A night with Tim Minchen

What an eejit! It just dawned on me that Anne McGuire wasn’t involved in the elections last week as she’s an MP, not an MSP. In my last blog post I said I was glad that she’d been voted in last Thursday! The wonders of technology allowed me to delete the comment – but once I’d deleted it I kind of regretted it; maybe I should’ve just left it alone. It was only a wee faux-pas and, in real live conversation we can't go back and delete inaccurate or inappropriate comments. Still, this isn’t real-time live conversation – so I’ll leave it deleted and anyone reading the post in future won’t think I’m an eejit....unless they then read this post...hm, think I’ll just move on from this one...

Alex and I had a brilliant night out at the theatre in Glasgow last night. Tim Minchen’s an Australian performer who’s unbelievably clever as a comedian, lyricist and musician and has a totally original approach to stand-up. He was supported on stage by a 55 piece symphony orchestra and he told stories and sang songs that made me laugh out loud one minute and cry the next. He jumped from big, dramatic numbers (most of them taking a really clever rise out of religion), to hilarious wee anecdotes, to songs that were both thought-provoking and very funny, to poignant little masterpieces performed by just him and his grand piano. As much as I really enjoyed the comedy, my favourite part of the night was when he ended the show with ‘White Wine in the Sun’. It’s a song about Christmas - totally out of season, I know - but I was so pleased he included it. Me and my friend Jono are thinking of starting a campaign to help Tim Minchen steal the number one slot from Simon Cowell with this lovely wee song! What d’you think?!

The concert was a perfect escape from a weekend that saw me sitting in front of my computer, from very early Saturday morning till very late on Sunday afternoon, finishing off my last Open University assignment. Well, I say last – what I really mean is the last for a while. As much as I found it hard to motivate myself to write this one (and every other one during this course), I have a feeling it won’t be long before I’m signing up for another module. Once the dust settles, I’ll probably be digging out the prospectus again, having forgotten how skilled I’ve become at procrastination!

I’m off to collect Gordon now from choir. My voice still isn’t back to normal, so I’m following doctor’s orders this week and resting it. I considered going along and just singing quietly - but, that was my intention last week and it was nigh on impossible not to join in and sing out loud! An aching throat all week was the price I paid, so the quiet option tonight was sensible – but really brought it home to me how much I love my new singing group and miss it when I can’t go along. I’m sure Gordon will keep me up to speed with any new songs from tonight – but it’s not the same as being there. Roll on next Monday night and a, hopefully, frog-less throat!