The Mighty Boosh! Come with me on a journey through time and space...

PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR
THE
MIGHTY BOOSH!!!!

The whole reason I wanted to start my Blog in the first place, was to natter excitedly about my ongoing (and not always healthy) obsession with The Mighty Boosh.

Somehow life got in the way...but now I am determined to put this wrong damn right!!!!


The Mighty Boosh is one of the finest, most mad-cap bonkers and genius comedies ever aired on BBC, and is written by Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding (see left).




Dose Boosh boys they got da style....











First aired in 2004 in the UK (now all across the continent, US and Australia- infact Oz was the first place they really took off live), I was hooked immediately by it's great daft humour and clever writing and delivery.





Julian Barrett plays Howard Moon, a mustachioed man who believes he is an unrecognised jazz maverick genius, a man full of adventure and wunderlust. Yeah. He thought his visit to his granny's was a weekly travelling adventure. An intellectually vain and deluded creature hurtling towards a middle-age crisis, Howard believes he is destined for greater things, but never will be. This character is loveable, if only because of his love-hate relationship with his young zookeeper assistant, Vince Noir.



Vince is the flip-side to this comedy duo, a stylish, popular and gifted cheeky cockney, the kind of man Howard wanted to be when he was younger. But wasn't. Vince is played brilliantly by writer Noel Fielding. Jazz? You gotta be joking...he adores Gary Numan, Mod rock and Goths. He also is able to talk to the animals- which is damn lucky as the first series is set inside the a run-down but magical zoo called the Zooniverse with a shaman called Naboo, a talking gorilla, and is run by Bob Fossil, a demented American.

AND WE WENT TO SEE THE LIVE SHOW!

Yep, they toured the UK, and Stef, Karen, Darren and I went to Manchester March this year to see them...





The opening curtain from our seats...


The live show was fantastic, and as I blog, Julian and Noel are putting the finishing touches to the Live DVD of The Mighty Boosh Live tour.





Have a nosey through our photos, and enjoy a foretaste of The Boosh Live Tour lunacy to hit our screens...

Hello and welcome to the show...

The Arctic...

Vince in Spain, seeking guidance from Rudy...

Encore!!

Favourite quotes:


"Don't go mockin' my mocha!"

" Ice flow, no where to go, lost in the blinding whiteness of the Tundra...check him out"

"Jazz is, Jazz was, Jazz be...be bop chucka chucka...wah wah wah!"

"What is this, a Parisian divorce court?"

"Oh look, it's a fence, but no..it's soft..."

Bainbridge: "ahh Naboo, are you in a trance??"
Naboo: "nah, just listening to Fleetwood Mac"
Bainbridge: "ahhh Ruumours"
Naboo: "No, Tusk"

Bainbridge pulls repulsed face. (Stoney silence).

"Look at them shine...look at them shine..."

Favourite episode: Tundra, Series 1, Episode 4.

"Ice flow, no where to go..."

In song format...the Tundra Rap...click to jump & watch The Mighty Boosh - Tundra Rap

And a passion both The Boosh and I share...





Lieutenant Columbo....

The Boosh is loose and we're a little bit RAWWW!

August Bank Holiday Sunday with Ann & Charlotte

Ann & daughter...my wee munchkin Charlotte

August bank holiday Sunday! Ann sweetly asked Darren and I over for tea! We attacked the poor sod at 4.30, and thoroughly enjoyed Ann's renowned spag bol followed with unexpected bonus ice cream and pears (yuuum), as did Charlotte!!


We sat outside in the decking area and enjoyed the overcast but warm weather mitt drinkies (mine a Guinness, ta!! lol!), then pottered indoors and bathed Charlotte, but not until we had all spoken to and seen Daddy aka Tez live on Internet phone/screen link from Germany. Poor bugger has been over there on work training, but is coming home Friday. Charlotte had me in total pieces...she kept picking up Ann's mobile and trying to talk to her Dad through it lmao- clever lass! Knew exactly what her mum was doing, and was trying to do the same thing- use a phone! This aint no dumb blonde. Infact, I can say without hint of bias, that she demonstrates more intelligence and nouse than some of the people I work with (you know who you are lol...)


Charlotte debuts the new fashion accessory for Summer '06


But of course it being an August Bank Holiday in the UK, at some point, it MUST Rain!! Oh and rain it did- buckets of it, along with thunder and lightening. But we were all safe and warm in the lounge with mood lighting, watching re-runs of Fraiser, having a good ol' chin wag and laughing as we remembered how good Fraiser used to be.

Cracking day xx

Snowy the cat moves in for the kill (well cuddle) with Ann & sleepy Charlotte...

Gizmo in his best 'Cat Monthly' front-page pose (innocent yet knowing...)

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE 'K.B.O.' IT...
(and I feel fine)....


Recently, the world's media have been waiting with bated breath, as the International Astronomical Union met in Prague to vote whether Pluto should still be considered the Ninth Planet.
Yesterday, they declared that Pluto was now considered a Dwarf Planet, with the other eight (including ours), being considered the 8 Classical Planets.
I was overjoyed at this decision, as I have begun to increasingly realise as an amateur astronomer, that Pluto doesn't deserve true planet status.

This morning I discover that other astromoners around the world were throwing fits screaming " you can't! It's a planet no it is really!" I HAVE BEEN INCENSED by their responses- my God, I thought, but these are scientists! How can they be so sentimental when the harsh facts show Pluto no longer deserves true planet status?

Let me make my argument. Now. Pluto is (was) the ninth planet, as were all taught in school. And it was true...it was the farthest known orbit in the Solar System, discovered by farm-boy Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.
Ahhhhh. Scientists and astromomers were soooo relieved to find this planet. Since the discovery of Neptune by William Hershel, astronomers were puzzled by Neptune's wonky orbit...it was askewed, as if being 'pulled' by something, distorting it's real orbit.
This new planet solved this problem- Pluto fitted the bill.
Relief. The Solar System was orderly again.

But, things started to go wrong... Pluto wasn't playing the game.

As technology became more sophisticated and viewing techniques improved, astronomers were starting to sweat. Things weren't right....

First, it's orbit. |Unlike the other 8 Classical Planets, who all orbit the Sun in a roughly round orbit, along the same plane, (as if all lying along an invisible thread when viewed sideways). It was found that Pluto was in a strange, very elongated orbit, so bizarrely different from the other 8 classical planets. It's orbit is so ellipical, that Pluto actually cuts in across Neptune's orbit, and for a while Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun. It acts more like a far out comet.

Second. It's size. First presumed to be massive when discovered, Planet X's size has been corrected, re-corrected and corrected again to the point it has dwindled to not even being the size of Continental USA at only 1300 miles across.

Earth VS Pluto (comparative sizes)

But that's ok, astronomers said. It can still be considered a planet, because it's round (due to it's own gravity being able to contract into a sphere). AND it has a satallite! Ooh! And another!!

Pluto being found to have satellites made some astronomers think it could avoid the axe...

And the other learned reason it could still be considered a planet, they said, was because, errrm...we want it to be! Generations of kids have learnt it's the 9th planet! Don't hurt the kiddies!



But it wasn't enough. The one that really put the cat amongst the pigeons, though, was when Mike Brown found UB313 three years ago...Codename Xena, which was declared as possibly the 10th Planet.

Xena and it's relative position

It was even bigger than Pluto!

But by this time the opinion and observations of the Solar System had changed. Lots of debris had been discovered out near Pluto, similar to the asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, all leftovers from the beginnings of our Solar System billions of years ago. But this area out by Pluto, the Kuiper Belt (after the astronomer who theorized it's existence long before we had the technology to find it) has lots and lots of Keiper Belt Objects-KBOs...some big, most small.

UB313, Xena, was found there (bigger than Pluto)
As was another planet-sized object (nicknamed Santa)
Oh dear.
Another (nicknamed Rudolph)
And Another (Quaoar)
Aaannd another (Sedna).

Pluto was no longer alone. It had company. Infact, some objects were bigger than itself. But astronomers would only call them KBOs, not real planets.

Which is where we come to, today.

Pluto has been sacked for the right reasons....it doesn't move along the Solar System's orbit plane, it has a comet-like, not planet-like, orbit round it's parent star, and is nestled in amongst other similarly found objects, found to be nothing more than the dusty outer-ring leftovers from the Solar System's birth.


So, what of the astronomers who want Pluto reinstating?

(Deep breath)

I'm sorry, but in my humble opinion, they are mixing science with sentimentality. There is no room for childhood nostalgia in science.
Science is supposed to deal with hard, cold clinical facts. It is supposed to be rational. It is meant to transcend the fool-hardiness that occurs when emotion becomes confused with logic. The recent romanticism in this area of astromomy has frankly, sent me mad, and I am amazed that hard-nosed academic astronomers, actually have the nerve to face the public and say, "but the kids don't want to lose it".

My response to that, is two-fold;

1) Ceres was once thought to be 'the missing planet' between Mars and Jupiter. It transpired that it is only a large object in what we now know as the Asteroid Belt, and it was demoted to minor planet.
How much sleep did people lose when Ceres was relegated? Not much, I 'd guess.

2) Don't mix sentimentality with scientific evidence and observation. Face the facts.



FIN.

V Summer Festival 2006

WELCOME/ WILLKOMMEN TO THE BRITISH SUMMER!

Ahh...yes, the sunshine, those warm balmy breezes, sand slipping between your toes on a warm, soft, sandy beach, BBQs, sunscreen, tans and bikinis...all are quickly forgotten as the usual British summer weather digs in deep.
Welly deep.
Yes, it's August again folks, which means only one thing...our annual pilgramage to all things music, the 'V' Summer Festival Weekend, Weston Park stately home, in deepest Staffordshire.
Well, not that deep. About 5 miles from Karen and Stef in Shifnal, Shropshire, to be precise.

Infact, we went with them on our first V Festival, back in good ol' sunny 2003. The darlings again spared us the horrors of camping on-site, by not only letting us stay over with them instead, but dropping us off, and picking us up! We're so lucky to have such brilliant friends! We landed around 9.15 after work, and had a gorgeous meal (at the best Indian Restaurant in Shropshire, The East End Balti, Shifnal) and then gabbed away until the early hours, as we did on the Sat and Sunday too...as usual!!

The next morning, Karen dropped us off, and we began the long and arduous trek to the actual V Festival itself, which is about 1 mile, and this year, it was through mud.

You may guess by the countanance of the gentleman pictured to your left, that it was abit of a war zone.
With mud.
Lots of it.
The week before, I had been valiantly watching all weather reports about the that area of the country. Last Monday, it began to rain, rain, rain, and just for good measure, it rained some more. I decided that wellington boots were definitely going to be required at this rate, never mind a pac-a-mac, and D deftly purchased the said items.


We were ready for the 60,000 capacity outdoor Festival.

This was war...



War Log. V Festival, 19th August, 2006.

DAY 1.


Dear Diary...

Will this monumental torrent of rain never cease? Tis enough to send a man mad! Arrghhhh I can see my self getting foot rot at this rate [Editor grabs keyboard and smacks Celia over the head].


Well despite the rain, wellies and chemical toilets, V 2006 was another top-notch festival, and it was great fun!! We had wellies (tick), raincoats (tick), bags to sit on (so no wet bums sitting on the grass(tick). It was an '80's flashback to my Girl Guides camping trips. The music, atmosphere and energy over the entire weekend was great, everyone having a good time, no trouble, people relaxing and enjoying the music, food, drink and a bit of noseying (and buying) from the clothes, ornaments, hats, jewellery, and anything else I've missed out stalls around the site.



Hiding from the rain inside one of the performance tents

On Saturday, besides eating and drinking (Darren got an orange mouth from the Orange Bacardi Breezers lol) D and I saw The Beautiful South (cracking), Faithless, a bit of Paul Weller, Imogen Heap and Morrissey, who, as always, is brilliant, especially when doing old Smiths songs!!

Yep it may have been a v rainy V weekend, but D and I had a brilliant time. Here, you can see us dining 'al fresco' style...



(picture left: Celia pouting sensually whilst in the pouring rain with a cardboard plate about to collapse)

(picture right: Darren contemplates the Norse God of Rain and asks " so, do you like The Smiths then?")...

DAY 2


Sunday: caught last bit of Kula Shaker (waaah), Keane (lucky we saw them before the lead singer booked himself into the Priory Rehab today, eh), Echo and The Bunnymen (brilliant as always), and Beck (bizarre yet amusing stage set- puppets of themselves)

Sunday: To the winner, the spoils...D with his hard-fought for blow-up lilo/phone (they threw them over fencing on the hour and it was like feeding time at the Zoo. The victor, above, raises a glass- he was offered 2 burgers and two drinks in exchange for this freebie (£ 15 worth!!) He declined.

Radiohead headlined Sunday. They were really very good, and I enjoyed seeing them again...not bad for a person who avoided them for 15years! Bless, D popped his ' I've never seen Radiohead do "Creep" live' cherry at last (5 gigs), so that was one thing ticked off his 'to do before I die' list.

But the night was made for me with a set from joint headliner, Fat Boy Slim, who was just absolutely brilliant!! Remember I'm a rave/dance girl at heart!!



Inside the Dance Tent at Fat Boy Slim (when I managed to stop dancing for two seconds lol)










So I was a v happy chappy when I eventually crawled into bed...and to be woken by your best mate's other half offering D and I fried egg sandwiches for breakfast before the drive home northbound, you realise just how lucky you are!

Brill weekend!

Seeing the sunshine after the rain...

Normality restored...

A lovely BBC weather map of the British Isles...note the large amount of cloud in August

It's Summer, it's August, therefore, it's raining!

Blackpool is on the North West coast of England...you know where it is...wee hint...just where the RAIN CLOUD is on the map... X marks the spot!!!

Neck and back were dodgy again last week, I presume because the Flying Lesson was hard work (that wee plane's controls were flippin' heavy!).

GP has put me on new anti-depressants medication to help me get a full night's sleep. The Venaflaxine was giving me seriously nasty nightmares (of my mum dying, etc). The new ones also have a sedative effect, so I must take them at night along with my muscle relaxant meds (to relax the neck and back while I sleep). Together they are seriously strong stuff, I've only been on them 3 nights and feel drugged all day and wake up grumpy. The GP said the doping effect will ease off to a natural sleep in 2-3 weeks, but the welcome onset of having 10hrs sleep straight through every night is wonderful, plus I haven't slept for that length of time for well over a year.

Touch wood, though, I've had two good days in a row neck-wise, so cross fingers for me guys. The Chiropractic treatments seem to be doing the job...now having more good days than bad on average. GP pleased with results and so he has authorised another 8 sessions on the NHS.
But now my poor GP is going to get in trouble with the Auditor of the Trust monies, authorising another 8 sessions. One of my friends in medicine had already told me about how GP hands are tied to cost in the NHS. My GP confirmed this upon my questioning. But he said the slap he will receive is outweighed by the patient (me) being in less pain. Plus he will tell them it is cheaper than recommending surgery (which is the next stage if this doesn't work. A surgical procedure into my neck will be required to manually move the naughty nerve).


I have no idea what to have for dinner! Red or Green day? Red or Green? Yes, those of you who know what Red and Green days are will sympathise. For those who don't, Red and Green days are the diet plan to Slimming World! I've re-joined Slimming World, and Darren has joined too. I lost three stone last time, and I kept most of it off, despite the neck injury, loosely following the plan. I now want to hit the weight again, and so I have re-joined.

Before Slimming World- 16 stone...

...being a natural blonde didn't hide
the fatness! By the way, I was holding
my tummy in for this shot...oh dear.

After Slimming World 2004...

So I decided to start it again the other week, wanting to lose another two stone.

I was very good...so good, that I lost an amazing HALF POUND.

Not funny.
Not happy.

Upon scrutinising my Food Diary, The Group Consultant said I hadn't eaten enough!


So this week I have been a total pig!!!!!

New Section: Fun Pic of The Week. Pictures from days gone by where you wish the camera hadn't been invented!

Fun Pic of the week: Here's one Darren doesn't want the world to see...

wearing his Mum's hat at his sister Alison's wedding reception...tee hee....
cream is SO his colour...

Up up and away...Celia piloting a plane!!!!

Celia and her plane!

Today...I took flight! Darren bought me a flying lesson for my birthday last year ( 11th September 'o5). We were advised to wait for the weather to improve...and to wait until at least May- August. So three weeks ago I booked it for yesterday, after I refused to keep on waiting for my neck to improve and grab life by the balls again, Ceals style! Sadly the weather drew in, and so I re-scheduled for today...but boy, was it ever worth the wait!!!!

We telephoned at 12 noon for a weather check- and were told we were ON for 2 o'clock. I replaced the telephone handset and headed straight for the toilet...I suddenly had a nervous tummy..ahem...

We arrived for 2p.m. Darren was my passenger (brave or a fool- answers on a postcard lol).

To be honest, I had expected a 'little' talk, then to be taken up by the Instructor, have a two minute go on the controls and then the return flight to be flown by the Instructor, who would fly the rest and land us back on terra-firma.

No.

I was thrown straight in, with Instructor Richard's opening question..."Right, do you want to do take off?"

I immediately said "Yes!" like a five-year old would...then gulped as the adult part of my brain kicked in and whispered in my ear "WHAT??! ME? Are you JOKING?!"

He wasn't joking...this was a full-on lesson... taxi-ing, controlling the aircraft, including take-off cruising and landing, with the Instructor only there in an instructing and emergency capacity. Ex-RAF Richard put it bluntly: " I only take control if something bad or unexpected happens, otherwise she's all yours."

Can you trust this woman??!

So after an overview of Health & Saftey, checking controls, being shown which controls do what and when, taxi-ing towards the runway...pedals controlling left and right, hands not used at ALL for anything at this point. Afterall, you use your hands on the stick to control pitch- up and down- in the air...not much use for your hands when your feet are controlling where the plane's going! Very strange- unlearn everything you've ever learnt in a car. But alot of fun!

Then...checking air-speed , windspeed, balance..pulling back...and I'm off up up and awaay!

Celia's climbing altitude!

I climbed and the intensity of the concentration, (and physical strain too, controlling the climb, G force, etc) was astounding...but so was the view- after I'd climbed thousands of feet above the Irish Sea and held my height, I was shown how to use the controls to 'lock' the altitude. Then you just decided which direction you want to go, and fly...

We first took-off out south over Lytham St Annes,

then circled back north over the Irish Sea towards Blackpool and went up along the coast.

D took all the fanastic pictures as we soared through gossamer-thin clouds over the whole of Fylde Blackpool and Wyre beneath us...

Then we banked hard right at Knott End, and, following the River Wyre estuary, we circled around the green lush fields of Wyre and Fylde...

before heading back towards the airport.

Banking round towards the Wyre Estuary

The descent was great- controlling the drop in altitude, lining up for the runway- just like the Krypton Factor lol- but this is REAL, not a simulation! Richard assisted with the landing as per regulations, and the next thing....touch-down!

Coming in for landing..." Celia, control and descend towards those piano-keys at the bottom of the air-strip"

It was truely an amazing experience...I was even complemented on my proficency! My instructor said that I was "very good, especially as that was your first time" and that I "had the knack". He even said he'd had a guy out this morning for an hour, who just "couldn't get the knack", and that Richard had to do most of it. I was informed back on terra-firma that he genuinely hadn't been touching the controls- which D confirmed was true. Infact, he and Richard had been having a wee chat whilst I was flying, and Richard was turning round and talking to him, with no worry about the fact that a novice was piloting the plane thousands of feet above the Irish Sea!

Celia and Richard, ex-Raf Instructor

Oh it was amazing guys...you MUST do this- even just the one time in your life.

I have a new ambition- to get my Fixed wing Pilot's licence before I'm 45.

It will have to wait for a few years as cost prohibitive at the moment (each lesson being £125 p/hour, two a month with the minimum of 45 air-hours for the licence! ) but I would love it! Or if nothing else- have another damn go lol !!!

Celia and G-BASL (fondly nicknamed 'Basil' by me)

Fantastic!

Thankyou Darren, from the bottom of my heart, for enabling me to fulfill a life-long dream... xxxxx