Nowadays when every pimply rep in his Vauxhall Astra brandishes a business card declaring him to be some sort of "executive" - a word once reserved for only the highest echelons of British business- we perhaps shouldn't get over excited at our passes at Elstree studios last night describing us as VIPs. I once thought of VIPs as royalty, film stars, Nelson Mandela and perhaps the Prime Minister. But last night Marion and I, as guests of Paul's employers CPL, enjoyed the cachet of being VIPs if only for one evening.
We went to the recording of an episode of A League Of Their Own, the Sky panel game that doesn't take sport too seriously and enjoyed an extremely funny couple of hours of filming plus CPL's great warm up man doing his usual very entertaining stuff. Alongside the captains Jamie Redknapp and Freddie Flintoff and regulars John Bishop and Georgie Thompson were guests Lee Mack and Rio Ferdinand. As a Liverpool fan I am supposed to hate Rio but I could only warm to him as an eloquent bloke who, despite nerves in an unusual environment for him, came across extremely well. Local Southport lad Lee Mack added his usual wit to the proceedings and if the TV audience enjoy the show half as much as those in the studio it will be a huge success. Since Paul first developed this show almost two years ago it has grown and grown from a typical 30 minute panel show into a pretty spectacular extravaganza in an hour long slot.
Sadly for Paul (pictured here with Marion and the lovely Georgie Thompson) this was his last recording of "League" as he leaves CPL on Friday to join the BBC. His colleagues made us extremely welcome at the after show party and told us that we could always come to future recordings even though Paul will have left. It's always good when people leave jobs on amicable terms. I spoke briefly to John Bishop and Georgie who were both charming and it was a great experience for us to be surrounded by celebrities who (as I tweeted last night) will certainly not be name dropping us. I was disappointed not to get a chance to speak to Lee Mack to chat about his Southport connections but maybe next time.
Before the show I promised my VIP wife a good meal out in Borehamwood. Now I don't know if you've ever been to Borehamwood but I don't imagine that it is on any of the South East's great culinary maps and we walked the length of the high street in search of somewhere decent to eat. We ended up in the Fiesta cafe. Now I know that it doesn't look exactly posh in the photo but for just over £12 we had a great lasagne with salad, a chicken and mushroom pie with potato and salad plus two drinks. The service was impeccable and extremely friendly and, at less than the cost of a starter at some up market establishments we ate and drank our fill. I'm not suggesting it as somewhere for a special occasion but if you need a quick meal in Borehamwood you would find it hard to beat for great value, lovely service and down to earth food.
And finally for those readers who didn't notice or failed to click on the link to the photo of the vase that I was getting all excited about on yesterday's blog, here it is. It's such a fabulous piece of pottery that I will be extremely disappointed to sell it. But that's what I bought if for and I suppose that it will have to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment