Travels in Ireland

Blimey. It's nearly half past eleven and I'm finally in my hotel in Letterkenny. Sat out in the corridor cos that's the only place the wifi works of course.

Actually not as wound up as that sounded. It all just took a long time. Bus times in Ireland seem to be more of a serving suggestion than strict guidelines that need to be followed. Both buses today from the airport set off 15 minutes late and tonight's arrived half an hour late.

So I was up at 5am, left house at 6, flying at 8, into Dublin at 8.55 (we got the Ryanair fanfare), then my 9.30 bus leaves at 9.45, gets me into Navan at 10.45 in time to start at 11. I do classes solid to 3.45, finish copying by 4.15, a lift to the busstop for 4.30, catch the 5.05 back into Dublin airport ( though Navan to Letterkenny is only 3 hours, there's no direct bus), arrive 6.05, get a pint at the airport, wait for the 7.05 bus, it leaves at 7.20 and I'm in Letterkenny for 11.15. I can't even add up how many hours that is travelling.

Tomorrow I get picked up from my hotel at 7.45. That's the good news. The less good news is that breakfast begins at 7.30. Life of leisure, that's me.

Scottish Falsetto Socks' Special Guests

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre have some special guests round:

Venice photo album now in print

Should you be so inclined, a rare collectors item classic is now on sale - Hev & Kev's Venice photo album. It'll be rare since, to be honest, I can't imagine anyone other than us wanting a copy. But, if you do, you can. Click to view the first 15 pages, and if you want, there are details on how to order a copy.

Venice 2011 by Sutherland & Tweed | Make Your Own Book

Venezia - La Calza Scozzese Teatro di Marionette in Falsetto

And this time dubbed into Italian, a totally different take of the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre's Venice routine:

Stand By Your Man (revisited) - Scottish Falsetto Socks

YouTube has a new facility which enables you to edit your already uploaded videos. Well, I say edit. It enables you to tweak them and make them look a little bit more garish than they did before, for what it's worth. Here's a hit from the pit we just dug out and dusted down:

Now that's what I call forward planning - Socks tickets 2012

Bringing a whole new dimension to the notion of forward planning, one of our favourite venues has started sending us weekly ticket sales reports for a forthcoming Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre show. Nothing unusual in that, I'm a great fan of venues who keep me up to date on sales, enabling me to boost the publicity and try and get those bums on those seats. It's also not unusual for me to get a little anxious when I get the reports for two weeks in a row and ticket sales are standing at zero.

However the weekly sales reports from the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen are a little bit different. Yes, it's worrying that the sales have stood at zero for a fortnight. But, no, it's not really that worrying given that the show doesn't take place until April 2012. I wouldn't really expect to sell any tickets until January. But to save me from three more months of negative sales, what say we all spread the word about the Socks gig in Aberdeen next April and see if we can't make this our earliest sellout ever. (The previous record is, I think, an Edinburgh show selling out 5 days in advance, so no pressure). Click for tickets, and spread the word.



UPDATE Oct 3rd - Wa-hey! We've sold three tickets already. Keep it up, only six months left now!

Youtoobling from Venice to Spiceworld

Two nights of random Youtoobling (you know the routine by now) began on our return from Venice with me looking at Venice related videos...

Like A Virgin, Madonna #venicepop Didn't remember this once when we were there #youtoobling

Little Italy, Stephen Bishop #youtoobling #venicepop (inc Chaka Khan, as featured in Socks in Venice

Dear Prudence, Siouxsie & The Banshees #youtoobling #venicepop

Seems all Venice pop videos have ads attached. Hmmm, curious #youtoobling #venicepop Catch You Sophie Ellis Bextor

Don't Look Now #youtoobling (not really Venice pop, but very Venice)

Death In Venice Visconti #youtoobling

Merchant of Venice Al Pacino #youtoobling

Laurence Olivier's Shylock #youtoobling Merchant of Venice (classic)



Merchant of Venice Act 3 Scene 1 BBC2011 #youtoobling

In The Ghetto, Elvis #youtoobling/jewtoobling #venicepop

Life Ain't So Easy When You're A Ghetto Child The Spinners #youtoobling #venicepop

Hello Mudda Hello Fadda, Allen Sherman #youtoobling

Vampires of Venice DrWho #youtoobling

Venice Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers #youtoobling


And then last night I began with the music from an ad that was on TV while we were away and also in the middle of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, which we saw on Saturday...

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour Sing It Out Loud #youtoobling

Around The Bend, The Asteroid Galaxy Tour #youtoobling

Another Girl Another Another Planet, The Only Ones. Brilliant version #youtoobling

Bowie's In Space, Flight Of The Conchords #youtoobling

Spice Up Your Life, Spice Girls #youtoobling

Radio Gaga, Queen #youtoobling

Wild Boys, Duran Duran #youtoobling

Dancing In The Street, Bowie & Jagger #youtoobling

Miracle Worker, Superheavy #youtoobling

Walk & Don't Look Back, Peter Tosh (with Mick Jagger) #youtoobling

You're So Vain, Carly Simon #youtoobling

You're So Vain, Carly Simon (live) #youtoobling

You're So Vain, Pan's People #totp72 Carly Simon

Was about to tweet Moves Like Jagger but it has inescapable Facebook ad attached. So, moving on... #youtoobling

Swagger Jagger, Cher Lloyd #youtoobling

Oh My Darling Clementine, Connie Francis Swagger Jagger #youtoobling

Tom Lehrer's Clementine #youtoobling

Loving You, Minnie Riperton #youtoobling

Last Friday Night, Katy Perry #youtoobling

Friday, Rebecca Black #youtoobling

C'Est La Vie, B*witched #youtoobling

...to which @ajhmurray tweeted: ok now you're out of control. He had a point.

Venice photos

Hev & I took our usual mass of photos in Venice - three or four rolls of film in old money - some of which aren't awful. Here's a taste of them, click and they'll link to more.

Venice Sketchbook

Hev & I just enjoyed the rarest of things, an actual holiday. Not a working holiday, which is what my usual travels result from, but a genuine week of with nothing to do but enjoy ourselves. And draw. In the absence of a sketchbook, I used the Venice Biennale map for my drawings of, as you can probably guess, Venice.