Tag Archives: funny

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Python Theme

SpamalotI don’t think my birthday last Thursday could have had more of a Monty Python theme if I’d tried. A few weeks ago B booked up tickets to see Spamalot, the West End musical based on the Monty Python film “Holy Grail.” She also hid away a copy of “The Very Best of Monty Python,” a small book with pictures and scripts from the Python series.

Quite independently, I got a text a few weeks ago asking what I thought of a DVD box-set where each Python talked about and showed their favourite sketches. I’d not heard of it at the time, but it sounded like an intriguing idea. And they are greate to watch — thanks Mum and Dad!

I took the day off work and was able to spend much of the time “revising” for the evening at the theatre. (That was my excuse anyway.) It’s amazing how good a lot of it still is. Some dates badly, but much is probably just as funny now as when it was first broadcast. I was reminded that a lot was first broadcast even before I was born!

Spamalot, the musical, didn’t disappoint. B wanted to go before January to make sure we saw the show with Tim Curry in the lead role. He was certainly worth seeing, having quite a stage presence and a great voice. Not to say that the rest of the cast had anything much to worry about. The lady of the lake warrants special mention, not just because she looked and sounded the part but because she got some of the best lines. Her song about “What ever happened to my part?” was a highlight. One of the songs — you’ll know which one if you go to see it — maybe works better on Broadway, but I thought they all hit their mark. The French insults still make me laugh, although, knowing all the lines from the movie, I don’t really know why!

Overall it was a neat mix of some of the “best of” Monty Python with some new material more suited to its new format. Very enjoyable — thanks B!

Blog

MiFID Muddle

To most readers here I think I’m right in saying that the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive won’t mean much. It’s some new Europe-wide legislation designed to help regulate financial transactions.

Stop yawning. Please. Come back! This isn’t going to be completely dry and boring, honest.

So, anyway, one of its major elements is a concept called “best execution.” This isn’t a choice between a firing squad or a noose. The idea is that a trader has to be able to prove that they made the best deal, with the right people, at the best price. (On a serious note, I think this is a sensible idea, I’m just not convinced that regulation is the right way to achieve it.)

Unfortunately, speaking as an English man, I think we’re are at a disadvantage here. The Germans are efficient, so it shouldn’t be a problem in Frankfurt. The French probably don’t care what everyone else is doing, so I’m sure Paris will be fine. And the Italians are normally very outgoing and gregarious anyway. They probably speak to every trader at every bank just because they can. No, Milan will be fine.

But “best” could be a problem in London. Here our stiff upper lips and world-renouned reserve might prevent us from saying that we’re the best at anything. We should really be aiming for “pretty decent execution,” with a “quite good” counterpart at a “not too shabby” price. Although, to some, that still might be considered gushing.

It’s important that laws that affect multiple countries are made in a culturally sensitive manner and, as I think I’ve made clear, this is not the case with MiFID.

Blog, Links

Protect The Human

Secret Policeman's BallLast night we went to the Royal Albert Hall to see the Secret Policeman’s Ball, a charity gala in aid of Amnesty International. Despite the great cast — everyone from The Mighty Boosh to Eddie Izzard — beforehand I was worried that the “charity” aspect would take too prominent a position compared with the comedy. Obviously there’s a need to make people remember what the show is all about but often these events become preachy and, ultimately, a little dull.

I need not have worried. There were a few “cut sequences” as they re-arranged the stage, but even they provided laughs. (I particularly liked the QVC-style advert for the AK-47.)

There were many memorable moments so it’s certainly worth watching when it comes on TV in a few weeks. Personally I liked the sign interpretation of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” and Eddie Izzard’s demolition of so-called Intelligent Design.

Blog, Travel

Wanderlust

I’ve been reading the magazine Wanderlust for a few years now. It’s a great magazine with interesting stories about places that are often well off the beaten path — my kind of travelling! A couple of months ago I took the unusual step of writing a letter. It came in two parts, a comment about my time in Cuba (in response to someone who said he couldn’t find any night-life) and a second, longer piece about my time in Gdansk, Poland (as a counter-point to their piece on long-weekends for less than ?100).

Of course they published the Cuba story but edited out the rest. I thought the Polish story was the best part so I reprint it here:

The second is a short story from a couple of years ago when I went to Gdansk. Kind of. The friend I was visiting was working in Warsaw and one of her colleagues told her that if we were visiting Gdansk we had to see Sopot which was just a little bit further up the coast. Sopot was their home town and, reportedly, well worth a visit.

Gdansk was lovely, we wandered around, my friend dragging me to many amber jewellery stores and, long story short, we were quite late leaving and heading up the coast. We were expecting a lot and were disappointed. I didn’t miss a word out there. It was the Polish version of Ayia Napa with late-teens running around in an advanced state of inebriation. We weren’t impressed and time was getting on so we didn’t have very much choice other than to stay the night. Unfortunately pretty much everywhere was fully booked.

In the end we got the last room in the worst hotel I’ve stay in for quite some time. It was some distance from town (we were also hungry by this time) and there was a big party going on in a field next door. An all nighter it turned out. Come 6am, tired and miserable, we decide to leave. If breakfast was anything like the shower, we wouldn’t have eaten anything anyway!

Still, it would take more than that to stop me travelling to new places…