GBBO 2017: Week Seven (10.10.17)


Tonight I had to ask myself a searching question: how am I supposed to survive the rest of this year’s Great British Bake Off now Yan’s no longer in the tent?

She’s been my favourite baker of the series; not only for her clear technical ability, but also for her attitude. She has an amusing preciseness that’s very entertaining and her creations have been exceptional almost across the board; until tonight, that is, when her luck ran out a bit. This was a shame, as it would have only taken slightly different circumstances for things to fall the other way.

As ever, I tweeted along with tonight’s show; see below for my mumblings:

8:01PM: "Absolute Disaster"; my favourite Bowie album.

8:03PM: STEVEN: "The Naked Bake Off"; The Great British Clothes Off, surely?

8:07PM: Steven's making Italian Style Cannoli; so he's making cannoli then?

8:08PM: My favourite Roy Orbison song is Only Cannoli.

8:09PM: Ricotta Pick a Pocket or Two.

8:10PM: Paul Hollywood gets redder with each passing shot.

8:12PM: Tonight's incidental music sounds like Simply the Best arranged for xylophone.

8:22PM: Paul Hollywood's hair is the hardest substance known to man.

8:24PM: The Bake Off does wonders for the xylophone-playing session musician community.

8:24PM: Paul Hollywood's hair could cut glass.

8:27PM: Yan's pizza dough, like Alan Partridge, is bouncing back.

8:30PM: I love Yan's earnestness.

8:31PM: I always measure my pizzas with a ruler.

8:34PM: Kate: "Can I put mine in the bin?"

That's been done before, Kate, and it didn't go down well.

8:42PM: I had the cannolis once. Couldn't leave the house.

8:45PM: Imagine Paul Hollywood Trick or Treating; you'd give him your wallet.

8:47PM: The bakers in the tent are struggling to make their sfogliatelle; I'm struggling to spell it.

8:49PM: Stacey's Pastry Suprise. Cilla's Surprise Surprise.

8:56PM: I watch this to relax, would you believe it.

9:02PM: "Sfogliatelle's all mine all mine. Sfogliatelle's all mine..."

9:05PM: My wife: "Is Prue wearing a ball gag as a necklace?"

9:10PM: ...but I love Jan.

9:12PM: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane ...
Read more