Stephen Grant :: Post details: Groundhog month

01/08/07

Groundhog month - Categories: News - Stephen Grant @ 12:56:39 am

Hello again :)

First of all, thank you all SO much for your kind notes of support after the first blog. It really may be the first and last time I mention what has been happening in my life outside of Edinburgh so your kind words have been much appreciated. Thanks again.

Anyway; I'm a day behind blog-wise, but I thought I'd let you all know how I've been getting on. Firstly, the journey up was NOT a record (Justin Moorhouse was asking). Admittedly, I actually stopped to eat instead of doing all meals on the move and that added 30 minutes so my last year record of Brighton -> Edinburgh in 7hrs 15 mins was not likely to be beaten. (Please note, I stopped at Peterborough services, and those 30 minutes included 10 minutes eating a Pizza Hut express 'value meal' and 20 minutes desperately trying to coax my stomach into digesting it).

Gourmet dinner

The main reason for this year's journey taking that much longer was ridiculous traffic, helped in no part by my absence of navigation system in my new car. I decided to follow the A1 and it was completely cack. Here's the second of two stoppages; this was a jack-knifed Somerfield lorry just South of the Scottish border. No doubt the weight of 2p beans was too much for the artic to bear. To get round it, I ended up going down a country lane the width of a village pavement where I filled my bumper grill with nettle leaves. For once, the navi's insistance that I was 'off road' was actually almost accurate.

Eventually, I got to Edinburgh in time to head to the Pleasance. With two days to go, I can't believe what state this place is in. How the hell do they get it ready so quickly? Even my show is closer to completion than this.

I met up with Andrew Jobbins who gave me the key to my flat over in New Town. It's weird working directly with Andrew; for the other 11 months of the year I think of him as the guy who helps Geoff Whiting out with his massive roster of club diaries, but in Edinburgh he's Nigel Klarfeld's right-hand guy and extremely hands-on for the duration of the fest.

Nigel introduced me to the flyerers. These guys are young, enthusiastic, young, friendly, and young. God I feel old.

Then it was off to the flat. I like to live on my own in Edinburgh; it means I get more work done. Of course, the big issue this year was my complete lack of phoneline and internet. The flat itself, is lovely.

Two main problems; the first one being, no easily usable wifi. There's a local letting agency who have an unsecured network on just a single bar (which I will not admit to using right now as I believe this practice is illegal?) and a strong private network next door. It was time to bite the bullet and go checking who owned this, and sure enough I found my next door neighborus sat outside their house having a fag. I asked if they had wifi - they did - result! I asked if I could use it, and they told me it was their flatmate's. They went upstairs to ask him and within a minute they returned with sad faces, as he told them that it was 'impossible as he had 'private stuff' he didn't want me to see'. For heaven's sake, I wasn't going to look at his computer! But, seeing as the contents of his hard drive might have upset Chris Langham, I had to respect his wishes. I'll try again tomorrow, offering money.

The other main problem - everything works in this flat, except the sodding toaster, which will not click 'down' and must be held down with a finger throughout. To get it going unattended, you have to wedge a kettle between the wall and the toaster, thus.

(note sexy reflectoporn style image)

The upshot of this is that any sidetracking (quite often the case when taking phonecalls and rehearsing) leads to the toaster setting off the fire alarm, which I have now done quite a few times. Admittedly, holding the bagels up to the fire alarm (top of the pic) hasn't helped matters in the slightest.

Next blog will include details of my tech day and the flying team's meet and greet. Sorry for being a day behind, but I am also rehearsing like mad for my first show on Wednesday. Except I'm not, because as ever, I'm writing my blog.