Categories
Uncategorized

Welcome to the Euro 2012 prediction game

Just over a week to go, and I’m thinking about how best to run the game and get interaction going between the players.

There is a hashtag, #euroguff, but I thought I’d experiment with a group blog. This way, when I update the results and send out my usual nonsense, it will appear on this website and you’ll be able to contribute/post too.

More later.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

I’ve entered these three pix in Dog Photographer of the Year

Worth a pop

Dogsatplay_carlmesnerlyons

Mansbestfriend_carlmesnerlyons

Portrait_carlmesnerlyons

Categories
Uncategorized

Sugar

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Nun

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Beckham

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Goth

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

A day off and Lord’s

Photo

I have the day off, and it’s a beautiful summer’s day. I have a book, some food and I’m at Lord’s for a county game.

It’s heavenly, and it’s nearly empty. I’d estimate 300 people in the ‘crowd’.

I’m not complaining as such – being able to spread out, and do the crossword with nothing other than the chuntering of a few be-tweeded old buffers is what John Major intended.

But it’s crazy that a four-day game starts on a Wednesday when only the retired and the holidaying can attend. No-one would think to schedule professional football games when most people are working, so why does county cricket seem wilfully difficult?

It must be hard to shift ‘tradition’ even when it’s serving little purpose, but surely they could play these games starting Friday 3pm – especially when we have a long bank holiday weekend coming up.

I’m caught between enjoying this most English of serenities and worrying it can’t possibly survive many more years.

Categories
Uncategorized

Canned laughter

There's an interview with Graham Linehan with this reference to people's misunderstandings of "canned laughter".

Graham Linehan would like to make one thing really clear, Father Ted was filmed in front of a studio audience. It might look as thought it’s all done in a draughty house on a remote Irish island, but in fact it’s a studio set. Linehan is irked by the persistence of the idea that the sitcom has canned laughter on it.

“I get asked it all the time,” he says, his Dublin accent tinged with faint exasperation. “It’s like the moon landings or something.”

I know this to be true as one day in the mid 90s, I was working at Guinness and picked up the phone to a man asking me if I was aware of a programme called Father Ted. Seems odd now, but at the time, it wasn't that well known. However, I had plenty of Irish friends and they had been raving about it for a year or two already. 

It turned out that the voice was the late, much-missed, Dermot Morgan* (Ted himself), and he wondered whether there was any chance of a barrel of Guinness for the end of show wrap party. I was more than happy to help and he invited me and a friend down to the filming on the South Bank.

The episode we saw was Flight Into Terror which btw includes a couple of covert appearances from Linehan as a priest and Pauline McLynn (usually Mrs Doyle) as a nun.

It was a great evening and I can testify that the laughter is very real and absolutely from the audience. However, my main memory is how welcommed we were made to feel. The beer had been delivered, so no-one had any particular reason to be nice to us, but Dermot took time to look out for us, get us in the green room and share a bundle of gags with us. What a genuinely lovely fella.

Tedplane

* Dermot was a well known comedian in Ireland and apparently used to introduce himself with "Hello, my name's Dermot Morgan – that's big M, small organ."

Categories
Uncategorized

Sorority

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

This supersedes Pacman

Photo

Best video game ever

Categories
Uncategorized

Defender

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Uppercut

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Dracula

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Enjoyed drawing this one

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Victim

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Icicle

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Pacman

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Wanted

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Shave

Photo
Categories
Uncategorized

Survivor

Photo