Tag Archives: St Albans Comedy Garden

Sister’s Act

August 6, 2022 Neil

Firstly congratulations to the England Women’s Football team on being crowned European Champions at Wembley last Sunday after beating Germany by two goals to one after extra time. Some of that sounds vaguely familiar but at last we can finally now talk about a more recent victory at the home of football against the old enemy. We have only had to wait fifty-six years to finally win another senior cup competition, the first time it has happened in my life time.

The whole squad were brilliant right through the whole tournament. Every single one of them played their part and nobody else seemed to have the game changers we had on our bench. The depth of talent in the squad is ridiculous. The manager Sarina Wiegman deserves a lot of the credit I believe, the confidence, professionalism and sheer determination she installed in them was magnificent. As far as I am concerned she is already the coach of the year, well unless Antonio Conte wins the Premier League title for Spurs.

I have been lucky enough the meet the Lionesses’ all-time leading goal scorer Ellen White on a couple of occasions. We were both born in the same town. She is an exceptional player who always leads the line forcefully while being amongst the goals. Just like the rest of the girls seemingly she is also a great person, friendly and approachable with so much desire, she has fought back from some very serious injuries to rightly take her place as the focal point of the team. The younger players coming through are frightening and you do not want to get carried away obviously but you have to suspect that we will do very well in the World Cup next year.

It was great to see them all celebrating after the game and the day after in Trafalgar Square, thoroughly deserved. Some of the goals that we scored were world class, that chip by Ella Toone in the final was one of the best finishes you will see anywhere this season. We can be so proud of all of them and I really think there is still more to come as the domestic women’s game in England becomes more and more competitive that can only help future generations. Let us not leave it another fifty odd years before England win their next senior football trophy!

A couple of weekend’s ago Lynda and I went to see some friends. We had rented a nice house to stay in for a couple of nights in a quaint little village called Ryhall in Rutland. We arrived at our destination late on the Friday night. We were the last to arrive, so we just had a few drinks and a good chat sitting in the lounge, which had a picture of Winston Churchill above the fire place, before heading off to bed. It is always nice when you are with mates who you have not seen for a while as there is usually lots of gossip to catch up on.

In the morning we had a lovely cooked breakfast. There were seven of us in total. It was a nice sunny day so six of us decided to walk to Stamford while the other one decided to drive and meet us there. Mind you he had to give us a good head start as it took about an hour. Us and another couple decided to take the country foot path route while the other two went the road way. It was all dedicated public rights of way but we found ourselves strolling through some corn and a very full wheat field, not to mention battling the dangers of stinging nettles along the way. We managed to get ourselves into the middle of town and met up with everyone else before sampling a few of the pubs there.

It seemed like a nice place with a friendly feel to it, so we stayed for a few hours before one couple decided to walk back while the rest of us me and Lynda included decided to get a taxi. We had a table booked for dinner in one of the two nearby pubs. Eating out can be tricky when you are a coeliac so I had emailed the pub in advance to see if they could provide me with any uncontaminated gluten free food. We managed to come to an arrangement resulting in me pre -ordering my meal so they could prepare it earlier elsewhere. It was only a small local place, so you could see the terror in their eyes when the seven of us walked in.

They were very accommodating for me and took extra care and effort with my food. Although, even though I had ordered it a few days before they seemed to forget my starter. However as they were trying so hard to make sure I was safe they took their eye off the ball a bit with the other meals. One of our steaks was cooked totally the opposite way to how it was requested and a side of onion rings were missed. But they were doing their best; I felt that many of the issues were probably caused by concentrating on me. The place was called The Green Dragon and they do excellent Pizza’s although I could not have any as they do not do gluten free ones but that is just the way it goes sometimes.

After the meal we went back to our home for the weekend for some pudding. Lynda had made it and it was gluten free as she knows how much I like my dessert and she is not that cruel. We had some more drinks while generally having a laugh. One of the gang made the mistake of falling asleep first which led to an impromptu game of Buckaroo as we tried to place various items on them without them waking up. The next morning we had another huge breakfast before tidying up and saying goodbye to everyone. As it happened this was the start of Lynda and mines holiday. They all headed off home while we set off for Nottingham where we were staying for one night only before going to our retreat for the rest of the week.

On the way to our hotel in Nottingham we managed to drive past Trent Bridge, The City Ground and Meadow Lane so it was quite the mini sporting tour. We were staying on the outskirts of the city and the plan was just to have a low key night. We had a few drinks in the hotel bar first and then ordered a takeaway pizza to eat in the room. Happily Pizza Express does offer gluten free ones so I was able to get involved this time. In fact I even ordered pudding as well. After a final drink in the bar, well you have to wash down your dinner, we went to bed.

The next day we got up and had a fantastic breakfast in Cote. A place that is a favourite of mine because they are coeliac accredited so it is a safe place for me to eat. We then drove halfway to our mysterious location to do our food shopping for the next five days. It had been quite a while since I had physically been in a supermarket to do a big shop, so I really enjoyed it. I think we must have checked our every isle. It was then time to head to the Wooden Lodge hideaway that we had booked for the next four nights in Sherwood Forest.

We got there and checked in which seemed straight forward and simple enough before being directed to our lodge. We unpacked and settled in. One of the major attractions for us was that our home for a few nights had its own hot tub. We waited as long as we could before we poured some fizz and donned our swim wear to try it out. I must say it was fantastic, warm with controlled bubbles and views of the trees that surrounded us. It was peaceful and relaxing which is what we both wanted. It also had a barbeque on the decking so I did us burgers on it twice during our stay and Lynda cooked chicken one night. The forth night I did steaks but I opted to cook them inside to show off my versatility.

We spent most of the our time there in the hot tub just chilling, well as much as we could as the main problem with the place was that it did seem to have a wasp infestation so we were constantly fending them off, plus every time you opened a door or a window one would instantly appear inside. On one afternoon we went for tea and cake at the onsite cafe and we were plagued by these aggressive wasps so much Lynda ended up getting stung which then left me having get the thing off her and remove the sting. I can safely say that was the first time that I have ever done that.

We went for a couple of nice walks in the woods while we were there. There was a nice view of the forest from the bedroom which was great to wake up to. The place was big enough to enjoy each other’s company and when required have our own space but the best thing was the hot tub. I am thinking about getting one installed at home but I worry that if I do I will never go out ever again. Lastly the wildlife except the wasps seemed to be friendly at the Forest Lodge. I can only presume other people feed them as we had a grey squirrel join us who wanted get on our table and share my seat. I was put off the idea by his constant scratching and licking of himself. It was just a nice summer break in England for a change.

The evening we got back we went to see a film at The Rex cinema in Berkhamsted. It has an art-deco design and is somewhere you can sit in very big comfy chairs while enjoying drinks from the bar which stays open during the movies. We watched Jurassic World the latest in that series. I must confess that I have not seen any of the old ones so some of the references and nods to the original went right over my head. That said I did like it, I would probably describe it as a good fun action film in the style of Indiana Jones but with Dinosaurs. Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill both look great and are clearly both ageing gracefully, I think grey hair gives people some gravitas that I will sadly never get to experience. It is one of my favourite venues to watch films but that may be because it has red wine on tap.

For the second year running we went to see one of the St Albans Comedy Garden gigs in Verulamium Park. It is a huge space and we had a nice walk around it before we arrived at the fenced off arena part. I did manage to find a stall that was doing gluten free only food which is a rare and beautiful thing. They were called The Lankan Kitchen and they did a very nice chicken curry rice bowl and some great Sri Lankan friend chicken. As it was a Saturday afternoon and we were still technically on holiday we had some cider.

Ian Smith was the host and I thought he was excellence, sometimes due to the fact they need to interact with the crowd and get the atmosphere pumped up they can be a little aggressive but he seems like a nice and funny guy. He set the tone perfectly. The first act on was Simon Amstell, it was the first time I had seen him live and he is a great communicator and story teller, such a talented writer and producer to, it is fair to say he is very honest on stage and it was kind of half comedy show and life coach lecture but it was brilliant!

Then after the first interval we were treated to Fatiha El-Ghorri who was fantastic, it was also the first time I had seen her. She has some very good and unique jokes which she executes extremely cleverly turning some well-known stereotyping on its head. I expect to see and hear more of her over the next couple of years. Then it was Mr Masked Singer himself Joel Dommett, we got the inside scoop on the popular television show along with some great stories and a rap masterclass none of us knew we needed.

The headline act was the always wonderful Sara Pascoe. I saw her years ago at one of the Live at The Palladium Shows. A lot has changed in her personal life since then but she is still very funny. I learnt things I did not need to know but I am now glad I do, I think. It is a really nicely run event and they always have top quality line ups. If you like your comedy, then keep an eye out for next year’s festival of fun. It does not even feel that strange sitting in a park in daylight enjoying comedians, it all just works. We finished the evening in one of our favourite restaurants called Tabure. The Food and service in there is always top class and you never leave hungry.

I went and saw Sister Act at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith last Tuesday night. I have not been there for years, in fact the last time may have been when I had front row tickets to see Darren Hayes, although I think I saw something else there more recently but cannot remember what. Anybody who knows me at all will not be surprised to hear that I never saw the original film version of Sister Act. I was however at least aware of it.

Lynda and I had tickets to see the previously planned production that actually had Whoopi Goldberg in the cast but that one was sadly lost to the second lockdown. Happily we managed to get our hands on some tickets when they did thankfully get to put it on for a limited run this year. We had some reasonably good seats in the stalls and after getting a can of wine at the bar, which was slightly classier than it sounds as they did at least serve them in plastic glasses, we settled down ready to be entertained.

The show itself was fantastic, for such a huge musical as you can imagine they have put together a sensational cast. It has some great songs in it and a lot of laughs but it does have a really beautiful storyline running through it, which is possibly even more relevant now than when the movie version first came out. Beverley Knight has transformed herself from pop star to West End leading lady effortlessly but when you have a voice like hers it lifts any song, I could listen to her sing all night and she was fabulous as Deloris. Add to that the fact that the comedy legend Jennifer Saunders is Mother Superior and it takes the whole thing even higher, she always makes me laugh a lot whatever she is in.

Lesley Joseph is also it in and she is brilliant to and has some very funny stand out moments. In fact everyone involved on stage is marvellous and they all get their chance to shine and take centre stage, which is great I think. It is always a guide of how good a show is if you leave the theatre in a really great and happy mood and I certainly did after this one. See it if you can but it is only on until the end of the month, so you will have to be quick.

A reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninespringshttps://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.

The Time Warp

August 13, 2021 Neil

It does seem that things are still looking pretty good with the virus transmission rate across the United Kingdom, which is great news, I think. It shows I believe that despite things opening up people are on the whole being sensible and considerate to each other when going about their business, which can only be a good thing moving forward I hope. It means we can do all the fun stuff we used to and regularly see our family and friends of course.

I am starting to go out a lot more now returning to all the things that were previously restricted that are now fully open. That said when I am somewhere there are larger groups of people I am still trying not to get too close to everyone. Limited contact with a lot of people you do not know feels like the right approach still for the time being at least. To be fair even before the pandemic I was not that keen on having strangers invade my personal space anyway, so it is really just a continuation of that philosophy.

A couple of Sunday’s ago my girlfriend and I went to an outside comedy gig in St Albans. It was during the afternoon at Verulamium Park in the city. It was part of this year’s St Albans Comedy Garden event. We got there just after the gates had opened. It was all very civilised and well organised. There were lots of street food stalls and plenty of space to sit down or stand. Sadly for me I could not see any obviously gluten free options, so I made do with a cup of tea and a packet of crisps. I am so rock and roll nowadays!

The food and drink area was behind the seating and the stage much like an outdoor theatre set up. As this was one of the first events for us post Covid I had booked two end seats so only one of us would have to sit next to a stranger. Lynda offered to be the one to do that with only a small amount of pressure from me. It was a brilliant line up. I was a bit concerned when as we took our seats it started to rain but happily it was just a quick shower and it remained dry and sunny once it had passed over.

The compere was the excellent Andrew Maxwell. He was in the jungle on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here a few years ago. I have also seen him host a couple of comedy programmes for Radio 4. He was great as ever. The man has a ridiculous amount of knowledge of so many different things, which he expertly displayed while talking to the audience. That is very much the role of the host of any stand up show. He was telling us about some of the Zoom and Drive In gigs he had done, which although a good idea under the restrictions were a bit of a nightmare for the performers it is fair to say.

First on was the wonderful Maisie Adams. I have been a fan of hers for a while but this was the first time that I had managed to catch her live. She was fantastic with her energetic style and stories. Already a regular on Mock the Week I suspect we will be seeing a lot more of her on television over the next couple of years. When her set ended we had the first of the two intervals. I took the opportunity to use some of the facilities and I was particularly impressed with the toilet monitor whose job was to direct people to empty Portaloo’s. It did keep it all moving along quicker.

The second comedian was the brilliant Rhys James, who I like and have seen a few times before. As it happens he was from the area and had been to the park where the comedy was on several school trips. He was very funny as usual despite the fact he still only looks about twelve when he is actually thirty! Once he had finished, yes you have guessed right, it was time for another interval the last one before our headline act. It was a decent sized set up. I reckon there were at least five hundred people in the audience. However we were of course all outside, so it felt perfectly safe.

The last comedian on was the hilarious Dara O’Briain who I have seen before and who is always great. He is simply a very funny and clever man. He had just had a knee operation so he had to do the gig sat down but that did not dilute or change anything. In fact I am not sure why more stand ups do not sit down. You can still tell the jokes but use up much less energy. Dara is a great story teller and I am a real sucker for an Irish accent it just makes everything sound slightly cheekier to me. It was a great event with top comics doing what they do best showing off and telling jokes. It was just nice to see some live comedy again.

Last Saturday night I returned to the theatre for the first time since I saw Shakespeare’s Taming of The Shrew at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at The Globe in March 2020. I went to Milton Keynes to see the latest touring version of The Rocky Horror Show. Therefore it is fair to say there was quite the culture gap between my previous and most recent theatre trips. Mind you both of them did involve some odd costumes and at least a few glasses of wine.

Lynda and I went with a group of friends. We booked the tickets for it towards the end of last year in the hope it would be all fine by now. We all agreed that we would dress up for the occasion. This is quite a common thing with this show. Lots of the audience do this for every performance. We were all staying together in Northampton for the night with a minibus booked to transport us to and from the theatre. I had organised two potential costumes but I was struggling to make up my mind which one I should wear.

We all met up about three in the afternoon. The plan was to have a few drinks and then head down to the local pub. I was still not sure which outfit to choose but by this point we had all had a couple of glasses of Prosecco, which may have aided my decision making. We got ready and I decided to go for it and dress up as Frank N Furter. Using the outfit I ordered online from a well-known website with the addition of a green coat I had bought separately. I felt I at least needed to try to preserve some modesty in the pub and on the way there and back.

We arrived at the local pub to strange confused looks from the bar staff. It is fair to say we stuck out a little bit compared to the rest of the customers in there. I had some crisps while everybody else had a meal of some description. I just did not really fancy the gluten free options on the menu there. It was then time to get the minibus to the theatre in Milton Keynes. On arrival there was a bit of a queue to get in as you had to supply a Covid Certificate if you were double jabbed as we all were or a negative test if you had not been vaccinated. I am perfectly fine with this level of checks before entry. Plus now at the theatre more people were dressed up like we were than in the pub!

I have seen the show a few times before although this is the first time that I have dressed up. This production was very good. The whole cast were great. Ore Oduba who won Strictly Come Dancing a few years ago was playing Brad and Phillip Franks who was in The Darling Buds of May as Catherine Zeta-Jones’s husband was the Narrator. It was a fun evening. The audience got involved shouting out the long established heckles and we got the chance to dance the Time Warp twice. It was definitely the first time and will probably be the last time that I do it while wearing a corset and stockings!

It is fair to say that Lynda does most of the cooking at the weekend. But a couple of Saturday’s ago it was rightly my turn. Now previously when it was my turn to cook I would have just got a takeaway but now I am Coeliac that can be slightly more difficult. I took it all very seriously and decided to test myself and cook a dish that I had never made before. I found one on the gluten free section of the BBC Good Food Guide that I liked the look of and thought that I could do.

I printed it off and took it with me to buy all the ingredients that I needed from my local supermarket. I am not saying that I am not usually that elaborate with my cooking but I did not have anything in that I needed so basically had to buy the whole recipe. I must admit I was a bit nervous about it. She is a great cook and makes amazing food so I did not want my effort to be rubbish. I made Satay Sweet Potato Curry from scratch. I followed the instructions to the letter and served it up with some rice.

Happily if I do say so myself it was very nice. It tasted fine and more or less looked like the picture on the recipe. I am declaring it a total triumph. It did all get eaten and nobody was ill, which I believe does make it a big success. In case you think that has given me the bug for cooking, then think again I am more than happy to wait another six months for my next turn. Anyway for dessert Lynda had made me a gluten free chocolate cake, which tasted amazing and completely blew away my main course. I am perfectly fine with that by the way; you have to love the sweet stuff!

That same night after we had enjoyed my attempt at being Jamie Oliver we had some online tickets for one of the Mischief Theatre Company’s Movie Night’s. We saw one ages’ ago in the middle of the longest lockdown. It was brilliant, so we thought we would watch another one. I am a huge fan of their work and have seen all of their theatre productions except one. And I intend to put that right when it reopens later in the year. I like their style and what they have all achieved together. They have basically taken this brand from the Edinburgh Festival to Broadway. That is sensational and does not happen very often.

The Movie Night show is an improvisation of a film that is performed for a live audience and also for one who watch it at home digitally. It features many of the original members of the group, so they know each other really well and are also comfortable enough to really try to put each other off and mess around a lot. It is all done in a similar style to the Show Stoppers Musicals in that they have a director who can stop and start the action and add in extra elements if they wish to. They also act as the link between the actors and the audience.

It was another fun if not slightly strange performance. They did a Zombie style movie where in the end there was no real hero, which is a little odd for those sorts of films. But it was funny and amusing. I always enjoy their stuff. I have been luckily enough to speak to most of them at the end of their live shows and they all seem like decent people, who just really enjoy what they do. They are still trying to come up with new shows and ideas to keep themselves fresh and fun. That should be applauded. It is nice to see good people doing well but as far as I can tell not letting success change them.

My football team Tottenham Hotspur held an open training session for members at our stadium two weeks ago. I had not been there since February last year, so I decided to go as I thought it might be a good re-introduction to the place. I opted to drive which I have not done to get there before. Parking is not that simple in that area so it did take me quite a while to find somewhere to leave the car. In the end I found a car park via a website called Your Parking Space. It was only about a twenty minute walk from the ground and it was actually reasonably priced, unlike some of the other options that I looked at.

I found the car parking space that was actually in a Tesco. I then popped into said shop to get a protein bar for the walk. I thought I might need the energy just in case Spurs invited me to join in with the training session. I got into the ground using the new digital ticketing system via my phone. It was great but a bit weird to be back there. Most people, myself included were wearing our masks while inside on the concourse. But once we stepped out into the stadium itself we were nicely spread out so it was masks off to enjoy the sun and wait for the players to come out.

They had the Spurs TV crew there interviewing a few people and explaining how the morning was going to work. Then the squad all appeared ready to be put through their paces by the new boss Nuno Espirito Santo and his coaches. I found it quite interesting seeing the players warm up and watching the drills that they do. They trained for about ninety minutes finishing the session playing seven a side matches on a very small pitch but with full size goals.

They were still working on their fitness of course but most of the exercises seemed to involve a football. That was not always the case during my pre-season days.

It was great to be back in our magnificent stadium and to see the players in person again. Obviously Harry Kane was not there and he may never be back there in a white shirt. We will just have to wait and see. The event was all done by one in the afternoon. There was only a limited crowd so it felt quite safe and relaxing for me bearing in mind that is the biggest gathering of people I have been with since the restrictions ended.

The big test for me will be tomorrow when our season starts against Manchester City with a capacity crowd. I fear it might feel a bit odd at first but I am sure I will soon become very comfortable with this normal situation once again.

I have no idea how we will fair this season. The two Manchester clubs are going to be hard to beat and as much as it pains me to say it Chelsea are going to be a force in the league, I feel. I still think that the squad we have with a few new additions should have enough about it to challenge for the final Champions League place at least but we will see.

If we can get a good start and get some momentum going that would be nice. That is something we have failed to do for the last three years. As a fan I am looking forward to the excitement, the highs and lows and just being back at matches again cheering on my team. Come on you Spurs!

A quick reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.

Neil Quigley

Tag Archives: St Albans Comedy Garden

Sister’s Act

The Time Warp

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