The Past Few Days

No great adventures have been had around here lately. Mostly just running errands, seeing shows, and coming home too tired to go anywhere. Who knew just watching theatre could be so exhausting? My heart goes out to the friends who've supported me through so many productions.

I got to see Belt Up's second production (of three) The Boy James last Friday. Just loved it. Not quite as many tears as Outland inspired, but still a brilliant portrait of childhood and its foe: coming-of-age. 4.5 stars.

After a weekend break, consisting of a Viewpoint workshop, a coffee-shop friend, a disastrous night-on-the-town, lots of laughter thereafter and more yummy Thai food, Monday brought Oedipus, supposedly the talk of the festival. Don't know where that talk's stemming from, because this show was horrendous. Difficult to watch, slow slow sloooooooooooooow, and certainly not up to par with Aristotle, I prayed for it to end nearly 15 minutes in. The chorus was commendable and the show overall was pretty, but they say monsters wear the most makeup... It spoiled my mood for the rest of the day. Needless to say my apathetic regard for Greek tragedy has by no means improved. 2.5 stars.

Yesterday I got to see Julian Sands perform in a tribute to Harold Pinter, directed by John Malcovitch. It was really more like a lecture than any one man show I've seen, but man that guy knows how to deliver a line! Plus, for whatever he's done for drama, Pinter's poems are beautiful! Maybe that was just the effect of Sands' caressing voice. 4 stars.

Blood and Roses today. We'll see how that is.

Do I have any interesting pictures for you? I've sadly forgotten my camera since I've been running back and forth to theatres and am always afraid of leaving my purse behind. As such, I couldn't get a good snap of our tea yesterday, where I had the most enticingly sweet Royal Albert Cake* or of our view from the Robert Burns Memorial on the walk back to the flat.

It also might interest you to know that I've reached that lull in the traveling process where I begin to miss strange things from home -- kind of like that part of pregnancy where you begin to have weird cravings. At the top of my list, I'm devastated to report, is avocados. I don't know where they're importing these things from, but they are NOT up to my very-picky standards.

Most of the other stuff is kinda silly.

That being said, I'm still totally entranced when I walk outside and see people driving on the opposite side of their car, when I step into a cafe where more people are drinking tea than coffee, when I have a selection of 8 cakes to choose from in any given shop, and when I get coins back in exchange for a £5 note. It's the little things that are still exciting to me, and keep me reminded that I'm having a most marvelous Great Adventure.

Lots of love, loves.
-RB


*I can't find a picture of this stuff anywhere, and I'm beginning to think the waiter was having me on! It's a shame, cause it looked so beautiful on that little platter. It's sort of like a sponge cake with a layer of mincemeat in between, with a good smear of white icing over the top, cut into tea squares like a brownie. It was the first thing all week I was more than happy to share, and probably the first thing in my lifetime that's out-sweeted my sweet-tooth.