In Which Shakespeare Happens

Sometimes you have to wait for the Good Things to happen. Way back in February, I saw Stephen Fry tweet that he was going to be appearing at the Globe Theatre, in Twelfth Night, in the autumn. So I rushed off to the theatre's website, booked a pair of tickets, and then asked my friend J if she'd like to meet up and go with me. And then we waited for 8 months, and on Wednesday we both travelled to London to meet up and see the show.

We had tickets for the matinee performance, so had also take the opportunity to book tickets for the British Museum's exhibition 'Shakespeare - Staging the World'.

'The Long View' -Wenceslaus Hollar, 1647

The exhibition uses Shakespeare's life and works as a prism through which to look at the world he lived in, and London in particular, and brings together some fascinating articles, interspersed with videos of actors (including Anthony Sher and Paterson Joseph) performing extracts from some of the plays.

There were maps of London, tapestries of Warwickshire, a 1st Folio, an actual page in Shakespeare's own hand (part of a play about Sir Thomas More) as well as other items with less immediate connections to Shakespeare - including a hand bill for a bear pit (and the skull of a bear!) the eye of Edward Oldcorne (executed for alleged involvement in the Gunpowder Plot)

Reliquary containing right eye of Edward Oldcorne, 1606

And the Funeral Achievements of Henry V (including a decorative shield which is believed to date from the late 1300s - it's just amazing to think that this could have survived so long.

I had slightly mis-calculated how long stuff would take us, so we ended up having to run the last bit to the Globe in order to avoid being late for the start of the show!

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We were seated in the upper gallery, which (as the name suggests) is right up at the top of the theatre, but we had great seats (or rather, spaces on the wooden bench!) - right at the front.

View from our seats, during the interval

The show was excellent - it's a very traditional version of the play, with an all-male cast, and full period costume. Mark Rylance (Olivia) was the complete, upper-class lady - dead white make up, huge farthingale - very much the great lady, rather than the young, naive girl she is sometimes played as.

(Photo Nigel R Barklie/Rex)

Olivia glides across the stage (rather like the ladies in 'Trumpton'), making 3-point turns when she needs to turn or sit. There are occasional moments where she slipped over in to pantomime dame, but they were infrequent.

Samuel Barnett's Sebastian and Johnny Flynn's Viola were superb -they were dressed in identical white doublets and hose, with long hair, and managed to make their mistaken identity became believable.
 Liam Brennan's Orsino was very convincing in his (slightly uncomfortable) attraction to 'Cesario'.

Stephen Fry's Malvolio presented as a dry, pedantic bureaucrat, less malignant than the character is sometimes presented as being, arrogant and awkward in his hopes of affection from Olivia, and pitiable in his imprisonment.

taking a bow

In all, it was a highly enjoyable piece of theatre, and while the run at the Globe was fully sold out and has, I think, now ended, the play is transferring to the West End - I'd say it's well worth booking tickets,  if you can. And I very much hope that having returned to the stage after so long, Stephen Fry will be considering more productions in future.

In which there are trains and planes and sisters and sunshine

I've been away from the internet for the past 10 days or so, as I've been away on holiday in Turkey with my sisters, and for part of the time, with D, my sister K's soon-to-be sister-in-law.
We had a great time, and I really enjoyed being able to spend time with my sisters, and getting to know D.

I think it will take more than one post to cover it, so will take me a few days, but here goes!

Our flight out was on Tuesday evening, from Gatwick, so my younger sister E drove to mine for lunch, then we went to K's home where we left E's car and all 3 of us got a trian to Gatwick.

As we were going on holiday, I'd come prepared, and once we were safely on the train produced cans of G'n'T, slices of lime, and ice cubes (it's harder to transport ice cubes secretly and with no cool bag than you might think) so we all had drinks in style.

We then met D at Gatwick, and spent 4 hours on a charter flight filled with fractious children! Once we got to Dalaman, however, things improved - we picked up out hire car, and K bravely drove us home, in the dark (Both Turkish roads, and Turkish driving, tend to be.... interesting!

K's fiance owns a flat in Fethiye, which is where we stayed. It's about 25 mins walk from the centre of the town, slightly up on the hill, so it's a little cooler, which is nice.

We spent our first morning stocking up on food, then, as one does, we headed out to the Hamman (Turkish Bath). We decided, on the advice of some of K&C's friends, who had visited just before us, to try a new hamman at one of the local hotels - it was very modern and shiny - and instead of the traditional cold shower after the sauna and scrubbing there was a very cold plunge pool, instead. It was fun, and very relaxing,but all of us who'd been hamman-ed before agreed that we preferred the less slick sand more traditional city hamman, and resolved to go there for our next scrub! Although the hamman proved, once again, that no matter how well you believe you've exfoliated, the Tellak (masseur) will prove you wrong. I do wish that there was a Turkish Bath near me at home!

The following day we decided that some Proper Culture was appropriate, so we drove to Patara, which is a Lycian site - it was an important naval base around the time of Alexander the Great, was mentioned in the Iliad, was visited by emperors Hadrian and Vespasian and was the birthplace of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (AKA Santa Claus).  It was eventually abandoned after the harbour silted up, any many of the ruins were hidden, and preserved, by the sand dunes.


Parliament Building, Patara

There has been a lot of archaeological work going on over the last 20 years or so, including, most recently, the excavation and partial reconstruction of the Parliament Buildings - there were the headquarters of the Lycian league, and the archaeologists have partially rebuilt it using some original and some replacement material, and leaving parts as they were found, so that in the seating, for instance, you can see the original ruin, how the building was constructed, and finally the finished article, faced with marble etc.

Patara amphitheatre

There is also an amphitheatre, which has not been rebuilt, 2 bathhouses (one of which is currently propped up with a good deal of scaffolding,

Harbour Baths, Patara

And the triple-arched 'Arch of Modestus' (who I can't help feeling may have been misnamed) and, of course, several of the pointy topped Lycian sarcophagi which I have come to associate with this part of Turkey (there is one in the post office garden, in Fethiye, for example..)

Lycian sarcophagus and arch of Modestus, Patara





 Oh, and did I mention that as well as these spectacular classical ruins, Patara just happens to have a rather nice beach?



I have to admit, that being able to swim and sunbathe on a beautiful white beach in between sessions of exploring ancient Greek/roman and Byzantium ruins does add something to the experience!





After leaving Patara, we went on to Letoon, but that will have to wait until a later blog, as I need to sleep, now.



In Which I Have a Simply Wonderful Day

Yesterday was my birthday. I was feeling a bit ambivalent about it, what with the getting older and older, and the inevitable musings on life, however, I then remembered that I had good friends coming to visit, and fun things planned, and felt a lot more cheerful about it!
My friends arrived from Manchester on Friday evening, in time for us to enjoy a leisurely meal (with cake!) and several glasses of wine, as we caught up, and just relaxed together.

Then yesterday, which turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day, we had a long lunch in Bradford on Avon, then spent the afternoon in Bath (1 pub, 1 independent bookshop) followed by a delicious Nepalese meal, and then Simon Callow's one-man show "Dr Marigold and Mr Chops", which was great!

Picture from BTR website

The show is Simon Callow performing two of Charles Dickens' monologues:

The first, about Mr Chops, was a short story published for Christmas 1858  entitled "Going into society", narrated by Mr Magsman, a showman, about a Dwarf known as Mr Chops who wins the lottery and goes into society. Although having its moments of pathos, it's very funny, and Mr Callow is excellent at doing all the voices!

The second, about Dr. Marigold (He was named "Doctor" after the Doctor who delivered him!) is longer, and although it has a lot of humour in it it, is a real tear-jerker. Narrated by Mr Callow in the character of Dr. Marigold, a cheap-jack, describing his marriage to an increasingly bad tempered woman, her cruelty towards their daughter, the child's death from illness and his subsequent adoption of a 'deaf-and-dumb' child, who had herself been neglected and abused.  Being dickens, it's not surprising that there is a deal of sentimentality, but before the happy ending there is a lot of (still relevant) content about poverty, grief, politics, discrimination and domestic abuse, and Callow's Dr. Marigold is a well-rounded, complete character, whose loneliness and grief comes across between the comedy moments.

It was a superb performance, and made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. And all in all, the combination of good friends, good entertainment, and delicious food, wine and beer made for a great way to celebrate my birthday, and left me feeling set up for the year to come.

In which There is Family

I spent the weekend down in Portsmouth, to visit my sister and her fiance. When we arranged it, the plan was that we would maybe do some sailing. However, when I got there, it became clear that that wasn't going to be practical. In the first place, the forecast was for heavy rain and very strong winds, (force 8 or so) and secondly, we were all pretty tired (C has just finished exams) and the tides meant we would have had to get up  rather early if we wanted to go sailing. So we didn't.

Instead, we sat up late over food and wine and conversation, then we got up late and had a gargantuan breakfast, and then, at the crack of 3p.m ventured out into the day. It was VERY windy, even ashore, although the rain didn't turn up til Sunday.

On Saturday we went to Gosport, where C took his dinghy out to the boat to check it out, while K and I went for a walk around the harbour front.

We looked at all the pretty little boats in the marina, and the big grey boats which belong to the Royal Navy, and the submarine in the submarine Museum, and HMS Warrior, which belonged to the Navy when it was built in 1860, (and for all I know, still does).

And we saw an egret,and looked at the Spinnaker Tower on the Portsmouth side of the river, then we met C, went home, and changed (and in C's case washed several lbs of fine river mud off) and dressed up and went to a rather splendid french restaurant in Portsmouth, where we had a delicious, leisurely meal.

On Sunday, the promised rain arrived, and it poured, solidly all day. However, this wasn't a problem - K&C had (sailing) friends ciming, so we made a sunday roast, and the friends brought cheese and fruit, and there was much conversation, then in the evening our cousin S, her husband T and 3 year-old son arrived - they have had a week's holiday in France and  were staying over night before driving home, so we had a socialable evening. I hvane't seen my little cousin for 18 months, which is forever when you're 3, so it was lovely to see him - he is a gorgeous, chatty, outgoing little boy, who was only shy for the first 5  minutes.

We alos got to hang out with his parents.

So, despite the lack of sailing, it was a highly enjoyable weekend, and I'm glad I went. I am very fortunate in my family, I think.

Oh, and K & I might have looked at lots of pictures of her wedding dress, and talked quite a lot about her plans for the wedding next August, becasue, after all, that's what sisters are for, isn't it?

In Which There Is Much Family Pride

On Friday evening I drove down to Cambridge, in order to visit my brother, and to attend his graduation ceremony on Saturday.

He has spent the past four years studying through the OU (and working full time as well) and this is the end result! He now has a Bachelor's Degree in Computing and Mathmatical Sciences, with 1st Class Honours. And yes, we're all VERY  proud of his achievement. (it also means he's now got 2 degrees, and I've only got one.
Maybe I need to start studying something new!)

The degree ceremony was held at Ely Cathedral, which I don't recall having been to before. it's quite impressive, and has an unusual central tower topped with a wooden 'lantern' (apparently the original tower collapsed during building in the 14th Century, and it was  replaced with the current tower)

Inside, the cathedral has some pretty wonderful painted ceilings, and angels painted inside the lantern. The paintings aren't original, they were all added when the cathedral was renovated in the 19th Century, but they are rather impressive!

It was a beautiful day; we drove over to Ely, stopping for a pub lunch on the way, then after getting R all robed up we had a couple of hours before the ceremony itself, so lots of opportunities for photographs in the sunshine.

After the ceremony (which included the award of an honourary doctorate to Rose Tremain ) we went back to R's house to help him drink the champagne I brought him.

It was lovely to have the chance to spend time with R (and with my mum and dad) although I do now need a weekend to relax and catch up on some sleep...

In Which There is Friendship, Family and Theatre

This weekend has been lovely, in all sorts of ways. For a start, my best and oldest friend, J came down for the weekend, then it has been a wonderful sunny weekend, warm enough that we were able to spend time sitting out in the garden, reading the papers and enjoying the warmth.

On Saturday afternoon we went over to visit my 2nd cousin, who was celebrating her 80th birthday, then we went for a meal out, and to cap it all, we had tickets to see Derek Jacobi, and a wonderful cast, in King Lear.

It was good to see my cousin - most of the other guests were her friends and members of her church, but another of my dad's cousins was there with his wife, so I was able to do a little catching up with family, then J and I headed into Bath for a meal, before going on to the theatre.

The meal was at a rather nice Greek restaurant on the river - I haven't been before, but after sharing some very tasty meze, I'd be more than happy to go again..

Then on to Bath Theatre Royal. Way back in September, I bought tickets for this production, which has been playing at the Donmar Warehouse in London. I have been a huge fan of Derek Jacobi's since I first saw him as a teenager, and I know J would be keen to come too, and, being a Friend of the theatre I was able to take advantage of priroty booking, and get excellent seats in the middle of the front row of the Royal Circle.

Derek Jacobi and  Pippa Bennett-Warner

It was a wonderful production - a very plain set, and little in the way of props or set dressing. with the exception of the Fool, the costumes, too, were almost monochrome, which left nothing to distract from the strength of the actors and the play.

Lear is hardly a sympathetic character, but Jacobi manages to evoke sympathy, as Lear decends into madness and confusion, and the vengeful, tyrannical King becomes a bewildered, innocent old man.

Gina McKee and Justine Mitchell, as Goneril and Regan were both very strong - Goneril calculating from the start, Regan more changeable, becoming almost manic.

Edmund and Edgar (Alec Newmwn and Gwilym Lee) were excellent - Edmund initially appearing engaging, but quickly revealing his duplicitous, calculating behaviour, Edgar first aappearing somewhaat ineffectual, but later showing is strngth in furst supporting, then avenging his father.

All in all, it was an absolutely stunning performance - well worth the wait!

As an added bonus, he programmes, while a litle more expensive than usual, are beautiful - free from any  advertising, and including a full copy of the script, and a number of photos from the production.  A great souvenir of the production.

In which I Fall in Love

Last weekend I got an invitation to go to Birmingham, to visit my cousin and her husband, and to meet thier beutiful son, who is now 3 1/2 months old. My sister also lives in Birmingham, and our other sister was visiting her, so the plan was for us all then to meet up together foor Sunday lunch.

It was a lovely, low-key weekend. I drove up on Friday night, met baby J (And fell in love with him) Then I cuddled him some more, and played with the cats.

On Saturday we mostly stayed home, with a brief foray out to give J some air & to do a little shopping, then on Sunday we drove over to my sister's house for lunch. We all took it in turns to cuddle J (who really is an exceptionally well-conducted baby, and cries only when any self-respecting baby would)

And then, after a delicious meal, and a lot of conversation, I camme back home. It was a horrible drive - loads of rain, and spray, and surface water, but I got home in one piece, and without too much delay, so it's all good.

Meeting J for the first time was undoubtably the best thing which has happened this year (so far).

In Which There Are Friends, Strawberries, Puppies and Other Fine Things

Thursday saw me heading over to Westbury-sub-Mendip, where I grew up, in order to spend the day with a friend who still lives (and farms) there. I stopped off to see whether there were any boks I fancied in the Library, which as you can see, is small but perfectly formed.  It is based on donations of booksand run by volunteers in the village Nice idea, don't you think?

 Last time I visited, they had some very cute, 4 week old puppies; this time, all the puppies bar one have left home, and young W has just started school, so J & I had a pleasant morning catching up on news of both our families before picking W up from school (as it is his 1st week of school, he only does half days) and going out for lunch.

It was odd to find myself back at the village school, which I attended for just over a year, when we first moved to the village. I was horribly bullied and hated almost every minute was not very happy there, but going back has it's advantages, not least as a reminder that my schooldays are well behind me, and no-one can make me go through that again!

We lunched in Wells, at a very nice restuarant called 'The Old Spot' which is one of my favourite places to eat out - they have a short menu, which tends towards fresh, seasonale (and often locally sourced) food, cooked to perfection. Not so good for vegetarians, but otherwise... oh my! 

We then walked up through the market place and round outside the Bishop's Palace, disppointing the ducks by our failure to bring them anything to eat.

We then took W to the park to play before heading back for further conversation, egg-hunting (free-range chickens have so many places to lay their eggs..) and playing with W, who is very much a farmers child - his soft stuffed cow & sheep have proper, DEFRA approved eartags and when he decides it is time to play farms this involves not only setting up model cows & sheep in the appropriate model pens, but also making up proper 'cattle passports', with correct ear-tag numbers and barcodes as well!

Meanwhile, J&I amused oursleves by looking through some old photo albums, including the oh-so-embarrassing "1st day at Secondary School" ones taken by her mum of the two of us at the bus stop, and several of us camping in various back-gardens.

I left laden with egss, and runner beans, and home made jam, and strawberries., and having put in an order for this christmas's turkey, last years ghaving been a great success.

In the evening I headed into Bath again, this time to see  'The Rivals' at the Theatre Royal.

I arrived with time to spare and it was a pleasant, sunny evening, so I collected a few more Lions  (I have all the Lions I have found so far in my flickr set here) before heading back to the Theatre, which has just reopened after some renovations - they havn't changed the auditorium -the changes are mostly to provide better access, improve the bars and (I think) upgrade the lighting etc.

The Rivals is the first production since the theatre reopened, and  of course has a special resonance here being set in Bath.

Mrs Malaprop was layed by Penelope Keith, and Sir Anthony Absolute by Peter Bowles. I enjoyed it - although I think that some of 1775's ideas of what was funny haven't worn terribly well...

As a whole, the play is still very entertaining, however, and there was an excellent  cast. I'm glad I went.

Friends and Puppies..

On Saturday I headed over to spend the day with an old friend of mine, (we used to live opposite one another, from the age of about 9 0r 10)

She and her husband farm, and had agreed to sell me some beef the next time they had an animal butchered for home use, so the purpose of the trip was to pick that up (I now have a large selection of steaks, joints, mince and the like in my freezer, all from a cow which was born and raised right here) and to generally catch up and spend some time together.

And, as it turned out, to meet some puppies, as one of their dogs had pups recently, and now there are seven utterly adorable little bundles of fluff and squeakiness...


They are four weeks old today, and are very friendly, curious and cute. I was tempted to take one home, but (a) they are not yet young enough to leave their mother (b) Tybalt would emphatically not approve and (c) my small, almost gardenless house, and office-based job are not really suitable for a working dog.....

But they are incredibly cute.

It was a beautifully sunny day, so we (and the puppies) were able to spend

most of the day outside, then later, J and I walked through the fields to see her parents (who were our neighbours all the time I was growing up, and until my parents retired and moved away 2 years ago) It was a glorious evening for a walk - the hedgrows were bluebells, cowslips, primroses and cow-parsley, and as well as some lovely views across the levels towards Glastonbury, we also saw lots of rabbits, a hare, and a magnificant dog-fox - the most vivid red, against the bright green grass, and very large for a fox.

I did manage to catch a picture of him, although it doesn't do him justice, and even J, who recently lost 11 chickens in a single night to a fox (maybe this one) had to admire him.

It's days like this which remind me what a beatiful part of the country I live in, and how lucky I was to be able to grow up here. And, of course, how lucky I am in my friends.

Of course, when I returned home, Tybalt was not impressed at me for having been gone 24 hours, and coming home smelling of 9 different dogs.....

In Which There Are Friends, And Tea

I love Bank Holidays, especially this one, which for some reason crept up on me and felt, as a result, lke an unexpected gift.

And a second pleasure, a couple of weeks ago E, a friend of mine from university, got in touch to say she'd be visiting the area with her hsband this week, and suggested we meet up. Which I felt was a perfectly splendid idea. We don't see each other often enough.

We met in Bradford on Avon, which is a lovely little town, and has what may be the country's best tea shop. Having successfully rendez-voused, we started with a quick wander down to the Tithe Barn, and into the various little shops selling charming frivolities, then walked back along by the river, up into the town (Mainly to point out the bookshop, which was closed for the bank holiday but will no doubt be a point of call for E when it is open tomorrow...) and went into The Bridge Tea Rooms, which is one of my favourite places to go as a treat.

It's a "Victorian" tea-room - full of knick-knacks, old, sepia toned photographs and suchlike, with open fires and waitresses in mob-caps, in a 17th Century building, and it serves glorious teas - by which I mean both leaf tea (they have a selection of over 30, including white & green teas), and afternoon tea. They even provide sugar-tongs, for those wishing to preserve properly genteel Victorian manners.

On this occasion, as it was three in the afternoon and we had not lunched, we decided to really indulge ourselves and ordered the "Prince Albert's Tea" which provided sandwiches, scones* & cake, served on a three-tier cake stand.

Which gave us the opportunity to settle down for a long chat (and, as it happened, to avoid the ferocious hailstorm which interrupted the mostly-sunny afternoon.

And then (having eaten to excess) we went for another amble along by the canal.

A most enjoyable afternoon.

[*It should have been meriengues, not scones but we don't much like meriengues, and they let us substitute the scones) ]

Shrove Tuesday!

There are some traditions I am happy to maintain....

Especially when they come with lemon & sugar.

The lemon counts as one of my five-a-day, doesn't it?

I love that something so delicious can be made so quickly and easily, out of such simple ingredients. And pancakes, like madeleines, are full of memories...

Spring is Here, (or not)

I'd been thinking about writing a cheerful Spring-Time post, about how nice it it that there are snowdrops, and a few new bright green leaves beginning to appear, but then on Wednesday we had snow (although it didn't lie) and nothing felt very spring-like.

As weeks go, it started pretty well. My mother had signed up for a two days of patchwork workshops being held just down the road, so she and my dad came to stay with me for a couple of days. We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time together, as I was out at work, but it was good to see them, and coming home to find someone else is cooking supper is nice, too!

My dad sorted out tthe light in my WC (which had started coming on whenever I turned on the light in the bathroom)

I haven't done a whole lot else this week - although I did finally get around to putting my Dave McKean picture (Beachy Head Birdman #4) on the wall.

I bought the picture from his exhibition in Rye in October, but as I was then poorly and couldn't get there to see he exhibition & pick up my picture, it came to me via several friends and family members, finishing by being brought to our family Christmas. Since I got home after new year I have been propping it up in different room trying to decide where to put it. It is in the living room for now, but I am still pondering whether to put it in the bedroom instead, where I could see t eery morning when I wake up (well, once I have managd to get my eyes open & my glasses on, that is)

I think it is beautiful, and it makes me happy.

In Which There is Much Happiness

This morning dawned* cold but bright, and as I do still seem to be getting better (although not as fast as I'd like) I had limited enthusiasm about going to see my sister K, parents and K's partner, C, and his parents, who I haven't met before. K rang me up on Thursday to ask whether I'd like to join them for lunch, as I'd missed seeing them at my (other) sister's housewarming party.

[*Dawned = inference. It was cold & bright when I started paying attention, at about 9.a.m. I'm guessing it was like that at dawn, too]

The pub they picked was near Taunton (which is roughly equidistant between both sets of parents' homes) which is about 1 1/2 hours drive from here, and I'm still finding everything tiring enough that a 3-hour round trip seemed pretty daunting.

But I wanted to see everyone, so off I went. And I'm very glad I did.

The first surprise was that as well as all the people I was expecting, sister #2 was also there.

The second, and bigger surprise, was that K & C announced their engagement!!

Very happy and exciting news!

They haven't set a date for the wedding yet, but it will probably be some time next year, but over lunch we had lots of fun discussing all sorts of issues, and established that:

• C unaccountably failed to ask my Papa's permission before paying his addresses to his daughter, but that S would have said yes, had he done so.


• We officially have permission to slap K if she turns into Bridezilla


• The invitations will tell people what time food will be served at the reception (this arising from a specifc wedding we attended, where odd timings and an unusally long service meant half the congregation was faint from hunger by the time the reception started)

We did not, however, determine whether S is prepared to don morning dress & top hat, if asked to do so, in order to walk K down the aisle.

All in all, a highly satisfactory party.

The Thaw!

It appears that we are no longer suffering the long winter, and will not, after all, be reduced to twisting hay into sticks to burn in order to survive.

The flowers that bloom in the spring (tra la) are not yet blooming, but the snow is melting, the upside-down 4WD wrapped in police tape has been removed from the ditch at the end of the road, the giant snowman is just a heap of dirty slush, and we seem to be having rain rather than snow.

It makes a change.

The roads are full of potholes from frost damage, and no doubt we will all pay the price in Council Tax in due course.

I, as I mentioned in the last post, have been buying rail tickets. I'm going to London at the end of February to visit relatives, go to the theatre and see some exhibitions.

So, I needed to but train tickets. Which ought to be straight forward but isn't. Bouncing around from one website to another to find one which (a) admits the relevent train exisits (b) doesn't add on massive 'booking fees' (c) is working. At one point the ticket I was trying to buy disappered between my putting it in the basket and the site letting me move to the paying stage.

I decided to call South West Trains and buy over the phone instead. Except, it turns out that just because a ticket is shown for a certain train at a certain price on their wensite, doesn't mean you can by it off them if you phone. Apparently they are each allocated a certain number of tickets and they are not interchangeable between phone sales and online sales. And the ticket prices shown by National Rail enquiries are not the same as the ones shown by South West Trains are not the same as the ones shown by TheTrainLine.

Shopping around and faffing around I found 1st class return tickets for £34. (Bizarrly, 1st class was £1 more each way than standard, hence the 'luxury'. Although I think it will be a smallish, slow train so probably the only advantage will be a less crowded & therefore quiter carriage)

Had I bought the first "cheapest tickets available" offered me it would have been £56 standard class. (and How hard would it be just to have accurate, honest information up front? Oh well.

Irriatingly, as tickets are only available 12 weeks in advance, I couldn't buy tickets for the Amanda Palmer / Jason Webley / EvelynEvelyn show at the same time: I shall have to try to remember to book them as soon as we're within 12 weeks, to secure cheap tickets.

Which of course, reminds me of the exciting (if not unexpected) news that Ms Amanda Fucking Palmer, and Mr Neil Freaking Gaiman have announced their engagement!
I think that Non Birding Bill (here)

or maybe the Birdchick (here)

Have said it best... Lovely, happy news for a Friday evening.

In Which There is Mail

Well! I did have a lovely haul of mail yesterday!

• A post-card, sent to me by my parents (on 18th November!) from New Zealand


• DVDs of the last 2 Doctor Who specials, 'Waters of Mars' and 'The End of Time'


• An unexpected thank-you letter (this could drift into infinity, as it was a letter thanking me for a gift I sent to someone to thank them for a favour they did me....should I now write to thank them for their letter?)


• Rail tickets (of which more later) for my trip to London next month


• a copy of Diana Wynne Jones' new novel, 'Enchanted Glass' which I shall gloat over and save to read at my leisure at the weekend.

And, best of all, a beautiful cat-quilt from Stacy which, as you can see, Tybalt gives his seal of approval!

Thank you, Stacy.

The train tickets are because I shall be going up to London in February to stay with my 2nd cousin John, in order to go to the Theatre (Keira Knightly & Tara Fitzgerald in Moliere's 'Le Misanthrope') and see a couple of exhibitions (Probably the Van Gogh one at the Royal Academy, and the new Medieval & Renaissance Gallery at the V&A) I think the saga of buying them deserves its own post...

Of course, the post wasn't quite all such fun. There was also the renewal notice for my car insurance, which is more than I hoped it would be, and means I shall probably now spend hours getting comparison quotes to see whether I can get a better deal somewhere, which is a hassle. And there was a letter reminding me I have an appointment to go and give blood, which is never what you could call fun..

But on the whole, I think I win!

Changing seasons

I think autumn is here. This morning was clear and sunny, but with a definite bite in the air, and as I drove to work, under skies full of hot air balloons, I realised that it has all been creeping up on me without my noticing

The hedges are full of purplish-red unripe blackberries, the leaves on the beech trees and horse chestnut trees are starting to turn every shade of yellow and brown. It's going to be a bumper year for conkers.

I have the same drive to work every day and it is easy to focus only on the irritations - the everlasting roadworks, for instance, or the drivers who think tail-gating is a good idea, but I do drive through some lovely bits of countryside.

This morning, I saw a little animal run out from the hedge and across the road - my first thought was 'squirrel', then 'rat', but when I got to look a little more carefully, I reaslised it was a Stoat - they tend to be quite elusive and I can only remember seeing one about 2 or three times in the past.

The guy behind me hooted at me for having braked but I'm glad I did. (I wouldn't have wanted to run over it even if it had been a rat)

It ran into the opposite hedge just under a magnificant Rowan tree absolutely loaded with berries - very dramatic againt the pale blue sky.

I didn't have my camera with me so the pictures are from a trip to Westonbirt Arboreatum, last autumn. I think maybe it's time I went back there.

In which Time Passes

I had friends visiting this weekend, which was lovely – they arrived on Friday and we spent a highly convivial evening, with the aid of some very nice prosecco and 6 months of chatting to catch up on.

Saturday turned out to be a wonderfully sunny day so, after a leisurely breakfast we drove over to Stourhead, which is owned by the National Trust, and went for a walk around the park and gardens there. They have a lot of rhododendrons, some of which are flowering at present, as are the magnolia trees. There are hundreds of daffodils out and many of the trees are beginning to show new green leaves. We saw a pair of great crested grebes as well as coots and the more usual ducks, on the lake, and even spotted a deer up near the Obelisk, although it didn’t allow us to get very close. I think it was probably a roe deer, as it was too small for a red deer and the wrong colour to be a fallow deer.

Outside the pantheon (modelled on, but rather smaller than the original in Rome) several families were enjoying picnics, and several small children were enjoying chasing the ducks, who seemed extremely relaxed about it –they almost gave the impression that they were running away (well, waddling away) just out of a sense of obligation – the certainly didn’t appear at all worried! A solitary Canada Goose declined to be chased, and as it was almost as tall, if not as big as, the small children concerned they took the hint and the goose and children then proceeded to ignore one another.

After the exertions of our amble around the grounds we sustained ourselves with tea and cakes (something at which the National Trust excels)

For the evening, we had tickets to see ‘Waiting for Godot’ in Bath – so had booked a table at deMuths vegetarian restaurant for a pre-theatre meal. En Route, we came across some interesting Hare-themed sculptures – I’m not clear where the minotaur comes in, I don’t know of any Bath or Somerset legends involving minotaurs…

I am not a vegetarian, and with so many other tempting restaurants in Bath I hadn’t eaten there before, and had booked based on reputation (not to mention the fact that finding a decent vegetarian restaurant, or a restaurant with decent vegetarian options, is not always very easy)

We were not disappointed. I think for me the highlight was the starter of beetroot blinis with sesame roasted beetroot and herby cream cheese - absolutely delicious! Mains (sri lankan curry, mid-eastern platter & Indian thali) were also excellent, and the service was friendly and efficient without being rushed.

Bath Theatre Royal is a very nice little theatre – I have lots of happy memories of it as, with a couple of friends, I used to spend every Wednesday evening there during my 6th Form years – we would get a bus into Bath, get some chips to sustain us for the evening and spend a little time reading the stock in Waterstones before buying stand-by, standing room tickets to see whatever was showing, which, as lots of plays come to Bath as part of a pre-west end reparatory, meant that we got to see many excellent actors and great plays.
We are getting a little old to spend 2 ½ hours standing so had been proper adults and booked seats, this time.

As well as the memories – It is also a lovely little theatre – it was built in Bath’s hey-day, at the end of the 18th Century - the boxes clearly designed to allow their occupants to be seen far more than to see the stage, they face slightly in towards the auditorium and are well endowed with rococo gilding and red velvet!


The play: waiting for Godot’
The Cast:

Estragon : Ian McKellen
Vladimir : Patrick Stewart
Pozzo : Simon Callow
Lucky : Ronald Pickup
Boy : one of 2 local boys, each in their first acting job

I hadn’t realised, until we arrived and bought our programmes that Simon Callow and Ronald Pickup were in it – the advertising had all focused on Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. It made for a superb production – very funny in places – how often do you get to see 2 greats of the British Theatre, totally po faced, dancing and switching around 3 bowler hats? I think this is the first time that I have seen Simon Callow live, so that was a treat from me, too.

Well worth seeing - and over all a very satisfactory weekend!