My decreptitude continues apace and I wonder how one tells the difference between Alzheimer's and just getting old and your brain natural laying to waste. The other day I was doing the Guardian quick crossword and one of the clues was "Sunday Roast (3,2,4)". I had something like **G *F *A** and thought it was probably something "of lamb", but all I could come up with was "bag of lamb" which seemed unlikely. I really thought about it too. I couldn't even think of many three letter words and wondered if it was "egg of" something. Could it be "egg of lamb"? Perhaps lambs lay eggs. It's possible. Maybe they grow out of egg laying when (or if) they manage to make it to maturity. Stranger things have happened.
But until I saw the answer yesterday I did not even get close to the correct answer (have you got it yet?) "Leg of lamb". I mean how could I not have got that? Seriously. I was bit preoccupied with the idea of a bag of lamb and maybe the egg of lamb was putting me off. But how could I think of "egg of lamb" and not "leg of lamb". It defies belief.
I seem to be getting recognised a lot again. I don't really understand why this is happening as I haven't done anything very high profile for a while, yet suddenly people in the street seem to not only know me, but to know my name, which is unusual and a bit confusing. Because if someone shouts out your name rather than "Hey, aren't you Dom Joly?" then there is a chance that they are someone that you know, rather than someone who likes your work.
I don't mind people shouting out to me as generally they are people who like my stuff, but I am just a bit bamboozled as to how the recognition factor has suddenly upped recently. And it's not like it's ruining my life, as both the last two times I have been out in town two strangers have briefly said hello, which means I can go about my day to day existence without too much disturbance. But why is this happening now and not say ten years ago when I was at least on TV?
A young man shouted, "Rich" at me in the cinema tonight and I thought I might know him, but it turned out I didn't. He told me he'd seen me dealing with the heckler (I suppose that if about 150,000 people have seen that then it might be enough of a cause for this mini-celebrity) and was effusive but very complimentary. He didn't make a nuisance of himself and it is always a pleasant thing to be informed that someone enjoys your stuff.
Later, after the pubs had kicked out I was walking through Camden and a man holding a can of beer followed me up the road a bit and then addressed me by name. He looked like the kind of drunk, scruffy middle aged man that I might know and he knew my name, but it turned out that he just wanted to tell me that I had declined comedically. "But you're a Libran though aren't you?" he said as if this made any sense or followed his previous comment and laughd to himself at his excellent "joke". "No, I'm not,"I replied, scurrying onwards, slightly intimidated by his oddness, but at least balance was restored and there was no danger that my I would get big-headed after the first guy's compliments. Annoyingly though as the bloke knew my name I couldn't content myself with the fact that he thought I was Dom Joly. Though maybe in his head he was thinking of Dom Joly and just got the wrong name, in a reverse of what happens to me.
Anyway, just bamboozled by the recognition to be honest. More concerned about the lamb eggs though.
