The Involuntary Giggles


Hello, sorry its been a while folks. I was washing my hair.

So it occurs to me that, through this blog, I am starting to get a bit of a reputation for being a ditz. What, I hear you cry? Squid, the very essence of elegance and grace is getting a clumsy reputation? Why, how? Well I'll tell you. Recently I was staying with a big group of friends at the Edinbrugh Fringe, and we were playing a game in which you point to the person you think most likely fits the question. I got a pretty much unanimous vote for "Who is most likely to wall paper themselves to a wall whilst decorating" and "Who is most likely to throw themselves down a bowling alley instead of the ball". I feel I should set the record straight. My life is not so disastrous, and to prove it, here is a list of non clutsy things I did today:

1.) I walked downstairs. I didn't fall over.
2.) I made a cup of tea.
3.) I wrote some emails.
4.) I printed and stapled several CVs effectively.
5.) I dressed myself.


Well, I think that successfully set the record straight. Now for the embarrassing tale...

So, in Edinburgh, some of us decided to go and see a performance of '"Wuthering Heights." It was one of those intimate theatre spaces where you are literally right next to the cast as they perform. Just as the audience started to go quiet, I heard a funny gargling throat noise. I look at my friend sat next to me. She looked back, with a deer-in-headlight's look in her eye. Her expression was so funny that I spluttered into laughter, but just at that moment, the lights went down, and the performance began. I had not had chance to laugh. I needed to laugh. I tried so very hard to keep a straight face, I mean, we were on the front row! And Wuthering Heights is not a comedic story, the actors would think we were laughing at them! I tried to think of something serious, I put my jumper in front of my face to hide my inane grin, but every time I thought about my friend's startled face, I would let out an involuntary snort, and then in the corner of my eye see my friend crease up into silent laughter. It took us about 10 minutes to stop setting each other off, a good fifth of the show. If anyone from that production happens to be reading this, it was not you I was laughing at. It was my incredibly embarrassing friend. I can only apologise.