I slept in until 1.30pm and to be honest I could have easily gone back to sleep then, but thought I'd better get up and get something done with my day. I certainly needed the rest. It is, as it has been for a while now, all go.
But I took it relatively easy for the afternoon, writing my blog and
my August newsletter (you can subscribe by putting your email address in the box on the left there). And then I had to drive to Croydon. The only problem with having a slideshow in Christ on a Bike is that I have to get to the venues early to set everything up. It was a bit of a hairy drive across town with quite a few drivers seemingly intent on pulling out in front of me, or jumping lights. I love it when the world turns into a video game. One where you only get one life. And if you lose it you're not allowed to start again.
I have been doing previews at the Croydon Warehouse Theatre for a long time now - not every year, but at least since 1998 and maybe before. So it's always good to pop back and reminisce with the ghosts of Fringe shows past. I got loads of tweets as I waited in the dressing room telling me that I was about to be on Top Gear, which was news to me, but apparently Jeremy Clarkson had said my name. I haven't seen it, but I think that he was just introducing Richard Hammond who was in Sweden, so he thought it would be funny to call him Richard Herring, because they eat herring in Scandinavia. I don't think he even knew there was someone called Richard Herring. But it still counts as being back on TV, so I am happy.
On the way back home people kept on trying to crash into me and there was one heart stopping moment when I noticed two fire engines speeding towards me from the opposite direction. There was a lorry parked on their side of the road and a traffic island and anticipating that the firemen might want to cross to my side of the road I pulled over. The first fire engine found its way through on the other side of the road, but the second one veered round the traffic island at great speed and seemed to be heading right for me. It swerved and I flinched, but luckily it missed me by centimetres seeming to bend around me and carried on its way. It left me a little bit shaken and contemplating how I might have been squashed like a slug, but I carried on my way and luckily managed to avoid crashing or being crashed into. Someone should send those firemen on a speed awareness course. At least they would have been able to quickly cut my corpse out of the car if they'd hit me.
