Bleugh

I've been feeling grumpy. I've not been well this week, and  I'm bored with it.

If it's been a cold, it's a really vicious bugger. If its flu, it's a really mild dose. Plus, as long as I do absolutely nothing (and keep a supply of lemsip and a bunch of tissues handy) I mostly feel OK, so I also feel like a bit of a malingerer for not being able to do anything more.

But it's meant I couldn't go to Rye last week to see the Dave McKean exhibition, I had to miss 3.5 days of work this week, and today I managed to get to the library but was then too exhausted to do anything else, so I didn't go to see Joe Abercrombie or Moira Young, both of whom were here signing today. Although the new library is nice. I'm not entirely sure why they were large numbers of people wearing khaki shorts and false moustaches wandering around the library but there were also a LOT of children (and I'm pretty sure that the Gruffulo was actually there, and not an hallucination caused by my low grade fever) which is all good. Kids having fun in libraries is a good thing.

A Night of Comedy

Last week, on twitter, I spotted a message from Bath Theatre Royal, mentioning that Russell Brand would be appearing for a one-off gig there on Sunday night. It sounded like fun, so I booked a ticket. (It's just as well I did. They seem to have sold out very quickly)

I mostly went out of curiosity - I think Brand can be very funny, and at other times.. not, so I went along hoping to be entertained.

I was.

The show opened with warm up from poet Mr G, who managed to move from comedy to poetry and back without missing a beat (literally or metaphorically)

Then Russell himself came on. The show was billed as being a warm-up / try out of new material ahead of a bigger tour, but a lot of it was (or seemed) spontaneous - riffing on his visit to Bath and the Abbey, and on the theatre and the set for The Tempest (which is half way through its run)

The set includes two raised balconies, and inevitably Russell ended up climbing up the ladder, playing with the drums, and nervously coming down with the assistance of James - a very good-looking volunteer from the audience!

I think Russell Brand is possibly one of the few people who could move seamlessly from a visit to Bath Abbey to a new story about bestiality. and then there was the whole part where Russell ended up swapping his socks with  another audience member. And stories about performing in the Olympic closing ceremony.

I was very favourably impressed - and glad I'd followed the impulse to buy a ticket!

Not Quite a Blue Moon

There was a blue moon on Friday night, being the second full moon of the month.

I didn't see it on Friday night, as it was too cloudy, but it was there, very clear and beautiful, last night.

In Which There Are Swans, and Friends

Today turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. I had to go around half way to Wells, in order to get a new headlight bulb put onto my car, so it seemed reasonable to go the rest of the way and to look at the Swans currently dotted around the city.

The swans are a temporary art project, and there are 60 of them in all - I think I found around 35, which considering that I only looked in the town centre, I felt was quite good.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but if I have to narrow it down, I think my top five would be:

5.Swan About Town

I loved the art on this one, which includes scenes of Wells, including a picture of the town hall inside it's wings.

4. Hot Fuzz.

As the name suggests, this Swan is based upon Edgar Wright's film, Hot Fuzz, (and sponsored by Edgar Wright and Working Title Films). It is currently living at the Police Station..

 and it carries pictures of the swan scene from the film, in a wonderfully recusrsive way..

3. The Swanster

A gorgeous dragon swan, a little let down by its name..

And I suppose, that as birds are really dinosaurs in disguise, it isn't surprising that a swan might turn out to be a dragon is disguise (or vice versa)


2. Up Before the Beak.

This is a legal Swan. How could I not love it?

I think it's the half-moon glasses which make it just perfect.

1. Guinevere - She Built a Nest of Silver Leaves

This swan is the only one which is actually in the moat of the Bishop's Palace, which is of course where swans in Wells belong.

It's not clear whether, like her real-life counterparts, she has learned to ring the gatehouse bell to demand food...

I'm glad I was in time to see so many of them (I have a Flickr set of all the ones I found) - I think that they are due to be gathered in over the next few days, after which they will be auctioned off.

After seeing the swans, I called my friend J, who lived across the road from us when we were at school, and who still lives very close to where we both grew up. We've not seen each other for almost a year, however, so it was great to sit in the sunshine and catch up.

Altogether, an excellent day, and it ended with the 1st episode of the new series of Doctor Who, which made me very happy. (I'll stay spoiler-free, for those who haven't seen it yet)

How was your Saturday?

The Tempest

As I mentioned in the last post, I had a ticket to see The Tempest at Bath on Friday night.

I found it to be a somewhat patchy production. Tim Piggott-Smith's Prospero was excellent, a controlling man, but one who was able to change, to listen to Ariel, and to keep his promises. Ariel (Mark Meadows) was also excellent, and alien, although I felt that the odd choice to suddenly put him on stilts part way through - it changed him from being a powerful, other-worldly character to one who appeared awkward, and there didn't seem any reason for it, so it seemed to me to be a distraction from, rather than enhancement of the scene.

(photo (c) The Guardian)

The production also featured 10 or 12 sprites - dressed a little like old fashioned theatre nurses. They watched from the sides of the stage, invisible to the players, for the most part, but contributing towards 'the isle being full of noises'.

Caliban was excellent - naive and vindictive, and Miranda was convincingly young and enthralled by her new experiences.

I was a little underwhelmed by the masque scenes, which involved the 'sprites' manipulating puppets and performing an homage to riverdance using clogs on their hands. 

Over all, I thought it was an interesting, if patchy, performance, which I am glad to have seen.

Fun Weekend

This weekend should be fun.

On Friday night I have a ticket to see 'The Tempest' in Bath, Saturday is the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, and on Sunday Russell Brand is in Bath doing a live show prior to a new tour, which should be fun.

I'm guessing that housework is going to take a back seat again this weekend.

I'm feeling fairly relaxed about that.

In Which There is an Author

On Saturday morning, while checking Twitter, I saw Garth Nix tweet that he would be in Bath that evening, which sounded as though it might be interesting, so I went along.

I have enjoyed his books for several years now, particularly the 'Old Kingdom' ones, and I enjoyed his talk, too.

He started by talking about his name (not a pseudonym, despite what people may suspect) and about telling stories, and where he gets ideas from (unlike Neil Gaiman and others, not from a little shop in southern England, it would seem) and the process of making stories.

He also read us a little of the most recent books he has out; 'A Confusion of  Princes' and 'Trouble Twisters' and also a short excerpt from what will, probably, be the prologue to a new 'Old Kingdom' book - 'Claribel: The Lost Abhorsen', which sounds as though it's going to be a book I want to read.

He then answered questions before signing books and chatting, which was fun.

I was slightly distracted during the talk by the fact that there was some decorative bunting up, which had clearly been made out of books.. This bothered me a little. I couldn't help but notice that the bunting was made from actual pages, not anything printed as bunting.

(It's OK. I went and asked one of the staff members after the reading; they explained it was made from a damaged proof copy of a book, so it wasn't destroyed specially)

I'm currently about 1/3 of the way through 'A Confusion of Princes' which I'm enjoying.

There are going to be more authors, soon. It's the Bath Kids Lit Fest next month, which should also be fun, and I have a theatre trip or two lined up.

And on an unrelated note, I went to donate blood today. Turns out it was my 50th donation, which means they give me a shiny brooch and a nice pen, and I was surprised at how chuffed I was about it!

More family stuff

I stayed in Devon for a couple of days after the wedding, hanging out with various family members, which was fun.

 Having poured with rain for the wedding, and on Saturday, the weather improved and Sunday turned out to be sunshiny, almost as if it were properly summer!

I took the opportunity to play more with my new camera, taking pictures of flowers and leaves and baby frogs. And then, of course, on Monday I had to come home (and face a disgruntled cat, who assures me he was starved and mistreated during my absence, although he seemed to be looking very well on it, so I suspect he may have been lying to me.) and on Tuesday it was back to work.

This could have been a bit of a come down, but happily my Aunt S, who lives in the frozen north, had decided to make good use of the fact she'd travelled south for the wedding, and she came to visit for a couple of days, en route to visit other friends over the bank holiday weekend. It's been fun having her here, and having someone to cook and eat with, after work, although as she wasn't here for the weekend, I couldn't go out and play with her!

On Friday, I found that my parents' Local Paper came out, (and that it has a website!) including a story about K's wedding and the ringing afterwards. Which was nice, although I think it's a pity they didn't use a group photo, as the entire band was made up of family members, which they seem to have overlooked..

In Which There is a Wedding

Proud Dad!

My sister, K, got married on Friday! The weather was atrocious, but everything else was fantastic.

K and C met through sailing, and decided on a nautical theme for their wedding, so the hall was decorated with signal flags, the tables were each named for a different type of yacht, the names for the places setting were boats (crewed by jelly babies) and the theme was blue and white.

And of  course, the cake was in keeping as well. (My mum, C's mum and I each made one tier of the cake, and my mum then made all of the blue icing sails (with strict instructions from the Groom to ensure that they are on the correct tack and sailing in the right direction!)

Almost everything was done by family, or by K and C themselves, so it felt really personal to them.

K was, of course, absolutely beautiful. The ceremony itself was in the village church - one of our aunts played the organ, C's daughter (12), my other sister, E, and I were bridesmaids and my brother R, and C's nephew J were the ushers. My parent's house is very close to the church, and, wearing anything other than a full length dress with a train, it is a 5 minutes walk. However, on this specific occasion it had been decided that a car would be more sensible, so we put some ribbon on my dad's car and he drove us down to the church, where we dodged the drizzle,  and then rearranged shoes and skirts in the church porch before heading up the aisle with suitable solemnity.

All went smoothly, and at the end of the service there was a very brief family ring (all of us learned how to ring, as children, and K decided it would be nice to have a short ring herself so 6 of us (K, me, my parents, C's daughter SmallC, and our cousin M) headed to the back of the church and rang the bells for about 5 minutes before handing over to the local ringers (several of whom have learnt to ring in the last 18 months or so, taught by my parents) rang while we had lots of photos taken.

We had to take the pictures inside the church as it was pouring with rain, but fortunately the plan was to have a fairly small number of pictures anyway. Equally fortunately, the village hall, where the reception was held, is next door to the church, so it wasn't difficult to get everyone there under relays of umbrellas, without too much trouble, and then, with the formal business of the day over, we were able to party!

All of the toasts/speeches were commendably brief - (I may have had a tear in my eye when my Dad gave his!, and the Best Man managed to be entertaining without embarrassing C too much) and after my Dad, C and the best man had all given their toasts, C's daughter, SmallC, also got up to speak, to say, basically, that not all step-mothers are evil, and that either K isn't a wicked step mother, or else she must be the best actress in the world, and hiding he wicked step-motherliness extremely well!) It was a lovely thing for her to do.

The reception ended with a live ceilidh band, so there was lots of dancing for all, (and of course, conversation and wedding cake) then about 2 hour after the reception finished, a group of us went (by invitation!)  to the hotel where K and C (and quite a lot of the guests) were staying, and spent the evening in the bar.

In a surreal finale to the day, it turned out that the owner / barman is something of an entertainer, who has taught himself to play a 'drum' accompaniment to George Formby's 'when I'm cleaning windows' using the bottles behind the bar as a drum kit... (there is a youtube video of him,  here..)

All in all, it was a wonderful day. K & C are a great couple, and the wedding was lovely. I'm really happy I was able to be a part of it.

Brand New Mr and Mrs

Family, and Fun Things

I arrived in deepest Devon on Tuesday night, to help prepare for my sister's wedding on Friday. The weather is pretty poor, with lots of rain, but other than that, things are good.

My sisters and their respective partners, plus my step-niece-to-be all arrived on Tuesday and by the time I got there, were all busily engaged in making origami flowers. This is the first time my (younger) sister's boyfriend has met us en masse, but he hasn't panicked and run away yet!

On Wednesday, the party was augmented by my brother and his girlfriend, so we now have a VERY full house (my parents are sleeping in their caravan at the bottom of the garden!)

As lots of both extended families live quite a distance away, several of them have come down early and are incorporating the wedding into a summer holiday, and on Wednesday morning my cousin S, with her husband and 2 children arrived at the house to see everyone, and then E and her partner, and I, joined them for a trip to the local zoo, which is very small, but fun, especially if you have the foresight to take a 3 year old child with you!

I also enjoyed playing with my new camera, to take pictures of some of the animals (and of course of the 3 and one year old cousins...)

In the evening we had the rehearsal for the wedding, and discussions about how and where to take pictures if, as seems likely, it pours with rain.

Today has been entirely taken up with preparations - the hall has been decorated (with a nautical theme) tables set up, (much consultation of the plan required) wine and soft drinks ferried to the hall, flowers collected, crockery and cutlery laid out, and many, many other things! My mum finished constructing the cake (which has delicate icing 'sails' all around it)

The ladies of the party had their nails done, in relays, and there was a last minute dash to pick up yje buttonholes, and then the evening was spent making the bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids.

It's been a long day, but I **think**  everything is in hand. (except of course the weather, which is out of our control. We have emergency umbrellas.

Being a Girl

Life can be odd. Yesterday, I paid actual, real money; enough to have bought a paperback book and have enough left over for some beer, to have someone pull out some of my hairs by the roots.

And then spent some more cash on some make up, which it turns out comes really expensive. I don't normally wear make up, partly because I don't have the hand-eye coordination before I have my morning coffee, and and I don't have the time afterwards, and partly because I have very sensitive skin, and it gets old having to throw stuff out a quarter of the way through the tube because I've started to react to it.

Anyway, I think I have now finished all of my shopping and preparation for this bridesmaid gig. Which is just as well, as I have no more time. 2 days more of work then I'm off to Devon to help set stuff up.

Meanwhile, last night I went for a walk at about 11.30 p.m. to see whether I could see any of the Perseids, but when I got far enough from the house to be out of the glare from the street lights it became clear that there was a lot of low cloud, so I couldn't see any perseids - or indeed any stars at all. I'm hoping that maybe later in the week (when I'm down in Devon, with a lot less light pollution) I might get another chance.

How's everyone else's weekend been?

In Which There is Sport, and Other Stuff

There seems to be a lot of sport on the telly at the moment, for some reason.

I did like Danny Boyle's big Olympic Opening - I hadn't planned to watch, as I'm not very interested in the Olympics, but there was bugger all else on the TV. However, I admit, I'm glad I did watch.(video  here)

I particularly liked the inclusion of the NHS/Children's books, as they are both things which I think the UK can be justifiably proud of, and to remind everyone that this is not just about the sport. I also loved the fact that the flame was lit by young and unknown athletes, and the beautiful dandelion clock effect of the lighting.

And I think it is wonderful that rather than banning participants from taking photos during rehearsals, or asking them to sign non-disclosure agreements, Danny Boyle simply asked everyone to keep things secret - and they did!

I admit I've been less interested in the actual sporting events, although I've seen little bits of the gymnastics, and of the dressage and showjumping, and I gather that the UK has been doing pretty well, which is nice for those who like that sort of thing.

It turns out that Royal Mail is issuing stamps to celebrate each gold medal (which is unusual - normally you have to be either dead or royal to be on a stamp), and they are also painting a pillar box gold in each gold medal winner's home town. Which is a nice idea. And I learned today that one of the gold medal winners, Ed McKeever, lives in Bradford on Avon, about 10 minutes drive from here. I may have to go to see his gold box when they paint it :-)  I'm also a little curious as to how long they will stay gold. I don't know how often post boxes are usually repainted.