"Happy Hogswatch!"

'Ello there!

Don't be fooled by my seemingly-chipper introduction - I currently feel like an elephant took a shit in my brain and I want to die.

This is not a result of Saturday's Mash-Up, but rather the result of a cold evening walking around London, followed by sitting in a theatre bunched up with loads of humans who had coughs and/or colds, cycling in the cold without a scarf and smoking cigarettes when I should have been drinking Lemsip.

But fuck it, it's nearly Hogswatch and I get to leave Colch-Hell-ster behind for a few days while I go up to Loughton to see my dad and the family.

The Mash Up on Saturday, while not Epic, was definitely Awesome. Thanks to young Weanie, who sadly couldn't make it thanks to his asshat employers (who made him drive around London all Saturday with the meagre promise of back-pay - the bastards), we had the use of a projector and my chuffing brilliant surround sound system. Some reshuffling of furniture left us with a cheap home theatre and PLENTY of boozes. I'd like to express my thanks to those who managed to show, namely Adam, Fi, Gem, Justin and Sooz, because let's face it, it would have been a diabolical evening without you.

The evening went well, we got drunk, exchanged presents (which were all-around AWESOME - I shall list them momentarily) and watched Wall-E on the big screen while taking turns to look through the front door peephole at the Nutter across the hallway and his chavtastic acquaintances, who broke down his door, spat on him repeatedly and probably beat him up. I love living on Greenstead.

As for presents, I got an amazing selection, BEHOLD!

From Adam and Sooz - A Led Zeppelin T-Shirt, a MASSIVE tea mug with a heat-ativated stripping lady on, a naked lady lighter and a rather classy naked lady roach book!

From Gemma - A copy of MB Games' Operation! It's just a shame we didn't play it (Justin got Hungry Hippos - OM NOM NOM NOM HUNGRY HIPPOS!)

From Justin and Fi - A desk calendar entitled something like '365 Days and Ways to Get Your Revenge!' which is AWESOME, and, and this was very, VERY thoughtful on Fi's part, a copy of Elephant Cat, by Nicola Bayley! (I now have the complete set of Copycat books!) And before you get all 'Hur, looks a bit poofy to me', I'd like to point out that when I was a small child my mother used to read these books to me, and they have pride of place alongside a picture of me ol' mum in my bookcase, so fuck you. *smiles*

HEY, I forgot to mention why I was in London! For those of you who I haven't raved about this to already, settle down.

I was at work on Friday, and at about ten o'clock I get an email from a lady who works downstairs in reception. She tells me that she has two FREE tickets to see Eddie Izzard that night at the Lyric Theatre in London, and that if I want them, I should go ahead and say so. A couple of phone calls later, and I've agreed to meet Auntie Gill at London Liverpool Street station, and to go from there on to the theatre! I thought it made a nice early Christmas present.

Mr. Izzard was on fine form, especially considering he had a cough (the same as everyone else in the theatre, from the sound of things), and he did several really good skits. They recorded the whole show ("in a bootleg style!") for an audio CD as well. Auntie Gilll and I were impressed with his ability to essentially just talk to a room full of people for nearly three hours. That's a job I'd love. And while not a massive fan of Eddie Izzard originally, he did a bit about Noah's Ark and the lack of sharks onboard that completely won me over.

Right, I should go back to work before my head falls off because it's full of words and snot.

Od.