Musical - Jersey Boys

 Last night I saw Jersey Boys in London at the Prince Edward Theatre.  It was a fairly spur of the moment thing.  For my birthday on Friday, the Chickbeans had given me some money to do as I liked with.  I was going up to London on Saturday afternoon for a friend's party so thought it might be nice as I would be paying the train fair anyway to combine the trip with theatre visit in the evening.  I looked at the list of things that were on that I had been wanting to see for a while and had not got around to.  Jersey Boys fit the bill and John was able to get us tickets.

 

I had heard that it had one lots of awards in its day and had good reviews and although I hadn't really heard of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, I thought it would be one of those where I recognised a lot of the music and indeed it was.  It told the story of their formation and they performed lots of songs.  I realised there are two ways of doing musicals with music group songs.  There is the Buddy Holly way where you reenact the band's story and people play the people in the band, or there's the Abba version where you use the songs to fit into a made up story like Mamma Mia.  Jersey Boys was the former sort.  I don't think I definitively like either better, it depends on the particular show.

One of my favourite bits of this one was the way the drum kit kept on coming up and out of a whole in the stage with the drummer playing and then going back down inside!!

An enjoyable evening, though didn't find myself totally loving it. 

Book diary

Well, I have just retrieved this draft post from the 4th September 2010 (it's now 16th October 2011) so it's been in the pipeline for quite a while! The draft only consisted of photos, and it has leapt written being today and I have filled the last page today!! And I am immensely proud.  I came across book diaries in nice bookshops and thought how much I would like one and was given this, which was just a notebook but has worked pretty well. 

I have recorded each book I have read since Easter 2006 with a comment on almost all the books - ranging from a few lines to a couple of pages.  Sometimes it includes my thoughts on the story, or my situation of reading the book or occasionally seemingly unrelated ramblings!

I have absolutely loved having it to refer back to and keep track of how much I have been reading.  I recorded the date I finished the book and sometimes there have been gaps of several months and sometimes a few in a week when I've been on holiday. 

At the back I made lists of books:  books I wanted to read, the 'highbrow books' that I had read, books I'd read more than once.  (Admittedly some of that was to fill the book up as I was given a new one last year which I wanted to start using!)

So drum roll... between April 2006 and October 2011 I have read 118 books!  Woop! I am tempted to write out all those books so there is a record here... maybe one day!  I think that was what this post started out as - another blog vs diary post!

I have also recently retrieved my notebook of books I read from 2002 to 2005 so that's a pretty good record I've got going on! I will try take photos of that sometime too!

Wittertainment 2: The Good, The Bad and the Multiplex

Last night, Lizzie and I got our second dose of Mark Kermode wittertainment.  And it certainly lived up to the hype and excitement of our first outing!!

We knew he had a new book out this year (the Good, the Bad and the Multiplex) and that he was doing another book tour in the Autumn and had talked about going again.  I had a message early in September from Lizzie asking when he was coming to Oxford, and when I got round to looking it up, after some difficulty I found he had been in Oxford the night before.  A little disappointing but the film he had been going to show after sounded a little scary so I hadn't been entirely convinced!!  But we found out he was doing two nights in London (and Lizzie is currently living in London for her final OT placement) and one was a Friday night at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, a cinema we had heard Mark talk a lot about as the cinema 'he grew up in'.  We decided this might be rather fun, so we bought tickets for pretty much the same spot of the cinema as last time.

Friday night came and I drove to London listening to Mark and Simon podcasts on my phone/laptop depending on power!  I was very behind on podcats - back to May so in the end I just tried to listen to the most recent one.  There was an added complication that I was also trying to listen to Simon Mayo's All Request Friday show on Radio 2 which I love.  And I had sent a text to it saying I was off to hear Mark Kermode so I was listening out for that, but I didn't hear anything :-(

I found my way to East Finchley via the North Circular feeling like it was quite an adventure and drove around for a while sussing out parking situations.  I was also looking for somewhere to get food and decided to pick the tickets up first from the cinema and discovered there was a cafe there so thought that was the best place to eat so settled down.  Lizzie joined me later and we managed various surreptitious excitement moves (like high fives) and couldn't understand why everyone else in the place wasn't as excited about being in Mark Kermode's homeland!!!

Lizzie kindly bought a copy of the book for me from a stand there for my birthday (don't think Mark would like that word order) and we took some excited photos from the outside of the cinema.  (Feel I should mention we were in the middle of an extraordinary Indian Summer, hence the strappy tops on the final day of September!  Well, maybe it was coupled with a little Mark heat excitement too!)

 We took our seats in the cinema and waited.  There was lots of nudging and squeezing when he arrived - seemingly out of a broom cupboard at the side!  He was just like last time in such a good way!  He never seemed to stop talking and it was just like he was having a natural conversation with himself.  As a listener it didn't seem to have any structure as each anecdote seemed to run into the next, but I am sure he carefully worked out what topics he was going to cover and in what order.  There was some stuff that we had heard on 5Live before and some that was new.  We liked it when he mentioned Simon and his all request friday show.  There was questions and answers at the end - I don't remember being quite as in awe as last time!  

Then once he had finally finished it was time to leave the auditorium for the book signing.  We were pleased to be at the back so we could make a quick getaway. We followed the crowd downstairs but then when we got there Mark turned around and headed back upstairs and we ended up really close to him!  I was right behind and brushed his jacket - wasn't quite bold (or crazy) enough to forcefully touch his back!!  We ended up quite near the front of the line, and had the same chats about what we were going to say and would we take photos.  It must have been funny thinking about it if someone was listening to our hushed awkward conversations!! The people in front of us spent a long time chatting so that left us thinking we should go for it...maybe?!

Whatever conclusions we had come to it  definitely didn't come close to how amazing it actually turned out to be.  We went along the lines of we'd seen him in Oxford before and how much we had liked that and we got in to a big discussion about showing films after his talks and balling our eyes out at It's a Wonderful Life and being too scared to go the the Oxford film this time.  And he signed the book and we got photos and it was great.  AND THEN... I mentioned how I had txted Simon and Mark said 'Oh I had a text from Simon saying an all request friday listener was coming tonight.  Let me see if I can find it' and he got out his phone, and not the most expertly, found his texts and the one from Simon and showed it to us!!!!  And then he send a reply, again a little awkwardly back saying we were there.  MARK AND SIMON TEXT EACH OTHER ABOUT US!!!!!!!! or at least they each did once!!!  Woah - can you ever begin to imagine what Lizzie and I were like after that????????????? :-)

Coming down a little from our high, we decided to quickly see if we could buy tickets for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which was showing at 9pm and we were both fairly interested in seeing and thought it would be quite something to say we had seen a film at Mark's favourite cinema.  So we settled into that and it was a nice relax though can't say I fully followed it - mega exciting when Mr Wu came on in the background.

Well.  We thought our first Mark encounter incredible but boy was this an epic one!!!  Thanks Lizzie xxx

Camping List

I went camping again this year!  Golly gosh!!  and not just for 1 night this time but for three!!  And I survived and quite liked it!  Still don't think it would be my holiday of first choice or want to do it everytime but happy to go again.


John made a list of things for me to pack and I thought I would type it up on here as I feel I may well lose the piece of paper!  That is an indication that I'm planning to go again!!  And an indication that this blog is more of a filing system for me than an entertainment place for others ;-)

• plates, bowls, mugs, cups,
• cutlery
• pans
• sharp knife
• chopping board
• corkscrew
• tin opener
• bin bags
• tea towel
• caffetiere
• oil
• tomato puree
• kitchen roll
• BBQ in a bucket 
• matches

• rucksack
• reading books
• pen
• su doku
• games - indoor and out
• camera

• warm clothes
• hot clothes
• socks
• pyjamas
• wet clothes
• sarong
• scarf
• coats
• shoes: walking, flipflops, wellies 

•  tent and mallet
• bedding:  mats, rugs
• sleeping bags
• pillow
• head torch
• gas lamp/LED lamp
• table
• chairs
• picnic bag and rug
• matches 

•  sun cream
• sun glasses
• water bottle
• umbrella
• national trust card
• toiletries and contact lenses
• towel
• soap 
• hand sanitiser/anti-bac
• baby wipes 
• tissues
• toilet roll
• plastic bags
• chargers: phone, camera

Squash!

Last might John and I proudly harvested, cooked and ate our very first bit of produce.  OK, we didn't grow the squash from seed (thank you Mamma for getting that going) and it wasn't the nicest tasting thing ever, but it was sure fun to watch it grow over these last months and we might just try to do more next year.

In this slightly peculiar shot, you can see the squash plant centrally located just to the left of my knees.  Oooh, the diddy thing! This was taken on the 22nd May and I think wasn't long since we inherited it!

 This was taken on the 26th July.  The squash is the tall one to the left of the picture.  I am amazed how much it still grew in a month!  I loved the way it intertwined itself around the balcony railings!

 It's picking time!

 Chopping time.

 Into the pan.  

Mix with tinned tomatoes, lentils and heart shaped pasta.

 Tada!

We also finished off the evening with a rather trying crafty project.  Top marks to John for persevering and having the patience to finish it, and the manual dexterity!! 

Musical - Tell Me On A Sunday

In a bonus week of theatre I went to see this on the Saturday Matinee (23rd July) in Malvern with John and Auntie and Grandma.

I had heard bits about this Andrew Lloyd Weber musical and it's relationship to Song and Dance but didn't understand things for sure but have subsequently read the programme of what we saw, and read the programme that Mum had from seeing song and dance in the 1980s.

I enjoyed seeing it, and am pleased to have seen it, but wouldn't choose to go and see it again. Before I went I knew of two songs that were going to be in it (Take that look off your face, and Tell me on a Sunday) from ALW compilation CDs I have had and then looking in the programme before hand i recognised the name of Unexpected Song and then during the show I recognised Last Man in My Life when it came on.  It was fascinating to see how one woman could command the stage by herself for that long (admittedly only 1hour 40mins including the interval, but still mega impressive!).  It was Claire Sweeney doing this tour.  And there isn't really any talking in it, just singing and the song after song didn't feel too odd to me.  I did close my eyes a few bits, but I think I was just tired!

I am tempted now to draw up lists of the Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals I have and haven't seen.  I was disappointed some years ago to realise how few I had actually seen. So here goes:

Seen 
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
Jesus Christ Superstar
By Jeeves
Evita
Tell Me on A Sunday
Cats
Starlight Express
The Phantom of the Opera
Whistle Down the Wind
The Beautiful Game

Not Seen
The Likes of Us
Variations (Song and Dance)
Aspects of Love
Sunset Boulevard
The Woman in White
Love Never Dies

Well, I think that's really good!  I have definitely ticked some off recently.  I wonder if they're all on my definitive list (checked and they all appear to be there).  I would definitely like to see Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard and The Woman in White if possible. 

German Grand Prix

Just had to pause the recording of today's German Grand Prix to go upstairs and get my computer.  Had begun to wonder whether I should blog about it as I had been in an excited mood about the race today, and then (no, not a Martin comment) a great Hamilton overtake leapt me to action!  Hamilton passed Weber off the start into the lead, and then on lap 13 as the cameras had just gone back to the two of them and they were commenting on how Ham would have to extend his first stint, they said 'He's run wide' and it was barely noticeable but then it was tense as Weber got alongside him and was in the right place for the next corner but then it was the start finish straight and Ham managed to slip stream past him and just get him into the first corner!  Go Lewis!!  It was heart beating stuff.  Now I know I would have words with my children for writing a sentence that long, but I like it being that way.  I'm doing it for effect!  Now, I will resume, and if the race isn't too exciting I will fill you in on the rest!

Good replay, but it is still so close with Ham, Weber, Alonso in 3rd.  Phwooff!!!  Great fights all over the place!  They're coming in for tyres now.  Vetel was 10 seconds behind Alonso with Massa right on his tail.  Then Button has spent the race behind Petrov in 9th after a poor start but is getting closer to passing him.  Feel it's got to be any minute.

Lap 16/17 - Blimey!  that was a complicated moment.  Massa got Vettel into the last corner then Weber got past Vetel too, Vetel pitted then Weber (who'd pitted) was all over Massa (who'd not) into the first corner, as Ham closely followed by Alonso, came out of the pits and were just behind them.

Lap 18 so now Massa's pitted, it's Weber, Ham, Alonso (covered by 1.3 seconds) with Massa and Vetel a little further back.  It's not proving a good day for the World Champion who qualified in 3rd, first time off the front row in 14 races and he's now back behind all the main players.  Well, button is 4th but don't think he's stopped.

Lap 32 - Ham just gets Webber at the second pitstop.  Weber pitted first then there was some argy bargy on first couple of corners.  Ham keeps it for now.  What about Alonso on next lap?  Alonso gets Ham but Ham does what Weber didn't and went round the outside in turn two and gets the lead in the argy bargy!

Lap 36 - ooohhhh.  Was just going to write about Button's good move up to 6th, but then he had a radio message saying he had to 'box this lap' because they had a hydraulics problem.  Booo

Lap 60/60 Well it was nerve racking towards the end.  Especially wondering who would pit first and how near the end on to the less favoured tyres which were 1 and a half seconds a lap slower.  But victory was secured for Hamilton!!!  Woop woop!!  and Vetel only 4th so pretty good all round!

Funny incident.  During the race, Lizzie has been finding new apps for my phone in an entertaining and useful way.  With two laps to go she was reading headlines from the new BBC News App:  Greece secures debt deal; blah blah blah; Hamilton beats Alonso to... aghhhhhhh!!!!  It was funny!!  fortunately it was only 2 laps to go!

I haven't titled this post yet.  Poor one for Martin.  Think I might go conventional ;-)