Tag: friends

Categories
nostalgia raves

My Mate Noam

There’s a guy on my street who has two boys. We’ve all been friends for years and we’ve watched his boys grow up, he’s watched our girls grow up – even saw our youngest the day she was born. We’re all fans of Man United so we got together for all those big games in 1999, when we won the treble. As one, we lept into the air like crazed loons when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winning goal against Bayern Munich.

The oldest boy’s name is Noam, because his parents are friends and admirers of Chomsky. (So we can’t hold that against Noam…)

Noam and I chatted today on MSN – he’s in Edinburgh studying biomedical sciences right now. Like many guys his age he doesn’t stay in this country for long – it’s one long world-wide trip punctuated by the odd few weeks taking classes in Uni. He showed me his Youtube page, which has two of the most innovative videos I’ve seen.

Check this one out. It’s a video-meta-email! He calls it a facetube.
I love it – so clever, it works on several levels. (Goes long though – Noam, cut the end!)

This next one crack whore made me roar with laughter.
It plays with the notion of bilinguality. If you don’t speak Spanish, all you need to know is that the conversation between Noam, his Mum and his gran is actually about the gran being cross that Mum has put Gran up in her own bed. Not about being a crack whore at all. If you speak Spanish you’ll get the joke even more.

I’ve known Noam since he was about 11. Watching children you know well grow up really IS wonderful. A great comfort to those of us this far along the aging process…

Categories
raves

Blogs I Read

Okay, here’s a list of the blogs I regularly read:

1. Miss Snark
Yay Snarky! I worked out who she is, you know. No, really, I did. I’m not telling though. The Snark does her best work undercover.
2. Peter Cox
Well, he is my agent. 🙂
3. Richard Herring – Warming Up
The diary of a successful stand-up comedian/writer. Richard and I went to the same college, although we never spoke, so far as I know. He spent little time there. He told me, years ago, that he hated the college. I corresponded with him by email briefly during the nineties. He makes himself write something everyday; admirable pursuit.
4. MaryD
MaryD is the mother of my best friend-when-we-were-kids. I remember the cakes she used to make to this day. She did lovely vanilla Victoria sponges iced with orange and lemon buttercream. Then there was this unbelievable chocolate hazelnut cake filled with whipped cream, the first baking of which has a place of honour in my memories. I’m willing to forget a whole year of biochemistry to make the necessary space for the details in my crowded memory.
MaryD now lives in a village in Co. Galway and uses her brilliance as a journalist to paint a fascinating view of aspects of life in a rural Ireland.

Right, now for blogs I’d like to read.

Categories
raves

Ronnie Scott’s

Somehow, we’ve never been to Ronnie Scott’s. Been upstairs @ Ronnie Scotts to the old Club Latino, which back in the day was one of the diviest yet best salsaclubs in London. Thought about going on the night of Rachel’s hen night when we poured out of the Japanese karaoke bar opposite and I noticed that Irakere were playing…

So the visit we made to celebrate Nathan’s 40th birthday, was well overdue, as well as being pretty epic.

Epic in the sense that here’s a place that is SO iconic that it’s impossible to be there and not think ‘This is me at Ronnie Scotts. Here I am applauding and whistling each improvised solo, just like on the records. Here I am sipping wine whilst a guy pounds a bass and another wears a cap to jazz it up on a grand piano.’

I’m sure Alfred will shortly post photos so we’ll all be able to see just how cute he and Nathan looked in their designer shirts and sleek leather jackets.

I committed some kind of London faux pas by wearing items of colour. I wore a lime-green silk frock with a lilac linen jacket. Nosirree! In London they are all wearing grey, black and cream. Billboards for clothes shops sternly announce this fact. Not having enough money to shop at designer stores is not a valid excuse – even the posters for Matalan provided clear instruction.

I’ll get my coat.

On another note, one of Nathan’s friends was able to advise me on the top 3 chocolate desserts in London. He’d never been to Maggiore’s though, where they used to have a truly withering warm chocolate soup with pistachio ice-cream. At Ronnie Scotts I had a very yummy chocolate fudge pudding – two fudgy, shortcakey rounds squidged together with whipped cream. Damn fine.