Blog: Cardiff

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I'd arranged to meet my gentleman apprentice near Paddington Bear on the station concourse yesterday, ready to head off to Cardiff, but got into a bit of a panic when I realised I couldn't find the statue. THIS was pretty much the only thing that even NEARLY went wrong (I rang him. He was just round the corner) in an EXTREMELY smooth running section of TOUR.

Even the train journey, even on First Great Western, was FINE. We ZOOMED along in our pre-booked seats. I'd not bothered to pre-book before, as there were no cheap tickets, but as Steve pointed out doing it this way at least meant we were guaranteed to get a SEAT. "Perhaps the apprentice can teach the master something?" he said later, when i commented on how much better it was. I made him do 20 laps of the sports field for CHEEK. In my head.

We got to Cardiff and checked into the Ibis where They Had Give Me My Usual Room. I opened the curtains thinking "I wonder how far away the venue is?" to be answered IMMEDIATELY with "It's just there, over the road." HOOPLA! We regrouped and strolled over, bumping into Mr and Mrs Hodgkiss as we did so. We dropped off our GEAR, and whilst doing so told the venue chap that THAT was our soundcheck. He thought we were joking but we disabused of this notion by UPPING STICKS and heading off to WEATHERSPOONS, saying hello to Josh The Promoter as we went. Cardiff appeared to be FULL of people we knew!

Now, normally I would avoid Weatherspoons, as I think they create BORING pubs where all people want is CHEAP BOOZE... but it WAS curry night, and the beer WAS a) very nice b) exceedingly cheap, and there WAS four of us having a jolly old time, so this time - THIS time, Mr Weatherspoon - i made an exception. Cor though, it really WAS cheap, and the curry was Surprisingly Pleasant. Duly jollied along and fed we wandered back to Cafe Gwdihw (pronounced "goody-who" it is BRILLIANTLY Welsh for "Owl"!) where we enjoyed DEAD SOPHISTICATED White Beer with a slice of ORANGE in it! OOH!

A couple of other acts were laid on, so we eventually started at the Unusually Late (for us) time of 10PM, and so we were Slightly More ENHANCED by sophisticated beer than we usually would be. Thankfully we have done the show ENOUGH that this didn't really (i don't think) harm the running of things, although I have to confess that my ACTING SKILLS did occasionally defeat me, as I forgot i was meant to be doing THE ACTING and instead stood there GRINNING.

We'd intended to do the whole thing on the mini-stage, but once we'd started it felt like we were MILES away from the audience, so i took the unilateral decision to step OFF the stage and into the space at the front. Unfortunately this meant I was stood in front of the DOOR, so we did have a few unexpected interruptions as people came in or left but, actually, that was quite good fun. My FAVOURITE bit was when one of The Giant Robots CHASED someone from the building. He's building his part more and more every time we do it, is that Giant Robot.

It was all HEAPS of fun, and everyone else seemed to enjoy it too, so that we sat back for a relaxing fancy pint afterwards with loads of smiling faces. Best of all, it was only a two minute walk back to bed when it was all over - a MASSIVE victory for all concerned on all points. Well done team!

posted 19/11/2010 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Cafe Gwdihw is LOVELY! It's like being in someone's front room!
posted 21/11/2010 by Thom

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