It's been an exciting (well... busy) few weeks since I last blogged - so what's been happening?
The big thing was the Gilbert & Sullivan shows which went off last week. All went pretty well really - the first rehearsal on the actual set is usually pretty disasterous (and it was) because you suddenly find there are real steps to go up and down (rather than pieces of matting with steps painted on them!) and there's less/more space on stage than you had been imagining at rehearsals. The women's chorus also had massive hats to contend with in HMS Pinafore - whilst these looked superb to the audience, they could be awkward buggers to get through doorways and there was no way you could get too close to any of the other ladies without a major hat wobbling incident! Which was perhaps a hidden bonus for anyone very protective of their personal space!
The shows were brilliant though and all seemed to go really well. Not too many fluffed lines, and no major incidents with the set. The orchestra were ace as always and it seemed to go really well. L's posted a review to his blog - read it here, and some of the photos are now on the G&S site - see them here (you'll need to click the "This Year's Show" button on the left).
One downside to the week was the exam I had on the Thursday afternoon! Trust and estate accounts - not too bad really and certainly not the huge amount of learning statutes and cases that there was in the previous 3 exams. But still it was on a show day...I went to London the Thursday before to practice getting home and thought it would all be a doddle. How wrong could I be?? Left the exam early to make sure I got the train I wanted but there had been vandalism somewhere at the extremity of the Central Line somewhere meaning those trains were delayed and there were huge numbers of people waiting at platforms. So I caught a cab - took longer that I was hoping but still got the Liverpool street on time only to lose 1/2 hour at Stratford because of an earlier broken down train!!! So sadly missed Trial by Jury on Thursday, but made it back in time for HMS Pinafore. And the exam seemed to go okay - the accounts balanced anyway!! Find out in a couple of weeks.
This weekend had the IOS concert - extracts the the Gadfly, Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto (think of Brief Encounter) and Tchaikowsky's 6th Symphony - he died about 7 days after the first performance! So lots of discussion about whether it was in fact his "swan song," but there seems to be debate both ways. Still a great concert - the Tchaikowsky in particular has lots of dark brooding music. Lovely. The soloist was ace - born 1976...only a year (if that) older than me.
Decided to try and do some Christmas shopping this afternoon, including ordering a sofa from Debenhams for ourselves. we've been looking at this sofa since the summer and it's the only one we've really liked (and we have looked everywhere). Finally decided to go and order the thing today and found that the half-price event for sofas which seems to have been a permanent fixture since the summer has ended and the one we want is now £1700!!! Damme that's too bad.
Went to a new place for lunch - describes itself as a pasta buffet, but there's pizza and salad too. Not bad, although never have ham and pineapple lasagne. If you've ever had evaporated milk on pineapple you know what the juice does to it. It also does that to the white sauce in a lasagne. And it looked as though someone hadn't really drained the pineapple before using it....
I've updated my book list again - finally finished Philip and Elizabeth which was pretty good. Read the latest Harry Potter during show week - it only took a couple of days so didn't have chance to put it on the blog. I enjoyed it - at least Harry's not so angry all the time any more! But it's certainly setting the scene for the final installment...
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