Day 196 - End of Term

18th July 2013

It was a weird day today. It was the end of term. This would be exciting in itself, but it was an extra strange feeling knowing that I had not 6 weeks off...but 6 months. 

I am going to miss the little ones immensely. Some of them I will never see again, and that is peculiar to ponder on indeed. There are 52 little voices and faces that will always be a bit special, because they'll be the first class I ever worked with. Sniffle. 

I got a huge array of lovely gifts and so many beautiful flowers that I had to go a bit petrol station forecourt and put them in a bucket. I own no vases so these will have to be purchased. I also got an insane amount of chocolate that has had to be stashed in the cupboard as there is no chance it will last in this heat, and that's the coolest place there's any room. 

Another HUGE excitement today was seeing Eddie Izzard. I have been a huge fan since I was a teenager, and have been longing to see him live since the first time I saw a show. I have this technique when reading stories to the kids of using accents of comedians for the voices of characters, as it's easier to keep them in your head. Any Izzard show provides me with enough voices for a a whole book. The one that sticks in my mind is that I use him voice as the voice of the Lion in The Ravenous Beast. Samantha received some kind of magical email with tickets to see him at the Top Secret Comedy club. These tickets were either £5 or £10, I forget which. I'd have paid a lot more though. 

We met up at Covent Garden and went for a meal at what is fast becoming 'our' restaurant, Bella Italia. It's nice food, nice cocktails, they're everywhere, and Samantha always seems to have vouchers so we only have to pay for drinks. Win win. 

After food we nipped over to the venue, a tiny place with no windows that was jam packed already, so it was that pleasant 'I'm going to melt into my own face' temperature. The seating was unallocated, but we were lucky enough to find some seats fairly near the front and at a side for ease of escape. 

It was a strange night. The sign on the door advertised as though it was your bog standard comedy show, Eddie Izzard headlining, supported by Joel Dommett. He was brilliant, I'd seen him on Russell Howard's Good News awhile ago and thought he would be fun to see, so this was quite a happy surprise. What was odd as that there were about 5 or 6 acts (maybe more, I got a bit lost by it all) some doing slightly longer sets, some doing 5 minutes. Most were good, some not so great. When the great man himself came out, his set seemed to last about the same time as Joel's, which had been about 30 minutes or so. It was fantastic, don't get me wrong, but it left me feeling a bit "oh, was that-oh. Is it done? Oh."

I got completely silly when I saw him, it took me a little by surprise to get so "ohmygodthat'seddieizzardhe'srightthereabouttoperformicanseeeddieizzardwithmyactualeyesbecausehe'sinthesameroomasmeohmygod" but I totally did.

Afterwards we went to have a drink in the bar, and got all silly again when we realised we were drinking in the same bar as Eddie Izzard, mere metres away from the man who gave the world Jeff Vader, Cake or Death and who has ensured that I can't say Hammersmith Apollo properly anymore. Or...Alcatraaaazzzz. 

Excellent day. Weird day. Last working day for half a year kind of day. 

Eep.

Stephie

Xxx