General Catch Up

 Hello blog.  It's been a while.  

A quick round up of what's been going on. 

I've  seen several shows over the last few months - 

-    Jerusalem, starring Mark Rylance and Rhys Ifans, (Very good) 

-    Henry VI parts 2 and 3 at the RSC (Good, but making the best of what's not Will's best material, and with some irritating filming / camera work, which I didn't feel added much to the performance) and 

-    Days of Rebellion, another production  of the Wars of the Roses (combination of Henry VII parts 1-3) by the graduating class at Bristol Old Vic (a good attempt, but the idea of setting it as corporate warfare rather broke down once the actual bodies start to pile up)

- The Tempest, the the Ustinov Studio in Bath - the opening production for the new Artistic Director, Deborah Warner, With Nicholas Woodeson as Prospero and Dickie Beau as Ariel

- Headlong Theatre's production of August Wilson's 'Jitney', in Bath,  directly from the Old Vic.

- Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim's musical directed / designed by Terry Gilliam, which I enjoyed.

-The Doctor - an Almeida Theatre production, at Bath, starring Juliet Stevenson, which was very good, but depressing.

As you may have noticed, the Queen died last month, and we all had a week of wall-to-wall coverage.- I didn't feel any particular sense of loss, although I did find  some of  the ceremonial quite interesting. 

It was also the reason for my  ringing for the first time in a long time - (I have a shoulder problem which it aggravates)  Bells are rung muffled for funerals, it and it was asked that the bells of  as many churches as possible rang for the state funeral, so I asked whether anywhere local needed a hand (many ringers ring at more than one tower, and not all churches have a regular band, so trying to get the bells rung everywhere on the same day isn't easy)  and ended up joining a mini trip to ring at several churches which don't have regular bands. We got quite a few positive comments from passers-by, which was nice!

And I have enjoyed a few walks - enjoying the late summer sunshine.

Finally, I acquired a new kitten..It's a good thing she's cute, as she's also full of mischief! Vashti is not overly impressed with her, but she is getting used to it.