Show me the way to go home

Right, where were we? Oh, that's right, last Thursday I had been to London Comedy Improv and had a weekend of gigs ahead. And that is what surely came to pass. On Friday I went to Popcorn Comedy at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill. The venue is really cool, if you get chance to see anything there you really should. Popcorn Comedy is a night of films, video clips and live comedy combined. The live acts on this evening were Anna & Katy (who were in the Tom Basden play Party, which I've mentioned before), Tom Basden himself and David Cross who is perhaps most well known for appearing in the US series Arrested Development. I really enjoyed all the acts and films (The Onion - Sony piece of shit , and Misery Bear were two of my favourites).

On Saturday I was spending some quality time with my brother and sister-in-law. I always feel a little bit guilty that I treat their flat like a hotel, I come and stay but go out without them every night. So Saturday was just for hanging out with them. First up we went to Daylight Music at Union Chapel in Islington. These events are free and happen every Saturday and if you're ever looking for something to do of a Saturday lunchtime in London you should check it out. We had missed the first act but arrived just in time to see Jo Rose (look him up on Facebook or MySpace). Jo played guitar and has a great voice but his melancholic songs were all a bit too similar for me. He has only just started performing as a solo artist so maybe his style will develop in time.

Next up were 'baroque chamber pop' five piece The Miserable Rich (www.themiserablerich.co.uk). The group features a double bass, cello, violin, acoustic guitar and a lead singer who also plays snare drum and other percussion. I really liked The Miserable Rich (despite trying not to freeze in the very cold Union Chapel) and will definitely be keeping an eye out for them playing again.

After the music and some lunch we walked to Brick Lane in the sunshine where I finally got to go to ukulele shop Duke of Uke. I didn't buy anything but it was very tempting- I mean just look at them all!

A wander round Brick Lane and Spitalfields and a delicious pint of cider later, and we were on the tube back to Essex where we went out for dinner and I stayed up too late, drinking too much wine and having a lot of fun with my brother. I speak to Mark every week or so but I do love spending time with him. It's funny, whenever we meet up we always have tons of stuff to show each other and can spend hours on the internet going 'look at this', 'yeah but have you seen this?'. It's a lot of fun.

Sunday and Monday I went to the work in progress shows of Michael Legge and Andrew Collins at the Hen & Chickens back in Islington. They were only doing half an hour each and Michael clearly has so much more material than he needs for an hour show. On the two evenings the material was almost entirely different and he still has stuff he didn't get round to. It's such a shame that Michael isn't taking this show to Edinburgh until 2011 because it's going to be a corker. We all know I'm a big fan of Michael's blog (www.michaelleggesblog.blogspot.com), the Precious Little Podcast which he co-hosts and the sketch comedy he does as one quarter of Los Quattros Cvnts. He really is a talented man (who hopefully won't read this because we really shouldn't encourage him!) but somewhat surprisingly this will be his first solo show. As anyone who knows Michael's work would expect there is a lot of shouting involved and eventually it will be about his obsession with good manners and the arguments this has got him into, and where this obsession came from, and just why Sir Walter Raleigh is to blame. Whatever happens, I have no doubt it's going to be brilliant and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the next stage of development.

I was also delighted that I finally got to see Andrew Collins' Secret Dancing. I'm sure most readers of this blog will know Andrew from the Collings and Herrin podcast and from his work on 6 Music. Now Andrew never claims to be a comedian he is a writer and presenter and broadcaster, and as such I think it's very brave of him to take a comedy show to the Edinburgh Fringe, which can have perhaps one of the toughest crowds in the the world. After a bit of preamble/observational comedy we got to the reason we were all there, the Secret Dancing. This is a method Andrew has developed for dancing on public transport without anyone realising you are doing it. He demonstrated the moves and then got an audience volunteer to come and join him on stage...and it's very funny! I'm really looking forward to seeing the full hour in Edinburgh and after chickening out this weekend I'll definitely be volunteering to do some Secret Dancing myself.

Take a breath, we're almost there. I was supposed to fly home today, but thanks to the current volcanic ash disruption I'm currently on a train heading north. I'm not too bothered, I'm just glad it has been relatively easy for me to get back, unlike the problems that lots of people are having. There is only one mild inconvenience (apart from it costing me four times as much for the train ticket as I will get refunded from my cancelled flight) is that I realised hours after booking the train all the way to the station across the road from my house that my car is still at the airport! And I have to get it tonight because I'm picking up my new car in the morning. In the grand scheme of things though, that's not much to have to deal with.

Lastly, I met up with comedian Mark Watson at the Apple Store today so he could buy an iPod to give to me, as the first link in a chain of about 70 people who will all add a song before the iPod eventually makes its way to the person who won it in a competition on Mark's blog. It was pretty cool, and you can read more about it at www.markwatsonfans.com/forum

And here is the moment of handover -

And there we are, another epic blog I'm afraid. I'll be back to earth, and school, with a bump on Monday for four weeks of hard work. Then my course will be over and, barring disaster or breakdown between now and then, I'll be a qualified probationer teacher and my summer of fun will start. I just hope this volcano takes a look at itself and calms down before my holiday to America at the end of June. It did erupt for a year the last time apparently so it's not as far fetched as it sounds.

I'm in Edinburgh now, and on the last bit of the journey to pick up the car so I'll leave it here. I still love you by the way. Well, except for him of course.