Backwards through the weekend

Yesterday: A day of great accomplishments. Had a nice lie-in, made and froze some spaghetti sauce, watched Road To Bali (I'd heard the Bing&Bob movies were fun, and this one was. Silly, nice meta bits, an exceedingly bad gorilla suit, and surprisingly slashy. Quite slow-paced to modern eyes, though.) Went to see a sketch group called We Are Klang, who Time Out said were silly, delightful, and had inspired daftness. ( Um.  )

Saturday: Having got going earlier than usual, I actually managed to have a nice morning and get normal Saturday stuff done in time to get to a matinee. I hadn't seen The Tempest before, so a Fringe production sounded interesting. ( Which it was. )

Friday: The main event of the weekend, or of the month, really. It was brilliant. I have nothing particularly insightful or analytical here; buy the live DVD when it comes out, folks! ( Mighty Boosh live )

It's just fizzy, surreal, hilarious, mad, energetic joy. Am a bigger fan than ever. Roll on third series.

One of the IT guys has just done an excellent impression of a startled meerkat. I wonder who he was looking for.

Spring Song, Paul Jennings

Of the Spring would I sing, now that every living thing
Is a rocket-burst, a sun-flash of Creation;
These metaphors, I hope, will conceal that I'm a dope
When it comes to name and local habitation.

Oh, that bush of whatsaname is a mass of golden flame
And the snowy almond makes my heart feel merry-
No, wait a bit- I think that the almond is the pink,
This one is labelled Prunus (is that cherry?)

...

I am clueless but poetic. I am not apologetic,
A flower quite transcends the name it bears
And in Spring, let experts note, though they have the world by rote,
My stimulus from primulas is similar to theirs.

(My favourite line from this poem is "As sticky buds get buddleia my nature lore gets muddlier". Paul Jennings's humourous journalism- he was writing from the '40s to the '60s, mainly- is one of my guaranteed spirit-raisers. The columns are difficult to find good short quotes from, because the whimsical effect tends to build up slowly through the whole piece, but his poems are instantly catchy. "There's nothing manly, I repeat,/In always having cold wet feet;/ Galoshlessness is foolishness when sharply slants the sleet" [from "Galoshes"] always comes to my mind in 'orrible weather.) The columns are collected in a series of books starting with Oddly Enough, which aren't too expensive second-hand. There was also a Penguin selection called The Jenguin Pennings.