Spectacles!

No, not the type that you wear, but the type that make you go ooooh!

I've had the immense good fortune to have gone to some amazing shows over the last few weeks.

My lovely friend Sarah bought me my ticket to go and see Lion King, after I'd mentioned earlier this year that I'd never been. Even more than that, she was brilliant and organised it for a group of us to go, including for two of our friends from Glasgow who I've not seen in far too long.

What can I say about the Lion King that won't be filled with superlatives? The music was brilliant - it included two of the side boxes (one on each side of the stage) being filled with percussion instruments (and a man on each side to play them). The story line was pretty much the Disney story, no major changes needed. The design... Oh my.... The design was *mindblowing*. The costumes/characters were a mixture of masks, material, body paint and puppets; animals and representations of concepts mixed together. The stage design was gorgeous; with very simple sets (aside from the Elephants' Graveyard, which must have taken a whole chunk of the budget), and mainly using lights and colour to reflect the African landscape. And *nothing* is going to compare to having an elephant walk past my shoulder in the opening sequence.
I could post pictures, but Disney have got clips...


Then John and I went to see War of the Worlds in concert. I am a big fan of the original, and did have a little squeee moment when I realised that Jeff Wayne himself was conducting the orchestra (for some reason, I hadn't twigged that he'd be there). The stage set up was brilliant - the strings section on one side, the rock and percussion section on the other, Jeff in the middle conducting, and looming over the lot, a giant animatronic Tripod, with a heat ray that fired (ok, only dry ice, and then red, orange and yellow lights into the audience, but it still fired!) An animated Richard Burton on the far left of the stage, a projected backdrop of CGI actors, and live actors at the front of the stage for the singing parts completed the set up. It was even better than I'd hoped it would be (even if I was rooting for the Martians during the Spirit of Man - really not sure how they could have someone professional missing the notes *that* badly!) This link gives a 3 minute video of the 2006 tour, which seems to have had a reasonably similar cast to the one that we saw.

In addition, spectacular in a different way, we took a trip to Weston Super Mare to see the Sand Sculptures. These are (as it says on the tin) sculptures carved out of the sand. But not your normal sandcastles on the beach - these were full statues, 3D sculptures that you could walk past and (in some cases) round, with detail that was astonishing.


The festival is on until the beginning of Sept, and it only costs £3 - well worth a visit if you are in the area!

Let's Go... We Can't....

We went to see "Waiting for Godot" last Thursday with Sir Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart in the main roles of Estragon and Vladimir, and Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup as Pozzo and Lucky. These were tickets which we bought a long time ago - hitting redial for about half an hour to get through to the Theatre Royal box office, and even then, we got some of the last tickets remaining (seated, at least - when we arrived at the theatre, almost every available space around the back and sides was filled with people standing!).

It was worth both the panic at the buying stage, and then the long wait, though. The performance was amazing! The stage setting was very sparse, and appeared to be deliberately ambiguous as to location and time; this could have been set at any time from late Victorian through to any time in the future. There were some glorious lighting effects (the moonlight was particularly beautiful, throwing lacy patterns onto the stage).

Of course, the stars of the show met and exceeded expectations. SIM as Estragon was a thoroughly believable tramp - I spent a good chunk of the first ten minutes peering forwards wondering if it really was him! The range of his emotions, and the complete bewilderment when he was being reminded of something he'd forgotten, sustained throughout the two and a half hours on stage, was fantastic.

PS as Vladimir was always going to be PS - he has such a powerful personality both on stage and off that it is slightly difficult to adjust to him portraying someone else. However, once I'd got past the "Squeeee, I'm watching Patrick Stewart!", I really enjoyed his performance as well. His mood swings were just wonderful to watch, and you really got caught up in the emotion.

The double act was even better than the two performers on their own. You really got the sense that these were two people who had been together for half a century, and who knew each other so well that sentences didn't need to be finished. Their genuine affection and joy for each other radiated out from the stage.

Both stars are approaching 70, and, as such, are exactly the same age as the characters they are portraying - apparantly the actors would usually be a lot younger due to the physical nature of the show (Estragon's character appears climbing over a wall at the start of each half, and the byplay with Pozzo and Lucky, particularly in the second half, gets very active), and I was incredibly impressed that both of them were doing this night after night for what is (round the country) a very long run! Yes, I know that they are actors, and this is their job, but they are both coming up to five years past retirement!

One of the pieces of production which I loved happened right at the start of the second half; there was one tree on stage, and at the beginning it is bare and dead. As the curtain goes up after the interval, there are a few leaves on the tree. The change was so subtle that I looked at it wondering whether I had just been inattentive and missed the leaves, and they had been there all the time. This played brilliantly with the whole theme of memory which runs throughout the play (but is much more prevalent during the second half); of doubting whether your own memory is correct, and whether an event actually happened or not.

I also really enjoyed the fact that I could understand what was happening. This might seem a given for going to the theatre, but I knew that Beckett is a bit random and wasn't entirely sure whether I'd be able to follow what was going on! (Particularly since I'd got completely lost at the Ionesco a couple of years ago) (John had offered to show me the video that he has beforehand so that I'd get an idea, but I'm very glad now that I didn't - some of the jokes relied a lot on the suprise of what was said, and I'm glad that I didn't know what was going to happen in advance). The meaning of the play - well that is a different matter; there are so many interpretations as to what was going on, who Godot is, why they are waiting for him, that I could keep on thinking about it and realising something new till next year, and still not have covered it all. Which means that I get extra value from the play! ;-)

Overall, the play was amazing - I thoroughly recommend anyone who can to go and see it (though I understand from my little sister that the cheapest seats now available in London are £50!)

Time...

Like a winged arrow bears all its sons away...

As it does my posts - when the post in draft is over a month old, it gets a bit silly to finish it as it is! So I am starting again with a bit of a summary of the last month...

Hockey - some great wins... I've not been able to play as much as I liked, with other events on Saturdays and Tuesdays preventing me from getting to matches and to practice. But we are still 2nd in the table with two matches to go - there seems to be an excellent chance that we will go up the league again!

Tae Kwon Do - I had another competition in Feb, this time in Cardiff. I came away with two bronzes, one of which was similar to the last time, as there were only four in the sparring, so, winning or losing, I was assured of a medal (and I did lose, but only by a point, according to my instructor, who was one of the judges). The patterns, however, had nine people in the group, so I had to beat two others to get my bronze - and neither time did I think that I'd done well enough to win, so I was incredibly pleased with that! I've also had the trials for the demonstration team - going round various fetes and fairs in the summer, showing off TKD to the masses. Very pleased to have passed that and got into the team, and even more pleased with my company, who have generously offered to sponsor our doboks, meaning that we won't have to pay for them! (Hey, I asked the MD on the off-chance, not expecting anything, and he turned round and said 'Yes' :-D)

Culture - We had a trip to London to see Sir Derek Jacobi in Twelfth Night, which was *amazing* - there wasn't a weak link in the cast, and the Letter Scene (which, particularly when Sir D.J was performing it, deserves the capitals!) was just side-splittingly funny. Add to the mix a brilliant meal in a lovely Chinese, and fantastic company - it was an amazing day.

Culture - We also went to see Watchmen - I really enjoyed the film - possibly a little too much blood and gore when compared to the comic, but certainly nowhere near as much as Sin City! The changes in storyline (which I know some of the fanboys have been screaming about), I felt were completely justified, and fitted the story a lot better.

Orchestra - We've got a whole load of new pieces, including Danse Macabre, which is one of the first pieces which made me realise that I wanted to play in a group, rather than as a solo musician. We've also got the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor, which includes as the first piece, the tune from Stranger in Paradise, played first on the oboe, and then on the cor. As the first oboe can't play both instruments at the same time, I've picked up the first oboe part for this, and also for the first two of the Snow Maiden pieces (though I've handed it back for the Dance of the Tumblers, the last in the four dances - with having to do solos in 1 and 2, and having done a simplified version of Tumblers with a slightly different rhythm, I don't think I could cope with that one as well!)

New Zealand - We've had our medical checks, and they have all come back clear, which is a fantastic piece of news. I've also fired my CV off to a number of recruiters, but they've pretty much all come back and said "Let us know when you have a visa". I did find another GIS company (reselling a rival's software) in Wellington, who are very promising, so I'm hoping that they will take me on once we've got the visa sorted...

Microcon - We headed down to Exeter at the end of Feb for the annual Exeter Uni Sci-Fi Society convention - as always, a great mix of people, some really fun talks and discussions (including one on the nature of Fandom with a capital F - I'm sorry, but if I'm not a Fan because I don't tick every box on the list of Fandom (Go to conventions, Run a convention, Slag off other people because they don't fit in to your definition of Fandom, Slag off guests because they happen to disagree with you...), then I'd rather just be a small f fan and enjoy sci-fi in my own way. Here endeth the rant (poor John heard a lot more of it over the weekend!)), and generally an all round chilling time :-)

I've also signed myself up for Race for Life, which I'm a bit scared about - I don't normally run further than up the incline to Temple Meads to get the train! However, it isn't till June, so I've got all the time in the world to learn how to run 5K...

And that is, in brief, the last Month. Hopefully, I'll post another one before the start of the next one, though I wouldn't hold your breath... I'm currently out four or five nights out of seven till the middle of May...!

Good News / Bad News

Well - it has been a busy week or so - again...!

On Saturday, I took part in a Tae-Kwon Do tournament. I had been given the impression that it was going to be a 'local' event - i.e. for the three clubs in our area, so I was in for a bit of a shock when I spotted teams from Paignton and London! This was a team event, so three of us competing per team. (There were only four teams in our category!) We came away with a silver in the patterns - these are synchronised patterns, so each member of the team has to perform at the same time and with the same pacing. We didn't get anything in the sparring, but then we were a bit unlucky - I went up first (and lost, though I was later told that both my fights were close things), and the lady from our team who went up second withdrew halfway through the match (she hadn't wanted to spar in the first place and panicked!). So (as it was a knockout tournament, and each round was best 2 out of 3), we were down to the third/fourth play off. I went up first again, lost again, and then the final member of our team went up. She was winning the bout, and then jumped and landed wrongly on her knee, ending up not being able to put any weight on it, and having to go to hospital! (Fortunately, x-rays have shown that it was just badly twisted, and no major damage was done; given that our instructor is out for the best part of a year after possibly snapping a tendon, we do know what problems can come up!!) But I still enjoyed it, so much so that I'm going to put myself up for a single competition (i.e. not relying on anyone else...!) in Cornwall on the 7th June. Overall, our club did really well, winning 56 medals overall.

We also had a fun evening yesterday - Paul Merton is touring with an improv comedy show, and by some fluke we managed to get tickets (it sold out very quickly); I hadn't realised who else was going to be appearing in it; Richard Vranch (who is actually a talented comedian in his own right - he was wasted hiding behind the piano) - and Mike McShane (who has lost a lot of weight since appearing in Whose Line is it Anyway - he is half the man he used to be, but no less funny!). Great fun :-D

We've also had a few less fun things - our poor Skoda is now pretty much broken to the point where it is going to cost more to fix it than it will to buy a new car, so we are off out to get another one with my company bonus this year (huzzah for the change of company financial year which means that I get it 6 months earlier than normal!!). Hopefully this one will last more than a few months.... We are also definitely now on the move again (when we've found somewhere to go...), as our landlady has failed on the mortgage again, and the bank has informed us that they are taking her to court to gain possession of the property (though we still have until August to get out, and she may still pay the overdue balance (though as this is the third time in 6 months, I'm not holding my breath!)).

But I'm confident that we will get both of the above sorted out, and in the meantime, we have so many cinema things coming up! We've already been to see Iron Man (very silly, but great fun as well), are going to Indiana Jones this weekend, and then have films such as Batman, Prince Caspian and Hellboy 2 to look forward to - it's going to be a fab summer!

Weekend

It's Tuesday already, and the weekend just flew by!

On Saturday, I had my final two BSL Level 2 exams - they actually went rather well (if I don't jynx it by saying so...) We had two modules:
203 - Conversation - taken first, as a warm up for;
202 - Productive - a 3-4 minute story to camera

For both modules, we had already picked a Theme (for me, it was Food and Drink for 203 and Travel and Holidays for 203), and when we went into the practice session, we were given the list of topics from which we could pick one. The conversation with Martin went well-ish - I completely blanked on the sign for 'pudding', which was very stupid! But the story was a dream - I'd already practiced around my Australia backpacking, as it could cover so many different ideas - "the best holiday" "the worst holiday" (obviously different bits!) "why I like backpacking" etc etc - and the topic that I picked was "travelling alone" - absolutely fantastic! I was able to put in most of the ideas that I'd practiced, so I hope that it came across very well.
Just 6 weeks to wait until the results now...

Then, after meeting with Leanne, Claire and Heather in the Greenhouse for a debrief, it was back home for Dr Who "Utopia" and the first episode of Jekyll.
"Utopia" was brilliant - Derek Jacobi was amazing as Professor Yana - the emotion that he could portray without moving a muscle was just fantastic. And, although I knew who he was going to be at the end, I didn't realise who he would regenerate into! That was a complete jaw hitting the table moment! So looking forward to this Saturday now!
And Jekyll - WOW! A few itty bitty plot things that need explaining (the main one being that if you knew that you were having blackouts, and that whilst in that blackout, you were doing things that you couldn't countenance, wouldn't you voluntarily section yourself?). However, I hope that these will be explained later on in the series. James Nesbitt was brilliant as both Tom Jackman and Hyde - and the script was super - all hail Steve Moffatt for a show that had me on the edge of my seat and giggling wickedly at the dark humour.

Sunday, we met up with Sarah and Graham to see Fantastic Four (Karen came to the cinema for a chat, but with two dads to visit, and a family wedding to go to, she was a little busy!) - a very silly popcorn film - not a huge amount of substance to it (although more than the original...), the barest minimum of plot, reasonably wooden characters, and lots of explosions. But it worked, as a 'turn your brain off and relax' film - no real need to think, just let the images flow over you, and stop wondering how much bigger Jessica Alba's lips can get before they explode...

Then, after the afternoon showing of the film, John and I headed to the Hippodrome to see Derren Brown on the last day of his tour. The man is astonishing - even though you know that everything he does is a trick - a verbal and mental illusion, you still can't work out how he does it! (and yes, John and I did talk a few of them through afterwards, and picked out a couple, but tell me how he knew that a woman in the audience, picked at random, lived on a houseboat?)

And finally - my little touch of work - we've offered the position of Sales Administrator, and she starts on 2nd July - can't wait! :-)

Catch-up

Well, even with a blog to try to force me to write, it has still been a long while since I stuck something on here (C- must try harder)

Since I last posted, there have been: 3 Dr Who Episodes; 2 Theatre trips; 2 Wedding Rings made; 1 Cinema trip; 1 birthday celebrated (and a partridge in a pear tree...)

Dr Who

"Human Nature / Family of Blood" (Paul Cornell) was the best episode of the season by a long way - rich and believable characters, a story line that had me holding my breath, and an ending that had me blubbing like a baby! Fantastic acting from the leads - I could feel John Smith's terror as he realised what he had to do, and Baines (Harry Lloyd) was just perfect - the staring eyes and twisted lip giving him a complete otherworldy feel. If this doesn't win the Hugo next year, then there is something very wrong with the universe.

"Blink" (Steve Moffat) - a dark and very scary 'non-Dr' episode. I freely admit to a jump (although not a scream, unlike Empty Child...) when the "Angel" appeared in front of Sally. Another lovely offering from Mr M, although I still feel that Paul's story was better - there are too many plot holes in "Blink", and the obvious circular nature and determinist feel to the story doesn't help (she had to survive because otherwise she couldn't give the Dr the information he needed to help her survive...) But the minor pickiness isn't going to stop me shivering next time I look at a statue!

Theatre

"Cyrano De Bergerac" at the Bristol Old Vic - we saw this in the middle of May - an interesting production - the new translation was good (John felt it was better than the Anthony Burgess script that he performed), and there were some nice performances from the leads - Cyrano settled down after gabbling his first few lines. However, I have no idea why they decided to set it in WW1 period - meaning that the cast who made specific references to 17th C costumes (the swords, lace ruffs etc) ended up wearing them along with their WW1 costumes, and the effect was slightly comical. The theatre itself is very uncomfortable to sit in (it is being refurbished later this year), and John was very cramped (my slightly shorter legs were ok, just).

"Avenue Q" - we stayed with my Uncle in Crouch End over last weekend, and he very kindly took us out to the theatre to see Avenue Q - a fantastic show. Very funny, very blue - definitely not one to take the kids to go and see! But the versatility of the actors, a number of whom were playing more than one character at the same time (the scene where Katie and Lucy are having a dialogue, meaning that the actress had a conversation with herself, was fantastic!) I am so glad to have seen this :-)

Cinema

"Pirates of the Caribbean III" Very funny, very silly, and a musical score to die for! Loved it (and no, not just because of Jonny Depp...), although the twists and turns in the plot were a little bit confuzzling - I'm glad I took the advice of the Classic FM reviewer who suggested to let it all wash over you, and not to concentrate on what was going on!

The Wedding Ring Workshop

The workshop was amazing - we got there at 10 on the button (local church bells chiming the hour), and into a very hot workshop. There were 4 couples doing it, and we each had our own expert to help us (ours, Tom, has been jewellery making for 15 years!). We started off by sitting with him and discussing exactly what we wanted - there were lots of plain bands that we could pick so that we could look to see what different sizes and weights looked like, and we discussed how we could make mine so that it fitted to the engagement ring. Then we got taken over to the workbench, and got given our lumps of metal and a blowtorch. Under the guidance of Tom, we melted down enough each of the metal to make each other's ring, and poured it (quickly - it solidifies really fast!) into a bar mould. Then, after Tom had dipped it in water to cool it down, we squashed the bars through a mill which stretched them out and squashed them into a length that could go round a finger (with a bit extra for overlap. Then, after a reheat (squashing them like that stretches and knots the molecules and makes the bar impossible to manipulate), we got to bend the bars round into a ring shape. Mine was easy - because John's ring was just a straight band (and reasonably thick rather than being delicate), it got put into a vice, and I got to hit it with a mallet until it was roughly bent round! John had a bit more work, as my ring is more delicate, and had to be bent in a specific way to start the shaping process, so he had to bend it with pliers. Then cutting off the overlapping ends with a hacksaw, and using gold solder to seal the ring together. Tom then dunked the rings in diluted sulphuric acid to clean off the oxydised blackness (glad he did that bit - it splashed, and he had to go to wash his arms because they were starting to itch!), and the long process of filing and polishing began! (At this point, Tom said that as the dangerous stuff was finished, did we want our champagne now?) It started off with a filing tool, but quickly went on to differently graded sandpaper, right down to a very fine polishing paper. It was just amazing to see the lump of metal that just happened to be bent into a circle transforming into a ring! And then we got to take them down to the professional polishing machines, where they were buffed to an amazing shine (and Tom buffed up my engagement ring for me as well - he got out the dirt that had been caught under the diamond that I couldn't remove by myself :-) ) We also got to see one of the other couple's white-gold rings being electroplated (I don't really get white gold - why take something that is nice and yellow and make it look like silver?)

They are then sending off the rings to be assayed (i.e. to prove that they used 18 carat gold not brass...) and hallmarked - they will then post them down to us in a couple of weeks' time. So no rings yet, but once I remember to bring the camera in to be developed (they gave us a disposable camera, and Tom took photos of every stage), I'll be able to upload photos.

And I apologise for the variety of fonts and sizes in here. I've tried to edit it, and it keeps on playing silly buggers at me, so I give up...