Amazing what you spot on TV

On a Friday evening I am just about able to stay awake until the end of Friday Night with Jonathon Ross. After this Colin usually stays up to watch Later with Jools Holland but puts it on Sky+ anyway in case he can't stay awake to the end! When I got up on Staurday morning, he was watching the recorded episode and said, "Come and look at this interesting piece of knitwear on Jools Holland last night".

Wondering what on earth I was going to see - Jools can have some quite obscure artists on his shows sometimes - I watched as he interviewed Smokey Robinson. Nothing interesting to see there, but then........the camera panned to the audience and who did I see but a rather rough looking Noel Fielding! Ignore the sourpuss look on his face, ignore the mountain of beer on the table, look at his BOHUS!!!!

I may now have to re-consider stranded knitting!!

Ireland, to be sure.

Seeing as we have been back from our hols for 10 days now, I thought I ought to post a few pics which aren't Booshy!

The first place we stopped when we got there was Gorey, Co. Wexford. Some friends of ours moved back here from North Wales about a year ago so we stayed with them for 2 nights. These are their children. Do not ask me to spell their names, there are too many bs and hs in there to get my head around but phonetically they are Niall(l), Cweeva(r) and Derval(middle). Unfortunately Cweeva had her eyes closed in every one of the photos I have.
(Edit: the names are Niall, Caoimhe and Dearbhail)



From there we headed over to the west coast to Lahinch in Co. Clare where we had an apartment for 5 nights. This is one of the two streets there, the other is a main street with several pubs and shops.


The weather was pretty dismal for the first few days but we drove around looking at the beaches from under our rainhoods and through the car windows. One evening in Lahinch there was a surfing competition and between the rounds there was a husband and wife who went out on one surfboard and performed acrobatic feats for our entertainment.




On the Tuesday the weather cleared up and we were able to go to The Cliffs of Moher which is apparently the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland.


I thought this one was rather attractive too. She was called Bessie


and this was her owner busking at the Cliffs


Gratuitous shots of me and Colin at The Cliffs




On our last night in Lahinch there was a lovely sunset out of the window of the restaurant we were eating at




Oh I do have a couple more Booshy photos. Here you can see how high up we were from the stage


And this is a rather blurry shot of Noel. The pictures had to be taken without the theatre staff seeing as you weren't supposed to take photos.


I finally finished reading The Cure Of Souls by Phil Rickman last night. I can't believe it took me nearly two months to read this. That's the knitting habit for you! I do like this series of books but I felt it got a bit higgledy piggledy at the end. Maybe it was because I took so long to read it and lost the thread of the story. The next book I am gong to read is Storm Front by Jim Butcher.

In knitting news The Tweedy Waistcoat is coming along nicely, no pics yet! I have the back and one and a half fronts done. I didn't realise before I started that it was knit in so many pieces. I do like the two colours that I (and Anne at the LYS) picked for this, they do go well together and it will be quite understated but smart enough for work.

Oh yeah, me & Noel & Julian, we're like THAT (holds up crossed fingers)

I am back off my holliers! We went to Ireland for 10 days starting with 2 days with some friends in Wexford and then going over to Co. Clare for 5 days. But enough about that......................

The reason we went was because Colin's nephew had got us tickets to see The Mighty Boosh in Dublin on 17th September. The seats were in the upper circle and it was general seating and quite a few people were in already when we got there so we were on the end, four rows from the front. We had to lean forward a bit to see all the stage and we couldn't see the screen at the back but there were only 2 times when you needed to see that and hopefully we will have good seats at Manchester in December.

Anyway..............(.don't read the next bit of you haven't seen the show yet and don't want to spoil it. I'll do it in a different colour so you know where to scroll down to.)

They came out singing "Future Sailors", Noel in sparkly silver top, black jeans & silver boots and Julian in a lovely white sailor suit with blue piping! Then they did a bit of banter about what they'd been doing since series 3. It was then time to introduce their special guests....the usual suspects arrived, Bob Fossil, Naboo and Bollo. Then Noel as Tony Harrison, Julian as Crack Fox, the Boosh band featuring Rudi on guitar, the Hitcher singing "Eels". After the interval it was time for one of Howard Moon's plays. This was all totally new material and culminated in the 2 of them in very skimpy outfits showing off the full glory of their pasty white legs!! Then the band came out again and Noel, Julian, Mike, Dave and Rich were all dressed as old ladies doing the Nanageddon song, swinging handbags and all. Finally there was a medley of songs from the TV series including the soup song and bouncy bouncy. There is a really funny bit involving the Honey Monster too. (There are links in this paragraph, just click on the names of the songs to see YouTube videos)

We didn't see anyone dressed up in the audience but apparently the night before there had been someone in a full panda outfit!!

And then there was the book signing!!!!!!!!!!! We knew that there was going to be a signing of the Mighty Book of Boosh on Saturday 20th at 1pm. So we had planned to go down to Easons at about 10am and I would get in the queue while Colin parked the car somewhere easy to get to ready to head off to get the ferry afterwards. But on Friday we went into Easons and there was a notice up saying they were only issuing 250 tickets on a first come first serve basis so I thought I'd have no chance. I was so disappointed because I was almost looking forward to that more than the show itself, the chance to actually meet them in person. Although Colin was suffering with a cold and cough he got me up at 5am (what did I do to deserve him?) and we arrived at Easons at 5.30am and there was NO-ONE THERE. I was FIRST in the queue. We queued outside for 3 hours then were let in and I got ticket number one


and we queued for another four and a half hours sitting on the floor of the shop,

and then THERE THEY WERE.................

Julian looking very cool in his shades, and Noel just looking cool anyway, can he ever look anything but?




I think this photo is of Noel talking to me.......


and this is him possibly signing my book or the one we got for Peter & Jenny (Colin's nephew & girlfriend).




Didn't manage to get in any of the photos with them (Colin did his best among the security men and bookshop staff!) but I think the photo of Noel signing with Julian without his sunglasses on, is Noel signing my book. Julian had the book first and he took off his glasses and looked me straight in the eyes with this HUGE beaming smile, and I just didn't know what to say. I just smiled back and said "Hi Julian!" Then he passed the book to Noel and I said to Noel "I've been here since half past five to get first in the queue" and he said "Did you get first in the queue?" (there had been 8 competition winners who were brought in first to get signed) and I said "Yep!" Then he signed the book and I said "Thank you" and put my hand out and he shook my hand!!!!!!!! and he said "Nice to meet you" and then it was all over! But Oh God, it was brilliant!! I touched Noel Fielding and he spoke to me!!!!!!! They are both so nice and polite, but the funny thing was they looked really big, like bigger than lifesize, it was quite odd.

And here is the proof that it all happened......


I have reserved 2 tickets for the signing in Manchester in December too, so this time I'll be prepared with questions and I'll make sure Colin gets me in a photo with them.

Someone came in a full Old Gregg outfit, but she was too late to get a ticket, bless her. Full marks for being brave enough to walk through Dublin dressed like that though.

(Click any of the above photos to see them in all their full size glory!)