Life Without Toast - Sibling Rivalry

(In case you don't know me and/or have come here via Adrian, Dan or Annie's blogs [the only ones that link here so far (Update: Or Nat's blog, latest link!)], I'm Matt, I've been going out with Nikki for nearly two years, we've bought a house, but it won't be ready until April-ish, and Nikki had to move to a temporary place between selling her apartment and moving to our new place)

SO! Nikki moved on Saturday morning. I had (cunningly) organised for my brother-in-law Sean and his betrothed (my sister Becca of course) to assist us by kindly bringing one of his trucks (of which he has several) to Nikki's place in Chapelizod (Dublin 20). Sean had (wisely in hindsight) suggested we meet at Nikki's at nine (NINE O'CLOCK ON A SATURDAY FRICKIN' MORNING!) so myself and herself got up early and hung out for them.

The move went well, me and Sean and Becca did most of the moving and Nikki and I packed up the last of the bits n' bobs into boxes and bubble-wrap. It took about 2-and-a-bit hours, and we went to grab some lunch (having to cajole the barman at The Mullingar House to rustle up an aul' few soups n' sambos, which in fairness he very kindly did even though it was 11.35 and 'lunch didn't start til' twelve'). So we had a nice lunch and said our goodbyes to Becca and Sarah (my lil' sis' who arrived late - see previous post for pic) who were going to the Health and Vitality Show in the RDS while Sean, Nikki and I went to Sean and Becca's place to put Nikki's stuff into storage in their shed. Sean had to go somewhere else on the way, so he went one way and we went another, stopping at my parents for a cup o' tea and a biscuit, as-you-do. Sean texted, and we were at theirs 5 minutes later.

Now, unbeknownst to us, Sean had had an eventful hour. He has mistakenly taken a route which had an 11-foot clearance bridge on it, and his truck it approximately more than eleven feet tall. He had to try to turn around, and in doing so somehow managed to 'ground' the truck so the rear wheel were off the ground! He turned the steering left and right to try and get it to move, as the rear wheels came down the truck shot back, hitting a wall! By this stage the police had arrived, but they were very nice and closed down Chapelizod village while Sean reversed all the way back the way he had come! Me and Nikki stood aghast as Sean recounted the story, pointing out the numerous huge bends and bumps on the truck, but from the jolly way he told it and the frequent laughs which interspersed the story, he seemed very calm about the whole thing. So we unloaded the truck and headed home while Sean went down to his yard to 'heat the bend up with a blowtorch and beat it with a sledgehammer and pull it with the JCB to straighten it out'.

Coz he's that kinda guy (I reckon I owe him a bit more than dinner now though).

Posted by Matt at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, maybe not quite, but hey, it's been frickin' COLD for the past month or so, like four degrees, every goddamn day! I got a coat in London in November and it's totally done the business all winter, but recently it's been freezing (well not actually freezing but the wind has been really bitter) and the draught has been getting right up me jacksey. Even with the strings pulled real tight (on the coat).

Posted by Matt at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I'll start by confessing I haven't actually read this book so much as placed it on my coffee table and leafed through it as much as I could. It's a weighty tome to say the very least, but saying I haven't read it doesn't mean I haven't experienced it, as that is as much as you can do with a book of it's type. It's a 'coffee table book' in the very best meaning of that cliché. Weighing in at about 350 pages and absolutely crammed full of anecdotes, photos, posters, hundreds of Terry Gilliams fantastic surreal illustrations and also cramming in a pretty much full autobiography of every single Python, it really something to be browsed through occasionally, something that washes over you as you read it, beginning with a short 'how I met him' from each Python, about each Python.

Moving on from there, the book brings you through the early careers of the writers, from their early days working the cabarét circuit, through their early collabarations, and on to them banding together as comedic talents with a similar love of the absurd, finally forming the preeminent 'Flying Circus' with which each of them would become synonymous. The origins and absurd reasoning behind a huge pile of the Python sketches, from the Parrot sketch to the Lumberjack song and on through the Ministry of Funny Walks (not to mention the Spanish Inquisition) are all fleshed out and explained in fond rememberance and backed up with a wealth of photos and reproductions of notes.

"And then Eric came up with 'Always Look on the Bright Side' and we cracked the end of the film"

Moving on to the films, from 'The Holy Grail' through 'Life of Brian and finally 'The Meaning of Life, all are given the full treatment, with production notes, reports and facts, to anecdotes such as the one above, and many in-jokes you may or may not have been unaware of, as well as scenes that didn't make it to the films.

The book is rounded out the spectre of Death, and particularily that of Graham Chapman, who is fondly and not-so-fondly remembered by all.

All in all, an unbelievably superb and valuable source for anyone who finds Monthy Python funny, and a fantastic addition to anyones coffee-table book collection, more of a conversation piece and something to get lost in than just 'something to read'. And I got it for nine euros in the Easons sale (rrp about ?60)!

Posted by Matt at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My sister Sarah works in Auto Trader. This is an actual ad she sent me from the magazine.

Brilliant.

Posted by Matt at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My mate Ste got a new dog, and him and his girl Gráinne dropped over to myself and Andy's gaff to introduce the new member of the family to the lads.

Her name is Uba, she's a Weimaraner and she's very cute. Remember 'Family Ties'? Remember 'Sit Ubu sit, good dog' at the end? Well Ubu was a boy, Uba is a girl.

Cuteness of this degree should be illegal. I mean look at it!

I won't tell you how much she cost though (hint: more than a hundred, less than a thousand).

Posted by Matt at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

...I've like, started blogging n' shit. Obviously. For those of you who know me, hello! For those of you who don't, err... like, hey, how you doing? Do you come here often?

I'll mostly be showing everyone who reads this all the crazy shit I come across on a daily basis, in my work (in a theatre), in my spare time (places I go, things I see), on the internet/tv (where I spend far too much time) and stuff like the video below, which I made myself. If you like or dislike anything, cool. Lets like, talk about it.

I'm going to try to get my del.icio.us links up here too, so I don't have to post too much 'hey, check out this link' style crap in the main blog, and hopefully that won't be the coolest thing that I have here.

Posted by Matt at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Matt at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)