(no subject)
DAMN YOU SNOW
*sighs*
Made it to Christmas drinks at the museum I used to volunteer for and Christmas lunch at work but then failed utterly to get into London and The Best Christmas Present In The World as read by Michael Morpurgo (with Coope, Boyes & Simpson singing) let alone THEN make it to a Christmas party in South London.
Slightly terrified all the rest of this week's plans will go the same way and the only place I WILL be able to get to is work!
That said this weekend went really rather well!
On Friday the whole family went to see Seasons Grettings at the National Theatre for Dad's birthday and, rather miraculously I think, everyone really liked it!
Seasons Greetings @ National Theatre (Lyttleton)
So a play about a family at Christmas which I went to see with my family at Christmas.... no way in which THAT could go wrong :P
Actually it left us feeling very good about ourselves, at least we're not that bad *g*
It's an interesting play, VERY funny in the first half and then darker in the second half but still funny with it. I'd read a review that said the laugh at the end of the first act would be the biggest laugh you'd have all year and actually I think they weren't far off with that prediction. I got the giggles and then ended up laughing so hard I spent the start of the interval having a coughing fit (which was, for once, a good thing *g*)
Catherine Tate is VERY good at physical comedy but is also able to be still sometimes so you can see the tragedy behind all the laughs. Neil Stuke was suitably useless as her husband and then pulled out a line towards the end which was genuinely threatening.
Also surprisingly scary in a low key way was Marc Wootton as Eddie, he and Katherine Parkinson as his wife Pattie had this background that got hinted at but never really pushed to the front that sounded awful.
Jenna Russell as Phyllis was just perfect <3 I do love her HGUELY anyway but her first entrance had us giggling madly, in fact even before she's come on stage the character has had some of the best laughs *g* and she was married to Mark Gatiss' Bernard was was terribly terribly tragic. And also kind of useless with his puppets.
(and yet we'd happily have watched the whole of his puppet show <3)
Who haven't I mentioned? Oh David Troughton! Always good of course and the sort of Uncle that you would absolutely dread having around children or in fact anybody... and Nicola Walker was very prickly and defensive as Rachel. I liked her refrain of "it doesn't matter to me at all" (and by like I mean wanted to shake her :P)
And then Oliver Chris as newcomer Clive who caused drama and flutterings. And gosh doesn't he look good in those tight trousers.
So really not a weak link in the cast either in terms of the beautifully timed comedy or in terms of dialling it back just enough to show the underlying sadness and the horrible feeling that they'd probably do it all over again next year (events at the end of the play having caused at least one change though I suppose).
It's on till February or March I think so worth looking for tickets, and we were way up at the back and could see fine. It's an awesome set actually.
So that was Friday.
Saturday of course the snow set in and by the time I was heading up to the Abbey for Carols on the Hour it felt a little like walking through a blizzard. I was well wrapped up with many layers and boots and as long as I could leave myself and I was impressed by how many of the choir(s) made it actually. We had rather smaller congregations than previous years sadly but it was still 150ish at each service which really is quite impressive given it was snowing during the first 4!
Then I walked back home, changed outfits for a prettier one (but with even more layers) and headed off into London for temaris's birthday party :D
Took a little longer than normal to get in due to every train company in the world going AAAAAARGH PANIC SNOW (and also maybe a signal being broken IDK) but not too bad really. Sadly on the way home my luck ran out and I got to St Pancras to discover they'd cancelled my trains :-( thankfully one of the lines to a nearby station was still open and my wonderful father came and picked me up from it.
Sunday was church (with a gorgeous anthem <3) which we obviously had to walk to. I was wondering if there'd be little to no congregation again but of course it was our Sunday Club Nativity Play so actually we had lots of people and lots of tiny angels and shepherds and sheep and one little King Herod *g*
It was very good, well the puns were very bad but the kids were very good *g* And baby Jesus was played by baby Leo who was three weeks and a day old ♥ I totally didn't cry when they sang Away in a Manger.
Then home and defrosting again before walking up to the Abbey AGAIN for Lessons and Carols which I was serving at. It was as beautiful as always with one of my favourite pieces of Taverner, some lovely Britten and then Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day which they haven't done for years and which I LOVELOVELOVE
Between that and the Silent Night/Once in Royal opening I really started feeling Christmassy.
And then we're back to today which I already wrote about.
*takes deep breath*
Right now I've just finished watching the BBC's Nativity which I liked a lot and will definitely be keeping up with ♥ and now I'm going to ignore University Challenge until Only Connect comes on :D
Tomorrow is helping decorate the house and then going to the Theatre Quiz at the National in the evening and given it's Emma Freud chairing and Miranda Hart scoring I WILL be getting into London even if I have to walk all the way home.
*sighs*
Made it to Christmas drinks at the museum I used to volunteer for and Christmas lunch at work but then failed utterly to get into London and The Best Christmas Present In The World as read by Michael Morpurgo (with Coope, Boyes & Simpson singing) let alone THEN make it to a Christmas party in South London.
Slightly terrified all the rest of this week's plans will go the same way and the only place I WILL be able to get to is work!
That said this weekend went really rather well!
On Friday the whole family went to see Seasons Grettings at the National Theatre for Dad's birthday and, rather miraculously I think, everyone really liked it!
Seasons Greetings @ National Theatre (Lyttleton)
So a play about a family at Christmas which I went to see with my family at Christmas.... no way in which THAT could go wrong :P
Actually it left us feeling very good about ourselves, at least we're not that bad *g*
It's an interesting play, VERY funny in the first half and then darker in the second half but still funny with it. I'd read a review that said the laugh at the end of the first act would be the biggest laugh you'd have all year and actually I think they weren't far off with that prediction. I got the giggles and then ended up laughing so hard I spent the start of the interval having a coughing fit (which was, for once, a good thing *g*)
Catherine Tate is VERY good at physical comedy but is also able to be still sometimes so you can see the tragedy behind all the laughs. Neil Stuke was suitably useless as her husband and then pulled out a line towards the end which was genuinely threatening.
Also surprisingly scary in a low key way was Marc Wootton as Eddie, he and Katherine Parkinson as his wife Pattie had this background that got hinted at but never really pushed to the front that sounded awful.
Jenna Russell as Phyllis was just perfect <3 I do love her HGUELY anyway but her first entrance had us giggling madly, in fact even before she's come on stage the character has had some of the best laughs *g* and she was married to Mark Gatiss' Bernard was was terribly terribly tragic. And also kind of useless with his puppets.
(and yet we'd happily have watched the whole of his puppet show <3)
Who haven't I mentioned? Oh David Troughton! Always good of course and the sort of Uncle that you would absolutely dread having around children or in fact anybody... and Nicola Walker was very prickly and defensive as Rachel. I liked her refrain of "it doesn't matter to me at all" (and by like I mean wanted to shake her :P)
And then Oliver Chris as newcomer Clive who caused drama and flutterings. And gosh doesn't he look good in those tight trousers.
So really not a weak link in the cast either in terms of the beautifully timed comedy or in terms of dialling it back just enough to show the underlying sadness and the horrible feeling that they'd probably do it all over again next year (events at the end of the play having caused at least one change though I suppose).
It's on till February or March I think so worth looking for tickets, and we were way up at the back and could see fine. It's an awesome set actually.
So that was Friday.
Saturday of course the snow set in and by the time I was heading up to the Abbey for Carols on the Hour it felt a little like walking through a blizzard. I was well wrapped up with many layers and boots and as long as I could leave myself and I was impressed by how many of the choir(s) made it actually. We had rather smaller congregations than previous years sadly but it was still 150ish at each service which really is quite impressive given it was snowing during the first 4!
Then I walked back home, changed outfits for a prettier one (but with even more layers) and headed off into London for temaris's birthday party :D
Took a little longer than normal to get in due to every train company in the world going AAAAAARGH PANIC SNOW (and also maybe a signal being broken IDK) but not too bad really. Sadly on the way home my luck ran out and I got to St Pancras to discover they'd cancelled my trains :-( thankfully one of the lines to a nearby station was still open and my wonderful father came and picked me up from it.
Sunday was church (with a gorgeous anthem <3) which we obviously had to walk to. I was wondering if there'd be little to no congregation again but of course it was our Sunday Club Nativity Play so actually we had lots of people and lots of tiny angels and shepherds and sheep and one little King Herod *g*
It was very good, well the puns were very bad but the kids were very good *g* And baby Jesus was played by baby Leo who was three weeks and a day old ♥ I totally didn't cry when they sang Away in a Manger.
Then home and defrosting again before walking up to the Abbey AGAIN for Lessons and Carols which I was serving at. It was as beautiful as always with one of my favourite pieces of Taverner, some lovely Britten and then Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day which they haven't done for years and which I LOVELOVELOVE
Between that and the Silent Night/Once in Royal opening I really started feeling Christmassy.
And then we're back to today which I already wrote about.
*takes deep breath*
Right now I've just finished watching the BBC's Nativity which I liked a lot and will definitely be keeping up with ♥ and now I'm going to ignore University Challenge until Only Connect comes on :D
Tomorrow is helping decorate the house and then going to the Theatre Quiz at the National in the evening and given it's Emma Freud chairing and Miranda Hart scoring I WILL be getting into London even if I have to walk all the way home.