Happiness is......

....a pub with a cinema screen in it.

Happiness is also the Sunday 1 April lineup of Stand By Me, the Goonies and the Lost Boys. Mmm, 1980s goodness.

I don't know who came up with the idea of the Roxy, but I love them. I've been once before, to see Don't Look Now which is one of my favourite films of all time (having been introduced to it at an early age by my dad, who fancied the pants off Julie Christie and was quite happy to uproot his 8 year old daughter's watching of the Sound of Music in order to emotionally scar her with scenes of rampant shagging and really scary dwarves). I went with K, who HATES this film with a passion, but wanted to see if perhaps watching it while getting quietly spannered would improve matters. We also took S, who had never seen it and would be able to tell us who was right in terms of the film being excellent or rubbish. I fully intended to blog about this at the time actually, but I had to work late, or my glasses broke or something, and I never got around to it.

It's a great place, with a huge back room full of tables and sofas which is where the screen is; with this room separated from the bar area (which also has seats and sofas for those who just want to have a drink and not watch the film. Drinks are normal London prices (about £12 for a bottle of decent red, and £3 a pint) but food is a fantastic bargain. I had a chicken sandwich off the all-day menu and thought I'd never need to eat again - and all for £4.50 too.

Less good is the fact that when we went we were right next to a table of people who were all exceeding pleased with themselves and celebrating this fact with some post-work drinks. I am all up for noisy chatterboxery, but why did they feel the need to hold this evening of fun in the cinema bit when not one of them was even remotely interested in the film? (Apart from the sex scene, whereupon they all went very quiet as if they were being forced to watch it in the same room as their parents. I'm sure I heard one of them hiss "Look! Tits!" to his mate, whose ears then went red.) What annoyed me was that they a) had the comfiest seats in the room, and b) there was an entire other section of the bar in which to sit and talk if you weren't going to watch the film. Being English, of course I wasn't going to go over and ask them to be quiet with a wagging finger, so I just huffed and puffed and gave them cross looks for the best part of an hour before another table away from them became free and we could move. Well, honestly.

So, a good night out guaranteed at the Roxy. Unless of course you are K, who still hated Don't Look Now after another viewing, or S, who had never seen it before and loathed every second of it. No taste, some people.

Book o' blogging

100 bloggers have published a book to raise funds of the BBC's Comic Relief appeal on Friday 16th March.

'Shaggy Blog Stories' features hilarious contributions from Richard Herring of 'Fist of Fun' fame, BBC 6Music presenter Andrew Collins, comedian Emma Kennedy, and James Henry, scriptwriter from Channel Four's 'The Green Wing'.Authors Abby Lee, David Belbin, Zoe McCarthy, Catherine Sanderson and The Guardian's Anna Pickard have also contributed pieces to the book.

The vast majority of contributions, however, are the work of many of the lesser known and unfamiliar heroes of British blogging; going under pen names such as Diamond Geezer, Scaryduck, Pandemian and Unreliable Witness.

The book is the idea of blogger Mike Atkinson who writes the 'Troubled Diva' weblog. 'Shaggy Blog Stories' features comic writing from not only the cream of British blogging, but also the best up-and-coming and undiscovered writers publishing their work on their own websites.

Giving himself a "ridiculously short" seven days from idea to finished product, Atkinson admitted that he was overwhelmed with the response, which gleaned over 300 submissions for publication.

With a pool of talented writers, and the latest publishing-on-demand technology, Shaggy Blog Stories bypasses the usual snail-paced publishing industry, and offers a mail order service to customers who will receive their finished copy within days of placing their order, and only a couple of weeks after the original idea.

"Blogging creates complex, worldwide networks of friendship and contacts on the internet", says journalist Alistair Coleman, one of Shaggy Blog Stories' contributors. "By creating a buzz about this book, we can reach out to hundreds, thousands of readers who'd be willing to part with a few quid for this very good cause. Mike's got some excellent writers on board here whose work deserves a wider audience. Everybody wins."

For details of how to order the book, visit Shaggy Blog Stories. For the background story on the creation of Shaggy Blog Stories, take a look at Troubled-Diva.

Note my festive Red Nose Day themed text, even if it is a day late.

I'd like to thank Mike, Anna and everyone else who worked so hard on this project - it's a great idea and I'm so pleased it's been a resounding success.

Charity rocks!

Comic Relief 2007

I do like people who come up with Good Ideas, and Mike over at Troubled Diva is no exception. He's come up with a great way of raising money for this year's Comic Relief, and needs help from British bloggers!

Basically he's compiling an anthology of humourous blogs posts which will then be sold, and all profits go to Comic Relief. Hurrah!

I've spent the last ten minutes trying to link to the post but whenever I try, Blogger eats the post, so I'll just paste it here, which looks messy, but as least is guaranteed to actually work. Get clicking, y'all!

http://troubled-diva.com/labels/rednoseday.html

All change...

So, I changed my template. The green was giving me a headache, and also when I view the page on any other PC apart from my laptop the font is in a horrible pale green which I don't like; as opposed to the white font which shows up on the laptop screen. Why is this, I wonder?

Anyway, have fun. Tonight was my last day of working late for the next few weeks, so I'll be blogging much more than I have been recently. I'm hoping to do some more of the nostalgic stuff over the next couple of days, which may even feature some photos of me sporting a variety of 80s haircuts. Reason enough for anyone to tune in, surely.

Wireless hits East London

Dear EastEnders,

What? Keith Miller can't afford cornflakes, yet the Miller household seems to have wireless broadband? As does the caff? Since when?

Also: shut up, Dawn Swan; shut up, Rob; shut up, May; shut up, entire Wicks clan; shut up, Chelsea; shut up, Sean; shut up, post-cruise Peggy; shut up, Squiggle; shut up, everyone apart from Tanya.

Love,

Miss Hacksaw

Damn it, I think I blew an artery.