Christian's Birthday

This year it seemed that my birthday coincided with the first really chilly day of Autumn. I mention this as I spent most of the day outside.

After a gentle birthday jog around Clarence Park I took Charlie to his match for St. Albans City U8 vs Panshanger. It was only his second ever match, and the first I had seen. He looks rather good in the strip.

Charlie's team won easily and Charlie played really well. Well done Charlie.

After lunch the boys and I went to see the men's St. Albans team in the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup vs Beckenham Town. There couldn't have been more than a few hundred people watching, and most of them were old boys who have probably going for decades. It was a nice atmosphere; more swearing from the pitch than the spectators, the ability to wonder all around the pitch, a sweet little family sized merchandise shop and 'Andy's Snack's serving a decent cup of tea and a plate of chips from Andy's van.

In the evening we went to see 'Laughs in the Park', a big outdoor, and very chilly, comedy event in Verulamium Park. Overall, it was a very good show. Dylan Moran kicked off. He was good, but the material was a little predictable - men vs women, getting older and not understanding the younger generation, etc. Second up was Reginald D. Hunter, who left few stones unturned as he took on race, racists, class, women, Jews, and Tiger Wood's detractors with equal gusto. It was good stuff. Top of the bill was Eddie Izzard. Though he only occasionally hit truly amazing, you could see how his mind works as he took us through a premise, Noah's Ark being a true story for example, before going on a series of brilliantly entertaining and increasingly surreal sidebar stories, as though he was distracting himself, and always turning back to the main thread, whilst keeping the audience following along. And when he was good, he was exceptional. The highlight was the exploration of The Ten Commandments, in particular the one about not coveting a neighbour's ox, which ended with him concluding it was a typo. Why would you want to covet your neighbour's ox? It must have been 'cover' instead of covet, he claimed. Which led to an brilliantly surreal image of all the townsfolk hiding their oxen under duvets. Izzard also questions the wisdom of the Hebrews, whilst Moses was receiving The Ten Commandments, to smelt a golden calf. Izzard's suggested they should have had better things to be preoccupied with, like getting out of the desert.  Wonderful stuff.