Stand up

 

Chic Eleanor and fellow theatre lover Del and I went to see the stand up comic Mark Steel tonight. 

Known for his left wing humour, Steel concentrated his set on his recent experience of having throat cancer. 

Humble, honest, incredibly funny and poignant it was refreshing to hear a man celebrate his friendships which saw him through the darkest of times. But real life took an even darker turn when after he noted the demographic of the audience and told a story of how one member collapsed during his show , as he was almost finished , an audience member in the Gods suddenly collapsed and I think died 

We left after the stage cleared and the house lights were turned on.

Are You Free?

 I caught up with The last Of Us tonight

Moving as fuck ….

I’m drifting today, and am overly reflective

Someone I know committed suicide on Monday, 

Not a friend 

But someone I met professionally 

I’m drifting and am out of sorts 

and then Chic Eleanor rang out of the blue

Did I want to go to the theatre tomorrow?

Darling I hope you are free she gushed

I said yes immediately 

Grateful, oh so grateful 

That

Someone remembered me 

Unidos por un sueño, Alejandro Vivas - Grupo Talía

This gentle little piece was performed by the lisping choirs and the Metropolitan Orchestra on line during covid, and is more of a hymn or a lullaby than anything else.

In light of some more information I have received I have edited this entry today

The music was written as an on line performed piece during covid 

Turandot

 It’s been on my bucket list ( the back burner one) for years, Puccini’s  Turandot

But tonight a friend asked me to go with them to see it as they had been let down at the last minute .

I’m not asked very often so I jumped at the live showing of the Royal Opera House production .

Operas are often overlong, ( and this is no different ) but I loved Seok Jong Baek as the tubby Prince and

Sondra Radvanosky as Turandot and the 1980s staging was wonderfully impressive

Weaver & Roger’s Little Game

 

The game started on Saturday when I started nights 

I went to bed in the afternoon with Mary and Bun then joining us, frightened to be left out.

Weaver stood guard at the top of the stairs with narrow eyes

Roger was sat on the kitchen table watching the comings and goings in the lane

I almost fell asleep

But then Roger started his usual gallop up the stairs in a clumsy effort to join in.

Roger hasn’t quite mastered staircases, even at the robust age of 5 

He still sorts of runs at one full pelt and hopes for the best

And this time as he almost reached the top, legs spinning wildly, tongue lolloping out of the side of his mouth , when…

Weaver jumped out at him and chased him back down the staircase with a manical yowl and a paw swipe.

This pattern started to repeat itself again and again 

Dog versus cat

With cat winning every time

I had no sleep

They had the very best of times, and gasped like tired children at a garden party by the time I left for work

Like Roobarb and Custard on a repeat time frame.

Camp As Christmas

Next month I take my sister Janet to see the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House. We are having lunch at the Opera House Cafe and so I think we need to dumb down the night before with a touch of camp. 

What could be better than a romp through the musical Titanique? 

I booked tickets today

Two very different nights out 

What fun 

 

Food Porn

 Positive thinking, I finished my presentation last night, plowed through the references and made a slow cook beef stew when I got home. I had forgotten the clocks went forward , what fun.

I hardly noticed that Bun and Weaver had spent most of their evening sitting inside the living room cupboards ( don’t ask) and remarkably not one bit of China was broken.

I’m off to bed, enjoy my food porn

Bra Straps

 I didn’t want to go to work yesterday. Having nearly three weeks off has done me good. 

But I did go, and it was incredibly busy.

Today I feel flat with two night shifts ahead and a presentation to finish. Funny how your mood can drop as quickly as it soared. So I went to bed. Mary under one arm Bun on top of me.

Chilli bean soup was bubbling away in the slow cooker when I got up and I cleaned the kitchen with purpose after eating two bowls until my lips went numb.

Bra straps ready pulled

I’m not letting a low mood win today

I’ve packed my study books and aim to finish the presentation on my breaks

I will leave you with this choir who are singing a version of the Finnish Reindeer song so loved by my choir