Catch you next week...

OK, gentlespoons. I'll be packing tomorrow night and then off to London to see DS at the weekend. So expect sordid tales of fish princes crying as he's dragged out of Camden for fear of it having nothing left... Have a good weekend all and if you can't be good get the name of a good lawyer first...

There will be tales. Oh yes, there will be tales.

Today's buzz phrases:

"face-painting bagels"

"giant pez dispensers"

"Spam mints"

"singing bubble men"

"tea-bagging a llama!"

...with more to follow!

Yes, a more complete report may follow at lunchtime.

I'm going to fashion some something from my notes of the weekend!

Sounds good! How was the show? (& the rest of the weekend)

So, our weekend was excellent.

Thought its was a good omen when I was stood waiting for Myron at Bermondsey station on Saturday morning and Dante from Devil May Cry, Jill Valentine from Resident Evil, 3 of the characters from Soul Calibur, and a Japanese schoolgirl walked into the station. Doesn't happen every day, but it seemed fitting for Myron (actually there was celebration of Japanese stuff event in Central London this weeked).

Met up him and threw his bags into the back of my car, and then back on the tube to Camden Town, which is always entertaining. I really like the stables market. Its a fantastic building with wonderful sculpture around, and the shops and stalls are great. Myron and I concluded we were getting old though when a girl in one shop offered to model whatever clothing we wanted her to try on, and we didn't immediately point to the basques in the corner. More worryingly, when I commented that I was getting worried I was now picking out clothes Myron would actually wear, I got the distinct impression she thought we were a couple!

Anyway, on from Camden to the West End, and lunch in Dishoom, which is an upmarket Bombay street cafe. Superb food, and good value for the West End of London. Then on to a shop that sells imported US and Japanese sweets and drinks (only place to get wild cherry Pepsi).

Evening it was the stage production of Rock of Ages. Utterly brilliant. Just superb. If you like your 80s rock music (Whitesnake, Van Halen, Def leppard, Guns and Roses, Poison, etc) then its just fantastic.

Sunday was the IPW:UK show and once again they put on another cracker of a show.

First match was Zack Sabre jr .v. Wild Boar in a semi-final match for the cruiser tournament. Good back and forth stuff until Zack finally whacked on an armbar for the win.

Then it was Sammy Callighan .v. Noam Dar in the other semi and this was just brutal. Sammy started the match with a running big boot to Dar's face, and then it was just on. They beat the living christ out of one another for about 15 minutes. Just heavy heavy hits that should have dropped a horse. Eventually Sammy locked on his stretch muffler submission for the win.

Final match before the interval was Martin Stone .v. Fit Finlay. Finlay looked great and did really well in the match. You can just see the guy has so much experience (he started in 1974) that its the little things he does now which really make the match, like positioning the referee, or controlling a limb. They did brawl outside and they did throw hands, but this was a great technical match. Finlay eventualyl won with a tombstone.

Fit then stuck around to do photos in the ring with people during the interval.

After the interval it was Marty Scurl's turn. His scheduled opponent was deported due to visa issues, so they had to book a replacement at short notice. Not too many people complained when Doug Williams walked out!! Doug and Marty had another excellent technical wrestling match which Marty eventually won with a reversed roll-up.

Next up was Project Ego (Travis and Kirby) .v. The Thrillers (Joel Redman, and TNA's own Mark Haskins). Fantastic match this one as it mixed comedy tag team stuff with high-flying with brutal stuff with just excellent tag team chemistry. Nothing the WWE has booked for tag teams in the last 3 years comes close to how good this was. Haskins is just at the white hot tip of perfection at the moment. The kid is that good. But eventually Project ego won, only for Haskins to turn on Redman afterwards.

Co-main event saw Sha Samuels defend the title against Dave Mastiff. Just brutal. Both of them beat the snot out of each other. At one point Dave threw Sha into the corner and the ring moved six inches. They fought into the crowd by us and had we not the foresight to move, Sha would have ended up in our laps at one point. Match ended as Dave looked to have it won, and Rockstar Spud and T-Bone interfered. Spud clobebred Dave with his cruiser belt and split him open. Dave then said he'd find two partners and face the three of them at the big IPW/NWE show at the end of April. Rumour has Dave having none other than Kevin Nash as one of his partners!

Final match was the cruiser tournament final between Sammy and Zack. Sweet jeesus this mathc must have hurt. You could have put down a buffalo with some of the kicks and both of them were covered in welts by the end. A few times I was convinced Zack would have collapsed one of Sammy lungs with his kicks. Eventually though Sammy snared Zack in his muffler, and then to add insult to injury, repearedly kicked Zack in the back of the head until Sabre passed out and the referee stopepd the match.

So its Sammy .v. Marty Scurl in the final at a later show.

Yesterday morning to finish the weekend off we went for breakfast at The Hawksmoor, a very upmarket steakhouse in the City of London. Just the best steak you will ever taste. Both Myron and I decided to go for the speciality steaks, and to have steak and eggs. We spent £90 on breakfast for two.

And lovely those steaks were too! Having come back with twice as much stuff as I went down with there is still a little part of me that wishes that Batman Grapnel gun and Aragorn's crown had made it back up... Still, two tops, one book, three comics, two Xmas gifts, a few gifts for Helen/friends and a borrowed Smallville first season wasn't a bad haul!

Totally agree on the shows. ROA was fantastic, really funny and well put together. There wasn't a bad match on the card but, for me, the winner by a nose was the tag match. Some fantastic moves and Project Ego had the comedy down. They managed to sell being cowardly and funny heels while still never seeming to be out of the match (which they eventually won). The little bits like them both wearing trunks with the same name on them, doing a switch and Travis arguing that he was Kirby, showing the ref back of his trunks. Cue the real Kirby to get confused about who is was!