London and Chicargo.

The first a city, the second a musical!

I went up to London on Friday and spent the evening playing Agricola with Richard, Hillary and Helen. It was nice to say hi but we were all pretty pooped. Afterward I actually had a bit of a mini crisis; I couldn't for the life of me remember why I was in the UK and it was all rather overwhelming.

But then Saturday was a beautiful day and reminded me why I like this side of the earth so much.

I started the day by shopping around Camden Markets for stripy over-the-knee socks; an item of clothing I have found it difficult to purchase elsewhere. Oh, you can get over-the-knee socks, but not the incredibly dazzling ones you find in Camden. I got eight pairs :D.

Then I proceeded to have a lovely cuppa at my favourite tea-house (also in Camden Markets - in the Camden Lock Market out the back if you're looking) called YumChaa. This is a place where they have smelling pots of every tea variety they sell out on display so you can choose what you want to drink that day by sniffing it! Heaven! They also sell chocolate brownies that are to die for.

Jason joined me for brunch at Foggs. Of around-the-world-in-80-day's fame. Need I say more?

Then we went off to do tourist stuff - and decided to see and to climb St Paul's Cathedral. I hadn't been inside St Paul's before, it was under wraps the last time I was in London, but it is indeed beautiful. I couldn't take photos inside but the detail was literally awe inspiring - the point I guess. It was built by Christopher Wren after the London fires 300 years ago. 528 steps later you get an absolutely awe-inspiring biew of London too. Hoooowee!


Atferward, the requirement for energy and a place to rest my dead knee led us to a Paul's. Jason will stand testament that I drank the whole of a large hot chocolate in no time flat and the rhubarb flan was as incredible as I remembered... yaum!

We met up with Belinda Knott (incredibly, she stepped off the bus right in front of us whilst Jason was talking to her describing where we were - coincidence incomparable!), and went for a beer, found with difficulty due to the number of closed pubs. I couldn't tell you the name of the bar though, as I gulped my (very tasty) beer in order to get changed so that I could rush off to meet up with Helen and Hilary... who were late.

But I got a few good pictures of the Cambridge Theatre at the Seven Dials (a roundabout with a statue on it with seven dials and seven streets leading away from it). We were there to see the musical Chicargo, and after a hurried dinner at some italian restaurant which looked remarkably like a wagamamma inside, we did so.

It was magical! I am squirming right now as I type due to the exquisite enjoyment I derived from those incredible dancers and singers. The reason we went was to see Ruthie Henshall - a legend of the theatre, and she was absolutely fabulous as Roxy Hart. Not quite as young and naive as perhaps the role required, but her acting was truly superb. And the men.... ooooooh the men! Their hips! They could DANCE!

Wow.

And we topped the evening with cocktails at a hotel bar across from the theatre. I had a cosmopolitan, which was really delicious. Must remember to have that again some time.

So, yeah. A great day. And a good trip. All I need now is a job.

The Hobbit

I saw The Hobbit at the Theatre Royal last Wednesday evening. Before rocking up I wasn't sure if it was actually a play or a musical, but at only 19 quid, it hardly mattered.

It was a slow starter. The story is essentially a road trip so rather difficult to show this on stage. There was a lot of walking on, around and over the set by the actors. I found the same problem with the Grapes of Wrath. Journeying just isn't inherently interesting.

But it got better.

The actors finally found their stride about a third of the way through and no longer seemed to be just wandering around aimlessly. The spider was a real highlight and so was smaug. I especially enjoyed the riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum. Bilbo apparently played Sam in the Lord of the Rings musical. The scenery and props were really good (two tree-looking things on rotatable bases with stairs and doors), transforming from Hobbiton to Mirkwood to Laketown with ease and the cast clambered all over them, and even rope-swung between them. The barrel scene was also well played with the actors getting into the wine kegs and disappearing into apparently thin air. Very cool. I liked the archers too. Good effects.

The actors were very carefully chosen for height too. They were either over six foot or under five so there was a very discernible difference between the 'dwarfs' and Bilbo and the 'men'. It really enhanced the illusion that there were two different races. Although one of the actors who played a man was clearly a sub for the dwarfs.. with such a height difference, it was very obvious what he was intended to be. :D

But then Gandalf fluffed his lines a couple of times, some of the lighting techs were off in their timing and the staging had a few problems too, so although the actors were good, especially Thorin and Bilbo, it just didn't engage me as much as it possibly could have if the flaws hadn't been so noticeable.

My rating for that performance would have to be about 3.5 out of 5. I wanted to like it more than I did. Ah well, experience experienced.

Black Ice - Ouch!

I discovered what Black Ice looks like this morning. It masquerades deceptively as just normal ground but is incredibly slippery.

I took an inelegant tumble.

Only minor damage to one knee but still a very painful shock to the system and now my body is aching in strange places from muscles that were contorted in weird ways.

The thing is, my work trousers were undamaged, my thermals likewise excepting a few blood stains, but my epidermis is peppered with holes and currently leaking!

I don't get it.

On Reality

I just read this in a post by Lynn Flewelling and I couldn't not re-blog it! I must go and read the rest of the sonnets!

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)
by William Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Sublime...

I've just got back from Choir practice and I'm floating on air...

We are currently rehearsing Shumann's Requiem Op 148, along with two Mendelssohn pieces, Song of the Lark and Hear My Prayer. The song is a perky little piece sung almost in rounds, and makes you happy just bopping along to it. The prayer is something most of the older generation in the choir recognise as a tune that their primary school teachers tortured them with - anyone know 'Oh for the wings of a dove'? - that's the prayer.

The Requiem though... I should really call this post sublime mess as that's what it sounds like most of the time. I bought a recording of it by the Berliner Philharmoniker, with Bernhard Klee and the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra so that I'd have something to practice to, and it really is sublime. The comparison with our choir is rather invidious to be sure, but every so often, as with the last piece we sang tonight - the Requiem from the Requiem - we manage to achieve something really magical.

I remember when I was in the TTG youth orchestra, playing along and getting so lost in the experience, I was no longer an individual, but an extension of this greater being that was the music itself. It's really hard to explain, but getting to that place in a creative endeavor where you are no longer one, but many - the whole being greater than the sum of its parts - is truly euphoric. And at the concert last year (which I promise to tell you about shortly dear friends!), and this evening, I touched again that place where person-hood disappears and only music remains. It was wonderful.

Peace to all & to all a good night!

Guilty Pleasures

As some of you may know, I'm an avid collector of DVDs. I love the feeling of escape into another world you get from watching a good movie or a film. From light and fluffy to deep and introspective, I've got a large and varied collection. I'm actually not at all good at NOT buying a DVD if I wander past any on sale. And when I start a series, if I enjoy them, I'll end up collecting and watching every episode, gorging on the series to completion if possible. I bought and watched the entire series of Gilmore Girls last year. Right now my guilty pleasure is Star Trek: Voyager. Such a feel good series as it is. I bought the first season last week and watched it over the weekend. I then went and bought season two, and am mid-way through that now. There are seven seasons, right now, they're on sale at Amazon! Oh dear...

Backblog: The better part of valour is discretion.

From Shakespeare; Henry IV, Part One, spoken by Falstaff.

On the 6th of January I wrote this:

SNOW!!!

I at first thought this morning that I would walk to work. It had been snowing pretty much all night and was continuing to do so plentifully.

It took me just the six steps from my front door to the footpath to decide otherwise. It was manageable but probably would have taken me twice as long to do and a 90 minute walk is not something I wanted to do. I caught the bus instead

This is my front gate:


This my front door:


And this is a tree on the way down into town:


Weeeheeeheee!

This was my backyard three days later:


SNOW!!!