We awarded two Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe last week.
Immediately before the Awards Show, fellow judge Kate Copstick and I decided to give an additional award to Bob Slayer as well as to Kunt and the Gang.
This was possible because, while packing for Edinburgh at the beginning of August, I realised that, mysteriously, I had had an extra Cunning Stunt Award made – I have no idea why.
I had awards made by mad inventor John Ward for every year up to and including 2017. Only the exact number required.
I have no idea why there was an extra award made.
But, as a result, we were able to give the extra award to Bob Slayer because I knew there was an extra trophy.
Except that, when I returned home two days ago, I found I did NOT have a spare Cunning Stunt Award. The spare trophy I have is actually an ‘Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid’ Award.
These trophies are one-offs, which is why they were all made together in advance. They can’t be duplicated because the materials would not be the same.
So John Ward is off to his back shed with his thinking cap and his template of what he made to see if he can make a new one to give to Bob Slayer.
As I blogged a couple of days ago, this was not the only gremlin which emerged on my return home.
My MacBook Pro laptop has now been taken in for repair – Apple are doing it for free because it is a known fault on the graphic card supplied by a third-party manufacturer for Apple, Dell and Acer computers. But my Hoover still does not work. The faulty washing machine pipe which partially flooded the kitchen during my four weeks in Edinburgh, despite the fact the water supply was turned off, has been repaired. But now my toilet has sprung a leak.
Life.
But – hey! – it’s now 1st September, so it is Christmas, right?
Well it seems to be.
Driving home three nights ago, I saw two houses with twinkling exterior Christmas light decorations.
Shortly afterwards, as someone had given me a CD of Roy Wood’s singles for my birthday at the end of July, I was listening to Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday on the car stereo and yesterday, even more bizarrely, I heard someone singing Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody in the street.
This made me think, inevitably, that the Malcolm Hardee Award winning Kunt and the Gang, in a bid to prove we actually should have given him an ‘Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid’ Award, should write and sharpish record a Christmas ditty for festive download. It could be a classic.
Equally strange things have happened.
It used to be that Bing Crosby’s White Christmas was the ultimate Christmas song. Who on earth could have ever imagined that the Pogues’ amazingly un-festive Fairytale of New York would one day replace it?
Kunt for Christmas, anyone?
In the wonderful new world of downloads, anything is possible.
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 