Running cold

Easter Sunday last year was glorious sunshine as I completed a 10K run along the coast. This time, it was snowing, 2 degrees and a cutting wind. Still managed to complete it and thoroughly enjoyed it. A special person was there to greet me at the end, it made me run faster.

Domain scam

A family member was contacted by a so called domain name provider who said they had a persistent man on the phone wishing to purchase a lot of domains based on my relative's company name. My relative contacted me and I quickly worked out it was a scam. IServeUK are the dodgy company who prey on businesses getting them to buy up domains before the 'incessant man' buys them all. A list of scammers can be found at http://www.domainscams.co.uk/ and you can report them to Nominet.

Phoenix night out

Continuing the comedy theme, went to see Dave Spikey last night (Jerry from Phoenix nights), an old style club comedian with real funny stories, sayings and observations. He reckons he convinced his old slow school friend that he should become a binman as they only work one day a week. He ended the night playing us ridiculous lyrics we all know from popular songs but took the pi$$ out of them. Very funny man.

Girls can be funny too

To mark the end of the Newcastle Gateshead Comedy Festival I went along to a couple of shows. The best one was the improvisation set with 5 people including Phil Jupitas and Steve Frost. A bit like Whose Line Is It Anyway, with audience participation, this was brilliant and very funny. The last sketch was manic where they did voices for each other while onboard a ship (not a real one). The second show, local comics including Gavin Webster, the award-winning Sarah Millican and Richard Morton performed to a small audience. Sarah came out best with her dry humour, a girl to look out for. Girls can be funny too, they scare some men though.

My ar$e, chase me

Can you remember Duncan Norvelle? If I said 'Chase Me', you might remember this as his catchphrase. A very camp comedian who appeared with Ricky Tomlinson (plays Jim Royle in The Royle Family) who we went to see at the weekend. I used to cringe at Duncan on TV but he was actually very funny, even when getting a huge bald builder up from the audience and making him skip across the stage. Ricky was also good with his down to earth funny stories from the past. Some woman behind me had a ridiculous laugh that sounded like a high pitched car starting and that made us laugh more. A great night out though.

Can't cook, won't cook it all

Not sure how Kublai Khan can live up to its 'restaurant' status, when it makes you queue for food, pick your veg & raw meat from a tupperware, then take it to be cooked. Not much skill required there, may as well put it in the microwave. Pretty sure they deliberately forget to put noodles/rice on the plate after you've left it with them for cooking and they also take some food off your plate. This was consistent in our party, so watch out for it.