Eddie Izzard - Force Majeure

Last night, Wolfie and I headed down to Sheffield to catch Eddie Izzard at the Motorpoint Arena. I have never been a fan of arena gigs due to their lack of intimacy but sadly this is the only way you can see Izzard these days.

I had seen his disappointing Sexie tour so had misgivings but he was undoubtedly back on form last night. His act was in a similar vein to all those which have preceded it, yet it still felt fresh. It's also surrealist intelligent humour, so you actually learn things while being entertained, which is always a good combination I find.

We were sat in the stalls, block B, on the floor of the giant aircraft hanger. The view was good but as the seats here weren't graded by height, I did get to see the back of a bald head for most of the night. Looking at the stage around this was surreal due to how the eyes operate - I often saw Izzard within a mirage of baldy head, so the huge TV screens came as a relief. Sadly though, watching on screens is often like watching at home.

Izzard is starting to look his age, he's in his fifties now, and sadly he was in a full suit so no transvestism. Still, the production of his show was smooth, the lighting adding to the feel of the gig and the rolling twitter messages on the big screens were a nice touch. His pro-European stance was nicely refreshing and his discussion of a wide range of social and political subjects thought provoking. In the end though, he was very very funny, and definitely worth seeing if you can.

Afterwards, we headed back to my sister's, who came along with us and whose Christmas present this actually was, via The Devonshire Cat, one of our favourite bars and a former furmeet venue. Near my sister's place, we saw The Hungry Wolf sandwich bar, whose logo is a ravenous anthropomorphic wuffle. It reminded me of Mister Wuffle. He's very silly!

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Absolutely Fuddled!

This week was the last one for my Russian class, thus we have now completed the first year. To celebrate, on Thursday evening, ten of us including our teacher headed over to the Russian Restaurant in Bradford for a farewell/celebratory meal.

As you know, I've been there numerous times but many of my fellow learners hadn't so I guided the from Bradford Forster Square station. Our class was a mixture of nationalities and they all reacted to the Russian food in different ways. The Eastern Europeans amongst us loved it while the French and English were perhaps not so sure.

Some said the food was nice, others the "worst they had ever tasted" so it all depends on taste I guess. In my case I had my usual Karcho Soup and tried Zapakanke, a Ukrainian version of cottage pie. This was gorgeous but my downfall was the high strength Baltika 9, 8.0% beer and one they rarely have in. Upon seeing it I had to sample it, not realising we'd be there for five straight hours such was the convivial conversation. We chatted about most things, politics mainly, but it was all rather cordial. And as the drink flowed, the more drunk we became, meaning Friday at work was quite tough.

Only a handful of my class will be doing Russian second year, four I think and some on the sole condition we have the same teacher again (which is likely). Considering we need 15 for it to go ahead, coupled with the increased fees, this is worrying. We'll see what happens before September.

I was speaking to Vlad, the restaurant owner during our meal, and he urged me to keep going with and practising Russian. He also helped me with a dessert I needed to bring into work the following day as part of our Fuddle Friday celebrations.

Apparently it's a Yorkshire term (but one I've never heard of), where people bring an item of food into the office and we all have a big picnic. In the end, many people obliged, and we had Swedish meatballs cooked by a Norwegian and Thai green curry provided by a Slovak. We had a range of chips too, and desserts including my Russian honey and cream tart that went down well. It was a brilliant picnic with loads of really great food, and hopefully it'll become a regular fixture in the future.

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