We went on a day trip to Torcello, one of the northern islands near to Venice, which was settled by people escaping Attila the Hun in the 5th Century and inhabited for 1000 years before malaria struck and the survivors moved to Venice.
After the hustle and bustle of Venice this was a quiet retreat - a day in the country - as the island has little on it apart from a couple of restaurants and an ancient basilica. We had a fantastic lunch where I tried to take the healthy option of fried fish and vegetables. I had envisaged a stir-fry but what came back was a massive plate of deep fried sea creatures with a few tempura like bits of carrot and asparagus on the top. It was really tasty and fun, but not at all healthy. I was munching tiny whole fish and octopus like I was a greedy giant. I doubt that I have eaten a dish of food before where so many creatures had to die.
We took a slightly hungover and sweaty walk up the bell tower, before marvelling at the a huge mosaic of the judgement day on the wall of the church. I thought the people burning in Hell looked pretty bored by their punishment, almost ambivalent, like they'd got used to the heat.
After my wife sat on the throne of Atilla and thus became the most dictatorial tyrant ever to have occupied that seat (I call her Hun - she thinks it's short for honey) we headed to the Locanda Cipriani for some Bellinis. Ernest Hemingway stayed here in 1948 and there were pictures of visitors like Elton John and the other queen, (Elizabeth II) and Lady Di amongst others. I thought about paying for my drinks with a signed photo of myself, but the waiters, ever discrete, pretended not to know who I was. The sun was shining and even a party of noisy French students couldn't spoil this day.
On our way back I remembered to try and get my photo taken pirouetting like a fairy. But it was a lot harder than the Japanese girl made it look. But I intend to do it in all future photos anyway.
I enjoyed the ferry trip back to Venice and found my brain was spinning over with ideas for the new stand-up show. Little breaks like this are great for relaxing and spending quality time with my wife, but the stimulation and new experiences and time to read mean that the brain also splutters into gear. We should do this a lot more than we do at the moment. I hope we will. We let life pass us by when there's so much to see and do out there and I am in the lucky position of being able to work anywhere. The slight drudgery of touring is more than compensated for when we can do something like this. I felt inspired and content. It might just have been the Bellinis though.
The trip has been book ended by amazing news. I found out Thatcher had died just as we got into our room on Monday and tonight when I checked the internet I discovered that RHLSTP has been nominated for a Sony Award (I am not sure how historians will be able to choose which of these two events was of the most significance). This was remarkable and very surprising because this year the Sonys have done away with the internet award (which AIOTM was nominated for a couple of years ago) and so we had had to take the massive and unlikely punt of entering RHLSTP in the comedy section. Not that it isn't comedy, just that previously this category has been dominated by BBC shows. It seemed highly unlikely that a podcast could make the list, but we gambled our entrance money (you have to pay to enter- again something that puts the podcaster at a disadvantage versus the big broadcasters) and producer Ben did a fantastic job of selecting some best of clips to put forward as our entry. Even so I didn't think we had a hope in Hell. The Sonys are very prestigious and none of my radio shows have ever been nominated, so this is a real boost and quite a big deal for the whole genre of podcasting. If we can compete against the big boys (and girls) then it adds a whole new dimension. I think this might be the biggest achievement of my career, which might sound a bit stupid given some of the stuff that has gone before. But this is something we've worked up from nothing, totally under our own volition and I am very proud of it. To get an official nod is important not for egotistical reasons (even though it proves I am the best in the world) but for what it says about the future of how comedy might be made. Get out there and make your own stuff, people.
If we won then that would be even more amazing of course, but a nomination is genuinely enough for me. I won't even get drunk and angry at the ceremony if we lose like I did last time..... Well I might. But only for the fun of it.
