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[phantym_56]

Happy Easter, everyone! (My granny's traditional greeting when she arrives for Christmas dinner)

I had a lovely Christmas Day. I have a ghost speaker for my iPod, a guidebook to New Zealand - time to start planning my trip - DVDs of Dara O Briain (particularly enjoyed the extras!) and Andrew Maxwell (who's a bit of a poppet) and my grandad gave us a remote-control helicopter and randomly numbered envelopes. Number 1 gets to put the thing together and get it working and give it a test flight, then Number 2 gets to play, then Number 3 etc. Took 18 hours to figure out how to charge it - a lot of Christmas evening was spent believing it was faulty.

Boxing Day morning consisted of a lot of helicopter flying. It has attacked the tree, it has shredded some poinsetta, it has scratched the TV and it has given my grandmother a fit of something between hysterical laughter and terror as I buzzed it around her head. Obviously we don't have a great deal of control over the thing. I accidentally but beautifully crash-landed it nose-first in a glass vase this morning. I recommend toy helicopters, they're great fun.

This afternoon, after the hysterical laughter of the morning, I took to the sanctuary of my room where I watched some DVDs and fell asleep over the laptop and then retreated up again after a couple of bread rolls at tea time. To be honest, I've been feeling pretty off-colour this evening. Sorry to whine at Christmas. Might be that I'm really tired. Might be that I find it tough coping with having the grandparents living here for a few days. Might be that I've overheated sleeping under blankets fully dressed. Might be that I've been laptopping without my glasses on for a couple of hours and strained my eyes. Might be that I ate quite a few After 8s this afternoon. Obviously I haven't overdone turkey/ham/mince pies/Christmas pudding. Other than the chocolate, I've eaten less this last two days than I normally do. It's quite clearly a chocolate overdose. Anyway, I'm hot and tired and puffy-eyed and headachy and feel vaguely sick and I think I need to go to bed because I'll feel better in the morning. Goodnight all.

Comments

[chamekke.livejournal.com]

Your Christmas and Boxing Day revels sound wonderful... especially the remote-control helicopter! I love your description of the damage it's done; clearly it's one of those clever helicopters with counterinsurgent capabilities.

I'm so sorry to hear that you're not well, though. Christmas can be quite stressful and all that lovely naughty food probably doesn't help (although it's soooo good!). Hopefully you'll be feeling better by the time you wake up and read this note.

Hmm. Ed Byrne and now Dara O Briain. I will have to pick your brain (briain) on what to watch, as my knowledge of Irish comedy is almost entirely limited to Father Ted. If I were to check out these gentlemen, comedy-wise, where would you recommend I start?

[phantym-56.livejournal.com]

The helicopter is brilliant! It's like a wasp, it chases you around and buzzes around your legs and I forgot to mention that it attacked the Nativity set, sent Mary, Joseph and the Three Kings flying. I kept crash-landing it in the Christmas tree. It's a tiny little thing, about the length of my hand (Dad keeps going "It's amazing how they get that battery power and that motor power in something that size!") but it's a proper ugly vicious little gunship and really quite threatening if someone manages to make it hover right in front of your face. Best Christmas present ever!

I'm feeling better this morning, yes. I went downstairs for a drink before bed and realised I'd had two mugs of Fanta with my rolls, so I think it was just a bit of a sugar overload.

Start with anything you can get your hands on. Ed's got two DVDs out (Pedantic & Whimsical and Different Class) and Dara's got three (Live at the Theatre Royal, Talks Funny and This is the Show). I know Ed's are available in chunks on YouTube and I can't imagine Dara's aren't.

Mock the Week is where I really got to know them - if you take a look at it, let me know what you make of Andy Parsons. I adore him but I'm aware that I'm very much in the minority there. YouTube will provide hundreds of interviews and short clips of routines, but to be honest comedy-wise there won't be much that isn't either on the DVDs or on Mock the Week. Mock the Week frequently contains Milton Jones and Chris Addison who are in my Top Four as well.

I also recommend Andrew Maxwell, another Irisher and close friend of those two. I first "met" him on Ed's first DVD commentary and hated him - you put four boys in a room with a lot of alcohol and tell them to heckle their mate's comedy and, well, they don't come across well at all - but I've really warmed to him since. He's not as well known, his DVD (One Inch Punch) isn't on YouTube but there are plenty of snippets.

If you like Father Ted, try looking for Ardal O'Hanlon's stand-up. I've seen him live but never thought to seek him out on the internet but I'm sure it's there. Obviously he's very unlike Father Dougal, he reminds me a lot of Ed in the way he sees and phrases things.