Ah, how I have missed tiny Andrew Collings. I wish he had agreed to come on holiday with us and been our butler. I could also have sent him round to intimidate or bore the neighbours when they got noisy. But today we were back together recording the landmark 150th Collings and Herrin podcast. I was still a bit dippy from the jetlag and the conversation was a bit rambling, but right at the end managed to be insulting to a fine British film director and his family, so it's worth listening until the end.
Surely you know where to find it by now.
You will also get to hear
Axle Pineapple (possibly not his real name)'s excellent song about the Men of Phise.
Otherwise I made the most of my day - have been waking up at 6ish every day since I got back and you can pack a lot more in if you get up this early. I still didn't really get the chance to do any real work (I don't think a podcast counts) and was slightly scuppered in the afternoon when I discovered that once again my car battery had gone flat (it's good I realised today though, rather than tomorrow when the tour unbelievably begins). My car is not a decade old and maybe not up to the rigours that I put it through and the lack of love I give it. I have let the old girl have a break though and will be using a hire car for the most arduous legs of the tour, but until the end of the month the commutes are relatively easy. I hope my decade old banger doesn't let us down.
I also made a decision on which venue I will be playing at this year's Fringe, though I better not reveal it until it's all confirmed. Here we go again.
But for now I have to concentrate on Christ on a Bike and glad to say that sales are looking strong for the opening gigs. The Gulbenkian theatre in Canterbury looks like it will be almost full,
but there are still some tickets left, you Kents. It feels like more than three weeks since I last did it and I hope I haven't forgotten all the new bits (or indeed the old bits), but in the end I think the holiday after the London run was a good thing. It feels like a new start rather than the 26th gig of the tour and it's good to have 25 of the 90 or so shows under my belt. All the details, plus info about series 3 of AIOTM
can be seen in the latest newsletter.
This evening my girlfriend and I watched the thrilling climax to season 2 of the excellent, funny, though quite harrowing and depressing "Breaking Bad". It's really worth a look if you haven't seen it, with some controversial subject matter being tackled and excellent performances. I knew I recognised the actor who plays Walter White, the main character, but it was only today that I realised where from (because Andrew Collings told me). He is also the dad in "Malcolm in the Middle" and shows himself to be an amazing and versatile actor. I hope season 3 will be released on DVD or shown on UK TV soon, though apparently it hasn't taken off here, like a lot of excellent American shows. Well it is important that there is plenty of room to show "Coming of Age" and "Celebrity Juice" so we mustn't clog up the airwaves with too much other stuff.
And I got an email from a William Turrell has kindly done some Ferrero Rocher maths for me. Here's it is:
"Just so you know, if you carry on this way by 2025 the chocolates will have cost you a minimum of £68,808.60. To be on the safe side I'd round it up to at least £70,000 with shipping.
I can't emphasise enough the importance of shopping around and negotiating the best possible price - that figure is based on the lowest PPFR (pence per Ferrero Rocher) I can find: 26.25p. That's from a wholesaler in Devon who will send you 5 packs of 16 for £21, but raise that by just a penny and your overall bill goes up by £1,310.
Also there's no guarantee the Devon company will be able to cope with the larger orders. They have a photo of their warehouse (a small unit on an industrial estate) on their website, but I reckon you'll have easily outgrown it by the start of the next decade. Plus they *might* consider the chances of your relationship ending (exacerbated, perhaps, by the construction of the pyramid) too much of a risk given the time they will have to dedicate to you as a single customer.
(You're welcome.)
William
P.S. Please note I did remember not to include the cost of the 15 chocolates you have already bought.
