November 7 2004

What a fine time I had in that London, despite a four hour train journey! I arrived after a having a couple of cold stellas on the train and then a pint in that dreadful pub at Euston Station, a bit of craic with some Spurs fans on their way home after their game..footy fans always find each other I tend to think and it really does make strangers chat to one another, a good thing in my book (unless it's some heed the ball who wants to tell you his life story when you're reading a book on the train!).
I got changed for the gig in the (very roomy) toilets of a pub in Soho, something my Dad always warned me about! then a short walk to the venue. My gig was a 60th birthday party being held at a very posh Conrad restaraunt in West London. I had a small beer and signed the chitty, fuck me it was seven quid a bottle! Now I'm not doing all the usual sub Peter Kay bollocks about Northerners in London, house prices and the cost of beer, but seven pund for a bottle of Bud is obscene!
The gig was lovely, a room full of mainly Jewish families, some old some young. They enjoyed my act and I was gentle with them. As it turns out the MD of a large after dinner speakers agency was in the audience and she came over to introduce herself. I'd been trying to get onto their books for over a year so it was nice that a very ordinary nights work could have a significant bearing on my career.
After the gig I hotfooted it down to The Comedy Store to see PM perform in the late show, he was excellent, very professional and tight, the crowd loved him. I'd had trouble getting a hotel until my knight in shining armour did her stuff and I had a decent place to kip in Russell Square (that sold Stella in cans from a vending machine at only £2.10!). So I decided to treat myself to a bike rickshaw through Soho and to my hotel. It would've been great if it had been a young lass on the bike(maybe in a short skirt..) but alas all I had to look at were the buttocks of a very camp Aussie bloke for ten minutes :(.
FTM!