Sausage and Mash at Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi.

It's been quite some time since an F1 post. I don't even know whether I have posted this year.  And oddly I have just realised I was looking at the blog a couple of days ago and thinking I hadn't yet done a post in December... it's only now November 13th!

Anyway, think it's been a while since I have watched a GP live, which tends to increase blogging desire, and this is a nice lunchtime start.  And Vettel (double world champion as of a few races ago) pulled away from pole but then was off at second corner with a right rear puncture, leaving a McLaren one-two.  Vettel crawled back to the pits losing the tyre and the mechanic motioned slitting his throat and the world champion thumped his steering wheel and his the only retiree so far.  Sadly Button seems to be going backwards and is now just third, but Hamilton is holding the lead on lap 8/55.

Just checked and found German Grand Prix, Thank You, Pirelli and Last of the Late Breakers.  Think will read now.

Lap 16 Button has a KERS failure and apparently he has to shut down a lot of systems in order to reboot it - all while driving round this circuit and keeping Weber at bay??  Weber got him at one corner and there was real close stuff on the next few corners, but Button kept the lead.  And then all on the same lap Ham and Alo pitted from 1st and 2nd, a couple of seconds apart on the track.  Great stop for Mclaren which it had to be as Button pitted on same lap from 3rd.  Kinda shows how far behind Button has pitted but it was still only a 6 second regroup for the mechanics!

Lap 17 Weber pits this lap and it was a slow one for him which lets Button off and also lets Massa through ahead.  So its Ham, Alo, But, Mas, Web.

Well it was a Lewis win and Button in 3rd - woop woop!  Although I did close my eyes a little in the final laps.

I was super spoiled in that John arrived just before the start with the ingredients for some delicious sausage and mash and prepared and served it for me all while I got to enjoy watching the race - what a lucky girl!!

Anne of Green Gables TO FINISH

Well, this is an epic post and I am just going to start it today.  Hopefully it will continue getting longer for many a year to come :-)   I have just had a little search for Anne on the blog and there appears to be just one mention of her on the Little About Me post.  No explanation so it is high time to come on here and record about her as she is a major part of my life!

Early Encounters With Anne
I had quite a lot of story books on tape as young person including Anne of Green Gables.  In fact I got a second copy of it as the first one got broken on one of the two cassettes.  The funny thing is I don't remember loving it all that much.  But there are many lines in the book that I can remember the exact intonation of of the person reading it so I must have listened a fair few times to.  At some point, I imagine when I was still under 10, I was given the first 4 books for my birthday. They were relatively think and had very small writing so they just sat on my shelf.  I was never that interested in reading the first one as I felt I already knew it.  Somehow, about age 14 I started reading them them all.  I feel as soon as I was on to book three there was no looking back.  I managed to then buy Anne's House of Dreams and Anne of Ingleside from Northwood bookshop and loved them too.  I wept bitterly when I finished Anne of Ingleside as I didn't want the series to be over.  And then somehow I found out there were two more!!!!  Oh my, what a feeling!  I can't remember how it came about, I think there was a lot of searching, but the Chickbeans tracked them down at their library in Alderley Edge and I read those - boy what a time.  I have an image and a feeling of reading in the little front bedroom at the Chapmans on a sunny spring day.  But I think that was Anne of Ingleside as I remember the frustration of having read the back and it saying that Anne had six children and then in the book Rilla is born and that lead me to give up reading the backs of books!  I leant these books to two friends at school and used to love discussing how far they had got with them in the classroom.  Rilla of Ingleside had a huge impact on me - the tears that night and it is still my go to thought on Remembrance Day. I think it was also one of the first books I ever re-read.  They then became standard rereads over the years and I am really not sure how many times I have read Anne now - I would hazard around 5.
Interesting to me moment... I have just googled 'Anne of Green Gables cassette tape' to see if I could find a pic of our copy to include here.  No luck, but ever so bizarrely a pic of Mum's copy of Frenchman's Creek came up on page 9! And I had been thinking so of Frenchman's Creek while writing this as being one of my other favourite books and the other contender for first book I ever re-read!  So I had to go read the blog to find out why!

Visiting PEI

27th Birthday Present
For my birthday this year, John bought me a Puffins Classic version of Anne of Green Gables.   I am about to start reading it, but before I do I want to try and record some things here.  One of the most exciting bits of the book is in the end section of behind the scenes bit is 'Some Things to Think About'.  I want to try list them here and put some of my thoughts in now, then add to them when I have read.

1. Can you compare Anne Shirley to any modern-day characters?  Instict, no!  will get thinking. 
2. Marilla and Matthew wanted to adopt a boy to help them out with the farm work.  What do you think it was that made them keep Anne instead?  Matthew was capitvated by her spell of talking and seeing the world differently than anyone else he had come across and he found himself feeling comfortable with her.  And he felt her desire to belong.  Marilla was touched by Anne's lonely life story and wanted her to have a good life, that she wouldn't get with Mrs Peter Blewitt.  She thought it her duty to bring up Anne.
3. Who do you think changes most during the novel?  How and why? Marilla and Anne.
4. Why do you think Anne holds a grudge against Gilbert for so long?  She is of fiery temper and felt the shame that was inflicted on her by Gilbert's actions.
5. Aunt Josephine is immediately amused and interested in Anne.  What do you think it is that akes Anne so different from her classmates?  She talks so readily and from the heart.
6. Marilla considers herself to be Anne's main guardian, but what do you make of Matthew's role in her upbringing?  He openly shows an interest in Anne and her thoughts and shows her unconditional love. He is a very important guardian.
7. What qualities do you think Anne looks for in a 'kindred spirit'?  That's a really good one and I am not sure what to put now.  A caring person, who has romantic ideals.  hmmm, think this may have to be one I build on as I read.  It's funny as I have long thought that I would love to be a kindred spirit but have never quite thought what it would exactly include.  I just thought Anne would kinda feel it when she is with someone.  And I fear it is not something that can be learnt, you either have it or you don''t.  And as I want it so much, I fear I might not have it!

Musical - Our House

John took me to Harrogate in half term to eat at Jenson Button's new restaurant which was fab.  We were having a nice wander around Harrogate in the afternoon and caught a glimpse through the window of the stairs in the amazing looking theatre.  We wandered round to the front to see what was on and it was a local production of Our House, the Madness musical.  It was one I had heard of in London and was vaguely interested in seeing but didn't feel desperate.  We had some other options of things to do in the evening but I did feel a pull towards it as the evening went on and John kindly said we could go.  And I was so pleased then that it was as good as it was and I enjoyed so!  Thank you John! 

I didn't know if it was the Buddy-style of band musical or the Mamma Mia-style (see Jersey Boys post) and it turned out to be Mamma Mia.  It was a big cast number, reminding me of Jesus Christ Superstar, though maybe not quite as big, but equally good.  I am having to rethink my thoughts of amateur theatre - my first experience of South Pacific in Malvern is now seeming more like the anomaly! Just initially I thought there were a few cringey members of cast singing and acting their hearts out in the chorus, but I got over that and many of the cast impressed me - especially the 2 boy side kicks and the 2 girl side kicks.  The only other thing that was a bit of a let down (to the show as much as to us) was the sound, it wasn't always possible to hear what people were saying!

Just before the interval, it occurred to me that the show was doing a Sliding Doors style thing showing 2 storylines.  I was worried that it had taken me so long to realise and was wondering whether to blame myself or their staging.  John and I talked about it in the interval and began to realise especially during the second half all the things going on to explain it to us!  I'm glad we realised! 

I knew the song 'Our House' beforehand, and there were a couple of others that I then recognised during the performance.  It was quite moving in the end and I was teary and overall thought it was a good show! Time now to wikipedia Out House and Madness.


I have included these two photos taken on the day to show my haircut!

Musical - Sister Act

I saw this was coming to Oxford and was interested in going to see it as it seemed to have been quite a hit in the West End and on Broadway, although I have never seen the film.  It did occur to me that I could see if anyone wanted to see it at school with me and make it into a staff night out, but I was too shy to suggest it in case no body said yes!  But then someone else was braver than I and organised it and about 10 of us ended up going!  It was a Thursday so we went to Fire and Stone first.

We were in two lots of seats, some of my normal ones in the restricted view section - which I really like - good views in my opinion (if you can work around the bar!) and nice leg room and half the price of the row behind which always feels good.  Have I gone in to this before... how when I was young I had the understanding that front row of the circle was the best seats in the house.  But now I fully feel that it doesn't really matter where you sit in the theatre as you will be seeing the very same show, so why not pay the cheapest with theatre tickets being oh so expensive these days.  I haven't yet decided if I prefer stalls or circle, price tends to be the default.

So the show itself - it was fab!!  I didn't know any of the songs, they were all different from the film, not that that would have really helped me!  And I normally feel that the more songs you can sing along to, the better it is.  But we all came out singing some of these and they got us moving in our seats.  There were lots of big numbers that I really liked.  All the nun ones really!  I do really love big choreography!  I also really liked all the singers.  It seemed to me (although I know the musically trained members of the school didn't think so ;-) ) that all the minor characters who would suddenly have a song of their own, were really great and impressive.  The show was also really funny.  It was the sort of obvious comedy that I would have normally thought would rather annoy me, but I did actually go with it and enjoy it!  And there was a great finale (not in Joseph league... but good) with a few audience members up on their feet and I was really pleased when the teacher next to me said she was getting up and we boogied away!  I was sad John wasn't there as I think he would really have liked it!