Chef for a day

Well I got the best Xmas present ever this year from the beautiful lady in my life. Masterchef finalist David Hall is going to come round my house and give me some professional cooking advice, let me decide on a 4 course meal to make and be shown all the techniques and how to cook it to perfection. Very exciting, can't wait. Just got to think of four ways to make beans on toast now ;) Of course I will blog it when it all happens.

Shields lasses win awards

Great to see that local South Shields comedian Sarah Millican is starting to make an impact into the national comedy circuit. We went to see her some time ago, you can read about it here. She's just won best newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, that's a big achievement. Look out for her, starting with an appearance on Have I Got News For You in December. Hopefully it won't be too long before she does a gig near her home town and I can go along.

He's a count...ry boy...

Last night ended up being such a good one, seeing Rich Hall the American comedian, writer and musician. He's often seen on QI, Have I got News For You and performed alongside Jack Dee. He did stand-up in his own ironic style for the first half then stormed the place in the second half with his character based (Otis Lee Crenshaw) pi$$-take out of country songs, playing the keyboard along with his deliberately sombre band. He won an award for this and it's easy to see why. His songs and part improvised songs about women, whisky and members of the audience were pure genius and hilarious. We had such a good night, would see him all over again as long as we can sit somewhere where there wasn't a constant smell of sulphurhuric logs from some fat blokes ass.

Black Sack, Sack Pink!

Look at the size of this Santa I couldn’t help noticing in Manchester above the busy Christmas Markets at the weekend. What a huge sack. Apparently in a previous year Santa could be seen moving up and down. I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t see him do that, like a perverted pole dancer. By the way, all I want for Xmas is to stop hearing that annoying crap Pink song that sounds like a female version of Keith Allan’s football anthem Vindaloo.

Carr not in top gear

We expected to see a great show when we went along to see Jimmy Carr, the Joke Technician but he just didn't deliver. The funniest people there were the audience with their weird comments and questions. Jimmy kept asking "Have you got any questions?", as if he'd ran out of material and the audience kept asking him "Are you gay?". They must've been getting mixed up with his brother, Alan.

Cooked Butt not cooked

I was kindly invited to go along to HanaHana, a Japanese restaurant where they cook your food on a big hot plate in front of you. The last time I went, the food seemed better I must admit but that time I’d had a bit to drink and would probably think eating the sole of my shoe was nice. This time I got up to do the trick where you put an egg on the hot plate, take one of the spatulas and throw it in the air catching it in your chef’s hat. Sounds hard, but I did it without falling back onto the other hot plate and cooking my butt. Sushi was nice, but the fish didn’t seemed cooked ;)

Tardis makeover

I've never managed to see an episode of the new Dr. Who, but I've just found out that David Tenant is going to be replaced. I got thinking who could take over, and the perfect Time Lord candidate is Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen (not Jim's son), surely. Imagine the cushions in the tardis. I got off the bus the other day and was behind the old Dr Who from my day and took a photo of him just before that ray of light cut him in half!