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Christmas Mysteries: A Sherlock Carol @MaryleboneTHLDN

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A mash-up of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes would seem an unlikely pairing. Yet it provides a surprisingly fun Christmas-themed adventure. These two Victorian tales (albeit separated by about 40 years) provide the basis for an inspired adventure at Christmastime that just also happens to turn out to be a murder mystery as well. With lavish costumes, a few spooky set pieces and some good old-fashioned stage trickery with lights and a lot of smoke machines, it is hard to resist. It returns to the Marylebone Theatre for Christmas after a run there last year.  The premise is that after Holmes sees off the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, he is left adrift in London. People thought he was dead, and he might as well be. Disinterested in the misdeeds of other Londoners, Holmes has even given up on his friend Dr Watson. It's almost as if he has become a Scrooge. Or half a Scrooge, moping about shouting, "bah" in respon
Welcome to the Jungle...

It took a while to get going to move on Sunday afternoon. There was a lot of emailing and blogging to do for starters, and then when I got back to West Hampstead "The Way We Were" with Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand was on Channel Five. Since neither Skye nor I had seen it from beginning to end, that was an excuse to delay things as well. And then after the ending we both had to compose ourselves before heading out. Well actually, it wasn't that emotional for me as just as those chords started playing for the intro to the title song, the voice over for the upcoming programs started which sort of killed it for me. But I digress...

It took under an hour for us to get to Manor House station, but there was a good 10 minute walk to go. A good 10 minute walk is more like a good 15 minute walk with luggage. Fortunately Skye was there to assist. As we walked up the street past Finsbury Park and smack bang into Haringey, Skye started to get a little jumpy. I hadn't noticed the groups of Turkish men hanging outside all the shops. There didn't seem to be very many women about at all. Strangely enough I didn't notice this fact a couple of weeks back. Fortunately Skye was there to point this out. At some point the topic came onto the prospects of getting mugged but I didn't think that was likely just because we were dragging matched Parklite luggage down Green Lanes. There also seemed to be much more trash on the street than the last time I was there. Still, by the time I got to my new home, Skye and I were relieved and impressed at how big and spacious and light and airy and nice it was. It actually is double the size of my room back in Brisbane so that was an added bonus. We decided to go out to eat that night and enjoy some of the fantastic (and cheap) eats in the neighbourhood.

But I will miss West Hampstead... It was my first stop in London and I was just getting the hang of the neighbourhood. It is probably a 40 minute walk away. It is an hour on the tube and God only knows how long on the overland trains so it isn't that far by London time standards.

Cheep Cheep
Yesterday was spent buying cheap sheets from Argos (sort of like a counter-only version of IKEA) and catching up with Lish hearing her stories from her week in Scotland. Sounds like a fine place to go.

Honk if you're...
The English are very polite when they see a girl they think is a bitofallright. Rather than doing something Australian like yelling out the window of the car, "Show us yer tits!" they just give a quick peep of their car horn. Regardless of class, race, creed or culture they all seem to do it. Yesterday I was a bit perturbed stepping out of Sainsbury's and hearing it and there was not a girl in sight however... Hmmm....

Putting the V back in Variety...
It is so refreshing having a choice of newspapers to read here. Mind you, some of them are a bit suspect. But it is so refreshing to read news that isn't full of crap about superannuation, the dire future, floods, property prices and one's place in the world. Mind you, I do miss reading stories about David Oldfield showering with his budgie. I guess one can't have everything.

Housekeeping...
I have changed the format of this page so I could also include some links on the top right hand side. Mainly so you can view or sign my guestbook. I have no idea who reads this!

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