frog 14 June 2010
One of my work colleagues became a Dad for the first time recently. When he returned to work I expected to be tortured with photos of the new baby or at least to see a lovely picture of the son and heir as the screensaver on his iphone – no, as of last week he still had a coloured frog up on the phone (which he was so mortified about when I teased him that I imagine it has been replaced with the human offspring now!)…I had a moment of wondering if his son actually was a frog (we live in interesting times), and then relaxing in the knowledge that, if so, he would get kissed a lot in his life, as girls and/or boys tried to change him into a handsome and dashing prince. He is now referred to in conversation between me and said Dad as The Frog Prince. And he is a very pretty frog, it must be said, and I’d say very easy to hold on your shoulder as he’d have good clinging power too. There are advantages in frogs over babies, is all I’m saying…
green 13 June 2010
A friend opined recently that a person cannot be funny in green. I’m sure it was meant as a great, almost Wildean, witticism and I’ll freely admit it did sound SMART (and I was a little jealous of that) as sounding smart is circa half the battle with the old Bon Mot…but I wonder if it’s accurate??? Could it possibly matter what colour you’re wearing when you’re trying to be funny – might one only be amusing, say, in lavender? yet hilarious in orange?
And if green is so associated with Ireland and the Irish where does that leave our myriad comedians, comic actors and the glorious, ordinary, jolly, common-or-garden bullshitters? (of which we are surely a nation…)
Very worrying indeed…
world cup 12 June 2010
I drew France in the World Cup sweep at work. Anyone interested in football, or indeed a good inter country scrap, will know that this was the team that put Ireland out in the qualifiers, with a controversial handball incident from Thierry Henri featuring heavily in the action of that night. Doubly awful for me when it happened, as I had a major pash for Monsieur Henri which I have now had to shelve in order to retain my Irish passport. So, it’s a cruel irony that the French are my team now for the month BUT I do think it would be great to win some money on them to ease some of the hurt and restore a little national pride – however, there are only prizes for winner and runner-up and I fear France won’t make either place no matter how fervently I am whispering Allez Les Bleus! And they drew with Uruquay in their opening match…
confetti 10 June 2010
I attended a fake wedding today – they take a lot longer to get through than real ones, I can tell you. Well, to be honest, it was just the bride’s arrival, a bit of chat and the strewing of confetti – it took a couple of hours to consign to televisual history so if we’d done the ceremony and all we’d only just be finished now, I’d say. The confetti supplied by the art department was very pretty indeed – lots of shapes and quite large petals – but my goodness, like sand, it gets everywhere. I was still finding slivers in my dressing room at tea time and we’d filmed it outdoors in the morning. In the old days when film was used, rather than video, the gate/portal of the camera that allowed the light to mark the film would be checked after takes to make sure no specks had tainted it – ‘a hair in the gate’ meant you had to go again on the shot. Today it would have been a case of confetti in the gate. As it was, I think we missed an opportunity for more jollity by not having ribbons on the camera to make it all festive too – ditto for the sounds men’s booms (though it was windy and the microphones had had their little furry jackets on to muffle any breezy sounds).
bits 9 June 2010
SHRIEK! My poor old body certainly needed working on today. First up the reflexology – quite uncomfortable because various areas of me are WRECKED. The lovely Angela at Harvey Nicks in Manchester is the woman to deal with you in this way – she doesn’t talk to you about the various problems till after she’s done and she could pinpoint everything that’s wonky about me right now (some are things that have been problems for some time too). Then I went to the Apple shop where a lovely young man called Christian was endlessly patient with me about the fact that I am the sort who deals with a laptop being on fire by turning it off and turning it on again – simples! And while he was speaking and showing me various things I understood what he was saying, then he stopped talking and a little remained for a short while, then faded off into the internet (probably). Angela had said I was to follow what my body told me and it said SLEEP so I did just that for a while this afternoon, then went back for a massage from Stacey – again it was uncomfortable as things aren’t great with the McLynn physiognomy right now. I am now in BITS. Still, we have another date to do it all again next Wednesday and on and on till it’s fixed-ish or bettER. In the meantime my body is dealing with everything by shutting down whenever it can and I’m hoping that’ll speed things along and I’ll be back to myself soon. I am hoping the laptop won’t follow suit and shut down too, though, and that it is well pleased with being paid attention today.
reflexology 8 June 2010
I worked as a receptionist for a chiropodist once for a summer when I was at Second Level at school. I loved having a summer job (and it was my first) and I blew my first week’s wages entirely on a beautiful rust-coloured top I had visited in Moons of Galway for AGES – my Mum painted a picture of me in it that was gorgeous and I must ask her whatever became of that – i’d love it on a wall…ANYHOW, thing is, I think feet should be mostly left to themselves and admired if possible but hidden if not. HOWEVER I have booked myself some reflexology for tomorrow morning as a treat. I had some at the very capable hands of a trained family friend years ago in Galway – Ms Maura Hosty – and I loved it. So this one’s ‘for her’, as they say, and HArvey Nick’s Spa in Manc have a lot to live up to…
lift 7 June 2010
Many thanks to my brother Ian and sis-in-law Curly for bringing me to Dublin airport today – they’re wonderful. We loaded the Mammy into the back of the car and set off on one of our RoadTrips – the last for this particular combo of us was in a van to collect furniture from Kilkenny to bring to the Dublin house, so kind of the other way round – and we went on a splendid accidental detour via the ‘Sunny’ southeast of Ireland while we were at it on that occasion. Today was much more direct. Glad to be with them as I got a terrible dose of the blues leaving town after yet another Cat Laughs Comedy Festival was done, the rain had arrived and we headed back to Real Life – quite miserable. And for some reason I have a constant headache right now and a terribly sore hard palate – I don’t really get doses of things but perhaps this is one? I don’t really recognise lurgies that well cos I rarely get them…
Filming first thing in the toilet of the Jockey tomorrow – ah, glamour!
laff 6 June 2010
The lack of WiFi has my heart broken – hence the lack of blogs. I know it’s not a very scientific or technological explanation but I sort of think the laptop has brought some UK vibe with it to the midlands of Ireland and the Irish end of things is having none of it…refuses to ‘play ball’. I even tried using my iTouch to email this to ye and it’s in a similar position, having travelled from The England with me and is now viewed as besmirched somehow also. EEEK.
I’ve been seeing lots of gigs since I got here. I must say, whatever about enjoying the comedy, I am getting a huge kick out of seeing people gather for their fun. It makes my SO proud that Richard had this idea, 16 years ago, and it’s till going strong and is now a huge feature of this Irish Bank Holiday weekend. It’s quite touching to me that people have chosen to come to town and attend the gigs and to feel their pleasure in doing that is a wonderful thing.
I would report on the funnies I have seen but as I may have said to ye before I am the ideal comedy audience, as I laugh at the gags and then forget them immediately. So I could sit through the same gig a few times and all it means is that I go ‘ah, I love this bit’ and then it’s gone and I can enjoy it all over again whenever I see that set done again. Goldfish Comedy Memory, I guess.
Those of you familiar with the Cat Laughs Festival will know that Sunday is soccer match day with the Irish versus the Rest of the World. It is taken very seriously indeed by the comedians and over the years the crowds turning up to watch have swelled to great numbers…it’s almost like a free gig, really, because there’s commentary from comics over a PA system as well as shenanigans on the pitch. And the weather is nice and balmy for it today (after LASING rain last night) – perfect.
FECK 3 June 2010
i am on borrowed interweb, even as i type. arrived in lovely kilkenny for the CAT LAUGHS comedy festival and went straight to my favourite haunt ZUNI to have a glass of wine and use the wifi BUT my frickin cranky laptop is connected but refusing to admit it – all advice gratefully accepted on that one…
the town is looking magnificent and expectant of at least 20,000 visitors and festival goers over the bank holiday weekend – brainchild of the Husband is the festival itself now in its 16th year – hooray! and here’s to some laughter – there hasn’t been enough of it this year but let’s hope this is the turn now…all else is a tad tedious…
crazy 2 June 2010
Well, I certainly annoyed one person out there by talking about acting method and otherwise – I think they may have missed that I was not altogether serious – oh dear…
Went on a gal’s outing tonight to SEX AND THE CITY and I have to say it’s LONG and perhaps didn’t need to be all that lengthy? It must class as some sort of showbiz irony that I have a 6.30 pick up in the morning to go, erm, FILMING – argh! I think we’ll be needing the tangible power of make-up to do its best for me then but as the SHAMELESS make-up department were part of said outing, they are well forewarned.
Then it’s a plane to Ireland and Kilkenny for the wonderful CAT LAUGHS comedy festival – anyone undecided as to what they should do with the Irish Bank Holiday should head there and enjoy the best in world stand-up comedy.