Gone West

Our place near St Ives is not booked for the bank holiday so we made a late decision to spend a couple of days in Cornwall . Drove down after work yesterday and woke this morning to the seemingly now traditional grey sky and drizzle . No worries , a cider farm and the Newlyn Fish Festival sound like fun alternatives to the beach . (posted from my mobile just to see if it works )

Picnic In The Park

PC time a bit restricted this week so a bit late with the blogging.

Once a year around this time of year we have a picnic at the local country park. Nothing formal, just a general invite to friends and family to be there at a certain time on a certain day. This Sunday was this years "event".

There was a bit of coming and going throughout the afternoon but in all close to 50 turned up. Someone up there was looking after us, the weather was perfect.

With picnic eaten and beers drunk it was time (for some anyway) for football, cricket, tennis, rounders and frisbee. All who took part in the (non competitive and to be honest not exactly strenuous) activities had great fun, but to a man, and woman, seemed to be suffering from aches and pains in various places the next day, not least myself. Perhaps my previous post regarding the need to exercise a bit more really was a timely reminder that a 47 year old body really can't carry on pretending to be 27 any more.

I really envy those every day people that manage to take part in events like the London Marathon. If I start training now maybe I'll be able to take part in next years game of rounders and actually score a run without needing to stop for a rest at third base.

Exercise Is Good For You

The old middle-aged spread is starting to take a hold so I thought it's about time to partake in some regular exercise. Not too sure what it would do to my blood pressure though.

Tube Top Pilates - Watch more Funny Videos

Pure Vanity

www.andygrace.co.uk

This blog can now be accessed via the much shorter and easier to remember address shown above.
Pure vanity, but at £5.98 for 2 years it's much cheaper than a personalised number plate. Especially as the one below, the best I can find, is available for a cool £8995.

I Almost Strayed ........

I've read a lot of comments regarding Wordpress and it's ease of use for blogging so I thought I'd take a look at it.

I opened up an account and found that I could easily export his blog in it's entirety to the new one in one click. Pretty impressive so far. But after dabbling around with it for a while I found some features that were better, whilst some were not so good. Something just didn't seem right.

In the end I decided to stay with the devil I know (some might say it's just that I'm too old to change), and Wurzel's World will be staying right where it is - until something else comes along to spike my curiosity anyway.

The Premiership Is Exciting Again

After several seasons of complaining that the football in the Premiership has become predictable and boring, suddenly it's interesting again.

Why? A friend has organised a league based on the Premier Leagues Fantasy Football competition and I've entered a team. Suddenly I actually care that Wigan have kept a clean sheet at Aston Villa (4 unexpected points for me courtesy of Titus Bramble), and find it funny that Everton actually managed a last minute consolation goal against the Gunners, losing Mrs Wurzel valuable points as she has the Arsenal goalkeeper. I might even consider sending Nemanja Vidic a Get Well Soon card if it helps to get him over his injury and back on the pitch sooner.

A league between around 20 friends has suddenly taken on a competitive edge, and Match of the Day is going to be essential viewing in our household again this season.

A Night At The BBC

On Sunday we travelled up to London to the home of the good old BBC. I'd registered on their website for audience tickets to watch shows being recorded and had been allocated 4 for the recording of the 5th episode in a new situation comedy, Miranda, staring Miranda Hart.

We had a great evening. The show itself had us all in stitches,although I suspect that this was more to do with watching it live, with accompanying mistakes and ad libs. I suspect the finished article won't seem quite so funny - but then not many sit-coms do in their first series.

It was fascinating watching how the show is put together. It's obvious that actors have to rehearse their lines , but only when you watch a recording does it become apparent quite how many are involved behind the scenes, and how much they must have rehearsed to ensure that everyone is in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. This doesn't apply just to those making the programme but even the radio controlled team ensuring the audience don't end up anwhere they shouldn't. It also came as a shock how small an area the sets take up - what you see on screen is pretty much all there is, not an inch of space is wasted.

There are many gaps in recordings as are things are moved around and scenes are reviewed and reshot. The whole evening is "held together" by warm-up man - sorry, Audience Liaison - Ray Peacock. He had the unenviable task of acting as an ad-libbing, audience-involving, stand-up comedian with the added hassle of being told to stop immediately, even if mid-joke, when the others were ready to shoot again. He coped admirably and I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of this guy in front of the cameras sooner rather than later.

And a tip if you ever get the chance to attend a recording, get there early! Like scheduled airlines they give out more tickets than there are seats and it's first come first served.