Time Flys…
When you’re busy and enjoying yourself!
I had a very spontaneous, yet fun weekend. Went out for drinks on Friday with the usual crowd and got up to the usual antics; drinking in pubs, going back to Mike & Nicky’s for Pizza and Whiskey, then going home at stupid o’clock having filmed/photographed half the goons asleep on the sofa while the other half tried to wake them up in various ways! Always good fun!
Saturday saw me head over to Miss Jennings’ household for the afternoon, which turned into all night and most of the next day. We drank an obscene amount of coffee, spoke an obscene amounts of words and watched a bit of TV. Steph also showed off her culinary (that’s a hard word to spell!) skills and made what I must say was probably the best home made Curry I’ve *ever* eaten. It was delicious – watch out Jamie Oliver! A good time was had by all and Jordan was most entertaining as usual! Thanks Steph!
After finally leaving, I went back to Catherine’s to find Steve pulling a Laurence Lewellyn Bowen, busy decorating the spare room. I had some food with them (the first meal Catherine has cooked me since I’ve known her, which must be almost 4 years – very nice though ;-)) and then headed home for some rest.
On Monday night I went into Brum and met Kerrie, who I’ve not seen for….months! Was nice to catch up and we visited the Sunflower Lounge, which I’ve not been to apart from a function downstairs, and then to a Wetherspoons pub (can’t remember the name) which was non smoking, so that was nice!
It seems like I’ve not stopped for the last few days. Got Scrat rehearsal tomorrow and who knows what for the rest of the week. All good!
Oh and Secret machines are touring! Nottingham here I come! Woo!
Currently rocking in my chair to: Biffy Clyro – ‘Infinity Land’
Imogen on Letterman.
Immi was due to perform on the world famous ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ on Tuesday this week, but after spending all day rehearsing/sound checking at Letterman and returning in the evening for the show, 2 minutes before she was due to go on the message came through to the dressing room that the show (which is broadcast live) had over-run and they wouldn’t have time for her performance! She was understandably gutted and much stressing ensued from her manager, tour manager and record company!
Fortunatley the good people at CBS/Letterman decided that they’d have time to fit her into the show the next day – so offered her the slot on Wednesday, as well as a Limo for the rest of Tuesday night as an apology! The only problem with this was that she was due to play the opening show of her US Tour that night (also in New York) and there was no way they could pack down all the gear and get it across town to Letterman in time for her to perform on the show after her gig. Plus she would have had to set up and rehearse for Letterman during the afternoon. It just wasn’t possible to do both with the gear she had. So in an extremely generous gesture Letterman offered to buy her a complete duplicate set of equipment so she could have one set in place at the TV studios all day and one set to do the gig with! Immi uses some pretty specialist/expensive gear so this was not a case of spending a few hundred quid, more like several thousand pounds I would have thought! So late that night and all the next morning Immi and her tour manager Kumar scoured music shops all over NYC finding all the gear she’d need to create a duplicate live set up.
In the end all turned out well. Despite a few technical glitches at the NY gig (she wisely decided to use the new set up there instead of live on national TV!) the gig was a success (sold out too!) and she went on to give a bloody brilliant performance on Letterman which everyone who has seen it seems to agree was superb! I’m so proud of her!
You can watch her performance here!
Blag Blog #1 : Fisherman’s Friends
I’m sure when I was a kid these were the strongest substance know to man? The used to literally used to blow your head off! We used to have competitions to see who could eat the most in one go!
But now they just seem…well…alright. But not particularly hardcore?!
Is it cause my taste buds have grown up?
UPDATE:
I contacted the Fisherman’s Friend makers via their website to ask them about whether they’d changed their recipe, here what I sent and the reply I got:
I’ve just posted the same question on my blog to see if any of my friends can answer it, but wa shoping you might be able to?
I’m sure when I was a kid Fisherman’s Friend were the strongest substance known to man? The used to literally used to blow your head off! We used to have competitions to see who could eat the most in one go!
But now they just seem very nice indeed, but not particularly hardcore?!
Is it because my taste buds have grown up? Or have you changed your recipe?
If you could let me know, that would be great!
Thanks, James
————————
On 1/12/06, Susan Lancaster
wrote:
Good morning JamesThank you for your interest in Fisherman’s Friend.
It must be that you have grown up and matured, because the receipe is still the traditional one that has been used for the last 140 years, we do have several different flavours these days, but the Original Extra Strong, is still the same old receipe that you tasted as a child.
If you would like some samples of our other flavours, send me your address and I can post some out to you.
Best regards
Susan Lancaster
So – it would appear that the recipe has not changed, but my taste buds have! AND I have some free samples winging their way to me now!
This example of generosity from a company is typical of those who wish to keep or win loyal customers through good customer service. In this case I wasn’t even complaining, purely making an enquiry! So it got me thinking….what else can I blag purely be enquiring about a product? I’m going to try and start a new section on my blog; the ‘blag blog’ and see what else I can blag, then blog about it!
I need suggestions, so post ‘em here or email me and let’s see what happens!
Stupid MySpace Error Message!
Oh ok! I’ll just book my plane ticket now then, and fly half way around the world to ‘go to the United States’ so I can watch that Shins video!
…And I don’t feel any different.
So the New year has been pretty boring and uneventful so far, but that’s ok. I think everyone is getting over the festivities and reluctantly getting back into the swing of ‘normal’ life. I actually read a news article that claimed the best thing to cure post Christmas blues was hard work – aiming for goals…maybe ‘they’ are right?
I’ve been pretty busy catching up on all the unanswered emails I got over the Christmas break – things with Imogen are about to go silly-busy so there’s lots of stuff going on behind the scenes. She’s selling out US and UK shows at a rapid rate (surprisingly fast in some cases) which is all very good and there might be a *really* cool UK show happening, so fingers crossed it happens!
In other news since my Dad has purchased himself a new Surround Sound system and DVD recorder I have acquired his vintage 70’s stereo speakers – they’re about a metre tall and over a foot wide each, so I have the equivalent of a Marshall stack sized stereo system now! They’re really good speakers. They cost him a hundred quid each in 1970something, and as parents like to remind you ‘that was a lot of money then’ so they must be half decent! I currently have the wired up as bass speakers/woofers and I’m using the AIWA speakers originally from my stereo as high speakers/tweeters – they seem to be mixing together pretty well – so maybe my stereo will get more use and the computer will get a rest…although my JBL computer speakers are some of the best I’ve ever heard (and only 50 quid!), so I won’t be forsaking them. I’ll just use both.
I’ve been watching a lot of 24 – I’m re-watching Season Two now, which is generally considered the weakest of the first four, but I’m not so sure – it might be the weakest, but it still craps on most stuff! I caught ‘Little Britain Night’ on BBC Three last night, which was very amusing. Matt Lucas & David Walliams did the first ever live TV commentary on a couple of episodes and some of the stuff they pointed out and spoke about was brilliant. Those fat suites cost 25 grand each to make!
Anyway – enough randomness, I’m off.
