no point even trying to teach me to sing, I can’t, end of, do you think if I could sing, I would have turned to comedy?

Stand up is for people who want to be pop stars but are born without any musical ability whatsoever, it’s like an affliction. Anyway, I am quite cosy here, I have a broken chaise long and my own lavatory which I think is important.

I have no other news because I am a Panto prisoner, I am hostage to this production until mid January, so it’s a good job that I actually really like the cast, because if I didn’t, I’d have to kill them.

Anyway, yes, we do have real ponies, they are two Shetlands called Buddy and Storm, they have already shat on the stage, so if they can, I can – should I need, it’s comforting to know that as long as we have the ponies, there is someone on stand by with a mop and shovel.

Fortunately Richmond is not bad for Xmas shopping and I’m getting all my online stuff sent direct to the theatre – which is handy as last year I spent most mornings in the PO queueing to fetch deliveries that I’d missed.

Talking of missing things…

I am missing Loose Women and quite a lot of parties, but I shall have my knees back under the LW desk in the new year and let’s face it, I’m crap at parties.

So anyway, I now need to rest before the dress rehearsal.

This Week, I have been
COMMUTING – like someone with a proper job, the best bit about commuting is listening in on other peoples conversations, I don’t even pretend I’m not eavesdropping, sometimes, I join in with the conversation, this causes consternation.
READING – Anna Richards – ‘Little Gods’ which I really like.
WATCHING – Million Pound Drop when I get home from rehearsals at around 10.45pm.
EATING – only stuff from shops and cages, I don’t even have breakfast at home, at the moment I’m a big fan of Prets bacon and egg morning baguette.

Any way, before I signed my life away I saw ‘My Week With Marilyn’ at the cinema (goodish – but then I’ve got a thing for Eddie Redmayne) and the fab Tacita Dean installation in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall – excellent work.

Tacita Dean’s film installation

I shan’t say any more on the matter, apart from the fact that I am worried.

Anyway, I shall be down to just one Lose Women a week til mid January and I will miss it, I do get to meet some extraordinary people on that show and a fair few aren’t quite how you expect them to be, some are duller, some are sweeter, some are a bit big headed, you’ll just have to guess who is who – out of that lot, the one thing they all have in common are that most of them are smaller than you imagine, to be honest Katie Price’s bosoms aren’t all that big, I’ve seen much bigger ones down my local pool.

Anyway, we are rehearsing for the Richmond panto in Fullham, at The Dance Attic which used to be an old swimming pool – this space has been around for years, the toilets are disgusting but there’s an original Banksy on the canteen wall – OH NO THERE ISN’T, but there is an original Rolf Harris mural, which is both hideous and hilarious and must be preserved at all costs.

Fullham is a tad dull (says she who lives in the no man’s land of South London), though bumping into Holly Johnson in M and S really cheered me up, he was slightly disguised but I knew it was him, because we had a chat about stir fry and he tweeted about it! This totally made my day.

Anyway, I have bought a snood and I might have to buy another one because the girl keeps nicking mine, I got the black and cream one from Zara that I keep seeing other women wearing on the bus.

In terms of gigs, I’m done for a while, I had my last stand up gig of the year in Stourbridge, having spent the night before in the biggest hotel bedroom I’ve ever seen in York (bang slap next to the train station). In York I was doing an awards ceremony for carers, which was pretty humbling, it was held in the Transport museum, I obviously had to commit a nuisance and pretend to be an engine driver!

York was glorious, blue skies and yellow sun and I managed to dip my toe into the terrifying ocean of Xmas shopping – well actually I didn’t, I just bought myself a load of stuff.
Oh well, now, I’ve a pice of gammon I’d like to put in the oven, so if you’ll excuse me.

RECENTLY

I HAVE BOUGHT – Apart from the snood, some trousers (Jigsaw) and some black leather brogue boots from Office.
I HAVE SEEN – Stella Duffy’s Taniwha Thames at the newly managed and much improved Oval House, three cheers for everyone doing there thing at this much forgotten little gem of a theatre.
BEEN READING – The Little Gods by Anna Richards, which I am really loving, part fairy tale, part dark black comedy, am really glad I picked this up.
FINALLY – I am thinking of taking up needle point as I am going to be spending all of December stuck in a dressing room, with no time to do very much, but too much time not to do anything! Watch this space…

On second thoughts I’ve changed my mind.

OH YES – And I have new glasses, trouble is they are far too heavy to wear for every day! Am still ‘wearing them in’

Been a busy couple of weeks, some gigs, some telly, some brouhaha that I’m not going to go into and quite a lot of visiting my father who is now lucky enough to be in a really kind and comfortable hospice in Bispham, the relief is enormous, not the hospice bit, if I could wave a magic wand my Dad would be on the golf course, he would be scoffing peanuts and drinking lager, but if he has to be old and poorly then I am glad he is being so well looked after, I am glad he is somewhere, where the staff do everything they can to make things easier, a huge thanks to them.

So apart from work and Dad time, on the social side of things I have had an old drama school mate and her husband to stay, I treated them to my hot pot and this time I remembered to put some salt and pepper in it – yum, there was none left, not even a scraping.

Old friends are great, I lived with Frances in Manchester in 1980, she is still very beautiful and time just evaporated, basically neither of us have changed all that much, it was easy.

The old man and I took them to Columbia Road market this morning, I got some flowers that are actually vegetables  (ornamental peppers) on stalks.

PEPPERS ON STALKS IN VASE

I also did a tiny bit of Xmas shopping- gah, it’s coming, we can’t stop it, even the fact I’m doing panto won’t let me off the Christmas hook, gird yourselves ladies, the madness is upon us.

Anyway down Columbia Road I saw this door, I think it’s my favourite door for the time being, do alert me to any rivals?

DOOR WITH FOX KNOCKER

THIS PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS

I HAVE – finished READING Caitlin Moran’s How to be a Woman, which is ace.

MISSED - seeing myself and Nick Hancock not win a load of money on Celebrity The Chase, ditto losing money for Children in Need on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip.

PLAYED – a new panel game for Radio 4 called Wordaholics with Giles Brandreth, Richard Herring, Alex Horne and Natalie Haynes (v funny genius).

SEEN -  Top Girls at The Trafalgar studios and We Need To Talk About Kevin at The Brixton Ritzy.

MADE – some cards for an auction, here they are, I think the shops will be crying out for these.

Anyway, I am quite tired now…  So that’s your lot kids, laters…