Recently I visited England for the 4th time, or was it my 3rd time, perhaps my 5th, who knows, lets say it was my 4th time. The trip was all about British comedy and walking around exploring all the interesting things London has to offer. 

But on the first day I realised that all of the stereotypes, myths and jokes are true. We were on our way to see the I’m sorry I haven’t a clue show in Manchester and earlier bought two tickets for the 8.20 am train from London to Manchester. Got up early in the morning, hurried from train station to underground to reach Euston station on time, only to find all the trains were delayed due to works on the lines, well at least there weren’t leaves on the line! I’m used to hearing all these jokes about the British railways not being on time, but then you think it can’t be that bad. So we waited, and waited, then waited some more, until all of a sudden there was an announcement that our train wasn’t going anywhere and instead we should go on the earlier train. And we ran towards the other train, only to find it was full, and our reserved seats weren’t valid anymore. We planned to have lunch on the train, instead we sat in different seats, next to strangers in the quiet coach who clearly disobeyed the quiet coach rules by snoring very loudly. But after almost 3 hours of drive up North, we made it to Manchester and had a wonderful time watching a 2 hour ISIHAC show, after which we could have used some ice packs to heal the pain that too much laughter has caused.

And then there was London, you know how they say London is a foggy, rainy, cloudy city, well if they don’t say that they should start, it certainly was miserably looking for all of the 7 days we were there. Even Manchester was sunnier and warmer. When we left Slovenia it was sunny and up to 36 degres of Celsius and then we arrived to London with its high of 16 degres and rain, I was grateful I packed my winter clothes! But not to be that critical of London, we did have at least two hours of sunshine per week. 

But what makes up for all the delays, waiting, stabbing, bad moments and the awful weather, are the wonderful and kind people of Britain! We still had a lot of fun, enjoyed exploring London and going to all the shows, meeting all the lovely people,etc. So all is well that ends well. Not even the bad weather or the delays can keep me away from London, so to quote the immortal words of Arnold: “I’ll be back…”

People I admire are the ones who do what they love and because of that are good at it, and the man this post is about certainly fits into that category! 

Humphrey Lyttelton, or Humph as many prefer to call him, was born on 23rd of May 1921 at Eton college to a father who was house master there, so he naturally went to Eton and everyone expected him to become a lawyer or have a similar more serious profession. But no Humph after coming back from WWII became a cartoonist for the Daily mail. His passion was jazz and he and his band had a top charts hit Bad Penny Blues, worked with Radiohead and made many songs and played even more great concerts. Besides all that he was the best host of ISIHAC, his deadpan style of humus or even humour is what made the brilliant jokes even funnier! He was the host of ISIHAC and presenter of BBC’s “Best of Jazz” for over 40 years. Besides all that he was also a calligraphist, a bird watcher and always found the time for his fans! He was a father, a husband, a friend and to many of us he was simply Humph the man that made us laugh every time we heard him say: “Welcome to Just a minute”, ohh no wait wrong show. All joking aside, Humphrey Lyttelton was great and extraordinary, a man of many talents and intrests. You could clearly see he did what he loved in life and thats the thing we should all learn from him.

Even at the age of 86 he still played the trumpet with his band and still recorded episodes of ISIHAC and was funnier then ever! And although he died two years ago on this day, he still makes me laugh every time I listen to old ISIHAC episodes, or when I read one of his books. I guess the great never really die!

Will now leave you with a couple of videos of the late and trully great Humphrey Lyttelton. So it goes.

Went to see Neil Innes perform live. Seeing him live was on my “very long to do before I die list”. The list still includes things like go to an NBA basketball game, watch I’m sorry I haven’t a clue live, and many other very random things.

But back to Neil Innes. The mini concert started at around 8pm and after 2 encores lasted until 10.30 pm, we did demand another encore but Neil said he is old and its past his bedtime. Nearly missed the last bus home but it would have been worth it if I did! For the second encore he sang my favourite song Urban Spaceman (video bellow), the song was produced by Sir Paul McCartney. The song was my ringtone for years so it was a great feeling hearing it live. Overall a great evening filled with tears of laughter, some audience participation and lots of clapping!

Photo from www.neilinnes.org since my BlackBerry photos were such bad quality. 

As the title, which is the slogan of the smiling man above named Marc Berthod,suggests this one will be all about snow, well mainly about skiers.

Just spent a very enjoyable weekend watching world cup skiing in Kranjska Gora. I’ve been watching skiing on TV for about 10 years now, ever since I first saw Benjamin Raich ski (pictured below giving an interview for ORF).

This has been my 4th time I’ve been to Kranjska Gora/Vitranc world cup and it gets better each year. In case you don’t believe me here is a photo of Marc Berthod 4 years younger and without the beard and the long hair.

So yes we established I do love skiing and skiers. But even if you dislike men in spandex suits, the atmosphere at a world cup skiing race is amazing! You get there at around 9.30 am and stand in the cold and snow until 2.30 pm, what could be better… well for me nothing!

We’ve been to two races this year, and the BIB number draw (pictured below) which takes place in Kranjska Gora followed by a concert.

The race itself takes place in Podkoren a good 30 minute walk away from Kranjska Gora. First event was the Giant Slalom race whose winner was the amazingly fast Austrian, the 20 year old Marcel Hirscher with Kjetil Jansrud in second place and Ted Ligety (pictured below) in third.

On Sunday there was the Slalom race in which Rainfred Herbst won and Hirscher was again in the podium in second place and Julien Lizeroux (pictured below), who is probably the worlds nicest person just because he took a photo with everyone who asked and signed all the autographs, came in third place.

And what would be a skiing event if it weren’t for “old” skiing legends. Pictured below are Alberto Tomba politely waving at me, who was kind enough to take a photo with me later on, and our two champs Andrej Šporn and Jure Košir.

And here is one more skiing downhill legend, Franz Klammer.

Time to end with a couple of photos of the amazing snowy landscape, it was a fun weekend which will hopefully be repeated next year and the year after that and the year…

Merry Christmas, happy holidays to all!

Here are some more photos from my London trip uploaded to flickr.

Click here if you are interested in seeing the photos or/and click here for the previous post about London.

As I’ve removed the comments because they weren’t always working properly, you can contact me via above email or twitter if you have any questions or anything to say.

Overwhelmed doesn’t begin to describe how I feel right now, baffled, full of joy, confused, fan struck, dazzled come close! But most of all grateful.

Just came back from a overall perfect trip in London. Here are some of the photos that show the highlights of my trip.

First night I spent watching adults make complete idiots of themselves and loved every second of it! Karaoke Circus was lovely night out.

Goran Ivanišević after the first match at the Albert Hall. Mansour Bahrami, the Iranian tennis player was the highlight!

Having tea on the staircase of the Albert Hall before the second night of tennis matches.

The lovely guest-house where we stayed, its in North Lambeth and a delightful place to stay if you want to explore central London!

Oscar Wilde was right as always!

Tea at the Ritz, well it was everything you imagine and more, yes its expensive but its worth it!

Yes I of course I had to go all the way to Mornington Crescent just so I could take a few photos. Noticed there still isn’t a blue plaque for Humphrey Lyttelton, London should be ashamed, he was truly a great man and deserves it!

Ian Hislop and Richard Ingrams at the Private Eye Annual book singing. I’ve been a fan of Ingrams for many years, I’ve listened to him on the news quiz, read many articles writen by him so to see him there, well it left me speechless!

The lovely Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders opening the “a not so silent night” concert with a few jokes. The concert was something completely different, with performances from Boy George, Martha Wainwright, and many many others.

Rufus and his boyfriend, they sang Silent Night in German, both have amazing voices!

The Comedy Store where you see Paul Merton and other brilliant comedians do impro twice a week! We went to the screening of the wonderful documentary about the life of Jim Sweeney. Here is the link to the trailer. Go and see it if you can, its hilarious! Or follow Jim Sweeney on twitter.

On our last night we went to the recording of “Have I got news for you”. And afterwards to the 14th floor of the London studios for complimentary drinks with Ian Hislop, Paul Merton, James May,etc

Whilst in London I also meet two very lovely twitter friends who made the London trip even more memorable so thanks you two!

Overall it was fucking amazing trip! Hopefully next time I’m in London I’ll go to a recording of “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” and then I’ll have ticked all the boxes on my “To do/see list in the UK”…

Day 1:

This was taken at the Brnik airport, we had terrible fog but thankfully not a bumpy ride!

First up it was Karaoke Circus which was loads of fun! People from the audience and celebrity guests performed karaoke with the help of a live band. Guests included Dave Gorman, Ben Miller, Chris Addison,etc

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A week from today I should be in London, if everything goes the way I planned of course. My trip begins on the 3rd and ends on the 11th of December. It hopefully will be filled with music, comedy and tennis. Activities include a Rufus/Martha Wainwright concert, Karaoke Circus, Comedy Store Players, watching Ivaniševič and Rafter play tennis at the Albert Hall and having tea at the Ritz and hopefully many more…

Will try to post a photo or two a day on this blog or you can follow my trip on twitter.

Last week has been very exciting, I worked every single day since last Monday so it was also a very tiring week.Somewhere in the mist of all the work I managed to “celebrate” my 23rd birthday. Well the celebration was the weekend before my birthday when we went to a casino to win some money, well only 20 euros but it was a fun night out. 23 years old is what I am now, somehow birthday never had a special meaning to me, but looking back to when I was 13 someone being in their mid 20s was old but now looking to someone who is 30 or 40 something doesn’t, guess age becomes relative with time. As silly as it sounds but the saying “Age is just a number” somehow rings true, or I could be just getting old!

Anyway I was working on my birthday from 3pm-10pm so really didn’t have time to celebrate as such. But still had a lovely day, got a surprise bday gift from my coworkers a gift certificate and some flowers. Only got 5 text msg from people wishing me happy birthday, instead got 100 msgs via twitter and facebook and email, really shows how many more people are on various social networking websites, judging by previous birthdays when I received mostly text messages.

All the birthday wishes were very sweet and lovely but I must say one stood out the most, it was of course the tweet I recived from Nathan Fillion (Mal from Firefly).

I am a huge Sci-fi geek and also love the new Castle show with Nathan as Mr.Castle, so that really made my birthday a bit special, as silly as it may/will sound! Its the little things in life I guess that make up for the bad terrible things.

So 23 started good lets hope it continues along the same route, although I wouldn’t mind being less busy but as the Germans say C’est la vie, or was it the Spanish…