Quake!

Well, that was weird.

Last night at 5 minutes to 1... Bobby and Louis are sound asleep in their beds, and Sam and Chantelle likewise, and I'm enduring another night of insomnia. I'm thoroughly enjoying my fourth episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip of the evening, doing some damage to the box set I bought, when all of a sudden, the bed starts to shake.

In a split second, I run through the options. Perhaps both the upstairs and downstairs flats have coincidentally installed several washing machines each during the day, and by further uncanny chance, switched them all on together on the highest spin setting.

Or aliens are landing.

Or I'm having an attack of some kind.

Then I realise that the tops of the wardrobes are swaying noticeably, and vibrations are shaking the whole flat. I can hear the fabric and structure of the entire block creaking, and I feel a mild anxiety. Obviously the building's not falling down, that would just be silly, but for fraction of a second I'm really annoyed about how poxy unlucky it would be if it was falling down on one of the nights that the boys are staying in it.

By now the shaking's been about 5 or seconds, and I'm really confused. I wonder about aliens again, then feel a bit silly.

Slowly the vibrations subside and in maybe 12 or 15 seconds it's all over. I'm really baffled about what's happened, and go to the boys room to make sure they're not awake and worried, but they're still soundo, and I peer out their bedroom window to look at the river, the Dome, and Canary Wharf, all of which are still there, rather reassuringly. I give them both a kiss, to say well done for their unwitting coolness under pressure. Then another one, as the fleeting image of a big pile of rubble shoots into and out of my head.

Vaguely disconcerted, I lie awake till two then drop off. I should've turned the radio on really, as all would have become clear. Precisely the same thing had gone on at BBC London's studio's in Marylebone High St, rather to the presenter's consternation ...(http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2008/02/27/earthquake_feature.shtml)

So, not aliens then. And not just a Californian phenomenon either...

OK - really fed up now.

Just spent half an hour pasting something (I thought) about life in Beautiful Downtown Gravesend... and it isn't there! Message came up saying something like
"Your contribution has been successful"... but no sign of it. Buggar!!

Hi Ryan!

I did try to log on to your live "Thing" I happened to be in the right place, at the right time, but technology got the better of me. I do hope it all went well. You have an amazing face... I hope it, and you, get the recognition you both deserve.

I am Ryan Stiles

I've made it to the improv masterclass, which means that I perform in front of an audience every Friday for the next three months. The good news: You can watch it LIVE on the theatre webcam! The bad news: it starts at 8:00 PM here, which is 4:00 AM for you. But if you find yourself awake then, by all means log on and watch me be brilliant.

The fake treat

My first YouTube posting! It's Lucy, our Jack Russell Terrier, pretending to be disciplined while we pretend to give her a treat. It's a very dysfunctional relationship.

Also in this video is Lucah, a 150-pound English mastiff that we dogsat while his owners, our friends Paul and Akiko, were getting married in Japan dressed as characters from Memoirs of a Geisha.

I figured it out after writing this...

Right, I came here fully intending to put together a post about my ski-trip with Sam, Chantelle and Marie, and my recent gig in Blackheath with Chris and Richard Holland, Phil Veacock and with a mystery tenor sax player that none of us knew who looked like a total geek. He in fact looked much more like Harry Potter than Sam did when he was 11, in the full Potter regalia, but who then proceeded to take the whole place by storm with his mad Minnie the Moocher singing and his Johnny Rotten style pogo-ing as he solo'ed.

I would have posted an mp3 or two, and some photos of the boy Samuel in his stripey snow gear, of which he is so proud.

I was also going to post the link to Lil's blog, in case people are interested. And I was going to see if there was any way of sorting out the fact that the columns on the far left of the home page seem to have a bit missing where it's spilled over the edge of the page.

But I couldn't find anywhere that said "create new post" or the like, even though I'm vaguely computer-literate. What chance do the less tech-minded parts of the family stand?? How do we do it? Am I being dim? [It would appear so, numbnuts. - A later more awake version of Jon]


Anyway, last Friday was a truly brilliant day. I finally closed a bit of business in the morning, having been unable to close so much as a door so far this year, then went and saw Cirque du Soleil at teh Albert Hall in teh afternoon.

Danny Baker had said on his show that this one wasn't so hot - "Cirque du So-So", he called it, so I wasn't expecting as much as the previous times I've seen them. But they were ace. Even though when you've seen loads and loads of small Chinese people vaulting through the air risking life adn limb, half an hour later you find you want some more.

So Dan's review was frankly tosh. And then we belted from Kensington Gore straight to the Valley, where the match of the season took place against the hated Palace, adn we gave them a sound shoeing, with the atmosphere probably better than I've ever heard it, right from the very first minute.

2-0 to the proper Londoners (everyone knows Palace aren't really from London, it's Croydon really. Any SE postcode above 18 is frankly an imposter). The excellence of the display temporarily allowed us all to forget the fact that we've just sold our best player. He was too fat to be a proper footballer really.

So that would kind of have been my post. Wish I knew how to do it properly.

[And now, I do, so I should do some of the things I said I would, I suppose...]

Correction!!!

I think I got that a tad wrong... Marcus will be 6 next month - I think he has to be 7 to join the Beavers, but I am sure will make his presence felt whenever possible before that. Bless!

An Addition to 17.02.08

I should mention that Louis led the party most of the way, shooting off with great enthusiasm, with Marcus in hot pursuit as fast as his little legs would carry him! Marcus can join the Cubs next year when he is six, when he can join the Beavers. I don't fully understand the hierarchy, but all looks like good, clean, healthy, educational fun - takes me back to my days as a Brownie. No James - I wasn't a chocolate cake (though was probably quite sweet). Brownies are the girl equivalent of Cubs... don't ask me why!

A lovely weekend with Jon and the two youngest Van Leers

We have just had the most perfect weekend, weatherwise - England at her beautiful best! Jon invited me to join him, Louis and Marcus to see Charlton play... ummm... Somebodyorother - couldn't actually get a ticket for me, but somehow blagged me in. Very satisfying to see the stadium packed full. Charlton were 2 up at half time, so we celebrated with a pint... during which Somebodyorother scored two goals. 2 all sounded OK to me, but apparently that was not good. We commiserated afterwards with hot dogs all round, and a few more pints. Took a taxi back to Jon's, and drowned our sorrows with a tasty roast and red wine.

I stayed over, and we went off today (Sunday) to Christmas Tree Farm in Keston, where Louis' cub pack were visiting the Pets' section - saw and fed sheep, goats (one of which demonstrated giving birth before our very eyes- fascinating!), ponies, cows, lamas, various posh chickens, geese, rabbits, guineapigs, hamsters, pigs (with whom a big white rabbit had set up home) - all very lovely. After consuming an open air lunch in the sunshine, we trooped off, clutching maps, on an hour-long country walk to Keston Ponds, where Archaela produced hot dogs and hot drinks on a gas stove. Louis will have earned another Badge - we earned thanks for our assistance. Photos to follow.