Othello

Yes indeed, it is the play that I am am going to see tonight by the very brilliant Creation Theatre Group (http://www.creationtheatre.co.uk/), I'm very excited but I have to remind myself that unlike Love's Labours Lost Othello is pretty much 'the horror, the horror' all the way through (oh dear). The rest of the weekend at this point is looking pretty busy too, with a book shopping trip planned on Saturday (I swear the bookshop owners of Oxford know when I'm coming cause they always seem to have what I want!). This weekends main mission is to buy a smallish dictionary (for a new kind of puzzle I'm working on for the work magazine) and to get hold of this book (The Vampyre: Being the true pilgrimage of George Gordon, sixth Lord Byron by Tom Holland) which I found thanks to that wonderful institution Wikipedia (I was checking out some outrageous claims made about Byron by one of my authors, and they are alas, outrageous claims). Anyway the book brings Byron back from the dead as a vampire and apparently poet closest to my heart Percy Shelley also makes an appearance. I've nearly finished A Suitable Boy (as usual with Vikram Seth the novel gradually builds up and I'm really enjoying it now, much more than at the beginning when I was having trouble keeping up with which character was which). The book is quite a tone however so a light bit of Byronian vampire relief might be quite nice (there is a sequel as well called Supping with Panthers).

Sunday Nicola is coming round to to help with the hall. My new flatmate Dave moves in a week and it would be quite nice to have the hallway at least nearly finished by the time he arrives (I've also got to buy him a chest of drawers this weekend, scary grown up stuff buying your own furniture!). I've been doing a lot of house and garden tidying of late (which is quite handy as my parents and Kip are coming down next weekend) but there is a lot more house to clean now there is only 1 person tidying it, alas! Still I won't be alone for that much longer. Right better get back to work, the new mini football league starts this lunchtime and if its anything like usual I'll be back late from that, so time to crack on!
(all Images (C) creation Theatre)

What a weekend!

I wish I could have four day weekends all the time I would really get a lot more done. As it was however this weekend proved to be the perfect cure for my 'I'm tired, why am I tired? I feel a bit weird' -ness that has seized me of late. Friday I slept in (yey) followed by long bath in the morning. In the afternoon Nicola came round to watch the film that we've both wanted to watch, but didn't go an see at the cinema for fear we'd be the oldest there (Angus, Thongs and perfect snogging). I think I can justifiably speak for us both when I say that it was as good, if not slightly better than we had imagined (I'm a big fan of the books and it was slightly annoying that some of the characters got condensed, but hey they got the cat right :-). Before sitting down to the film baking time was declared and we made easter biscuits (which we burnt, sorry Delia), easter hot cross muffins and some choc chip scones which we then munched on the sofa.

Saturday the turkey of doom (Trish had found it in her freezer and had decided to make it into Easter Turkey after emercing it a la Nigella in a mixture of what I think was golden syrup diluted with cinnamon sticks and other random stuff chucked in as well) came round and we spent quite a few hours watching protectively over it (my oven is quite warm and as the Easter biscuits discovered to their cost you have to be quite careful :-) . The turkey survived however and came out looking perfect. Result. After that I headed off to meet Fi & Nick at the ladies night ceiligh (Mawkin were playing and have just appeared minus their clothes on the front of fRoots, so the OXFOLK committee decided to play this for all it was worth. We had cut outs from the magazine spread plastered over the walls and chocolate dipped fruit on the tables. Alas I was yet again without a partner so spent most of the evening trying to stay out of the eyeline of various scary old men (although Fi, bless her is still a bit poorly so went home with young Alex, from that point onwards I commendeered Nick and we had a great time, he's so tall no one else dared ask me to dance :-).

Sunday was mostly about the 2 lindt chocolate bunnies that I received (one from my mum and one from Mel, the one from Mel came with 4 carrotty lollypops, result!) plus I got an extra egg as well this year so felt truely spoilt. Dinner at trish's was a chaotic affair with all three of her sisters and related offspring turning up. It was really nice to be included though as I was originally supposed to be spending Easter with my parents but in the end that fell through. Yesterday Mat came round with the intention of finishing off the decorating in the hall (yes I've been avoiding it that much). But it was such a beautiful day that we stayed outdoors and did the garden instead. He tackled the lawns (we borrowed Trishs petrol mower) and I did the weeding, well a bit of the weeding there is loads more to go! We have also borrowed the bin of fire to burn all the twigs and stuff that have been cluttering up the garden since last year. What can I say, it looks like a proper posh garden! I've also put the first lot of veg in. This week I don't think is going to be that productive as this Sat is the wedding of Mel (it has come round so quickly) and the house is on tenterhooks because of that. Tonight however sees me going to the cinema with the boy to see Vampire flick let the right one in. The boy suggested it & you could have knocked me down with a feather (he reviews films in his spare time and his views on my favourite genre were fairly dismissive and as a result will not be repeated here!) . I hope its good, apprently its been getting pretty good reviews...

Easter is upon us

Today is my last day at work before 4 whole days of unadulterated Easter weekend, you have no idea how happy this makes me (well you might have some idea, very, very happy indeed). I have big plans for this weekend including a complete overhall of the garden and a bit of a spring clean of the house. Having said that I think the main priority may in fact be having a little rest (I started to go down with the horrible coldy flu thing earlier on in the week but seem to have managed to shake it off). Witchcat wasn’t very well last week either, having got in a cat fight last Friday (she has a great big scar on the top of her head and looks like some feral kitty) but I’ve been bathing it (much to her disgust, like most cats she hates water) and it seems a little better. We also have a most distinguished house guest residing with us for a week, my violin tutor’s budgie Guy (likes - classic FM and singing to himself, dislikes - strong sunlight and finding his food bowl empty). I’ve never had a bird before so am very excited by Guy’s presence in the house (Mabel isn’t that keen, having the unusual cat reaction of being scared of him, but I’m sure she’ll come round).
Tomorrow Nicola is coming round and we are watching girlie films and baking (I got some really fantastic muffin tins in heart shapes from John Lewis and some alphabet cutters from the cool delicatessen we have in Abingdon). Also it will be my second proper attempt at Simnel cake (I have a feeling I tried it in London but it ended up quite dry with a mountain of marzipan it didn’t need). Saturday might well be a trip to our favourite garden centre and antique shop and Easter Sunday I’m going for a roast round at Trish’s. Monday is time for another assault on the hall and mowing the lawn/weeding for England (mental note to self must sort Rhubarb out this evening, there is some ready to pull already (I don’t think we are in the rhubarb triangle in Oxford?)) and the rest is trying to go to seed.

Finally I feel I can’t end this post without making some reference to something which was included in one of my mum’s parcels of cuttings (we cut out and send each other anything which we think might be interesting). It concerns the resurrection of a treasure hunt first started by a children’s book called Masquerade Wiki page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book). The story of the book relates to the moon (a man) who falls in love with the sun (a woman) and asks a hare to deliver a precious jewel to her. The author hid a 22 carat gold hare which could be found with clues from the book. Although the person who found the hare cheated (which I don’t think was the original intention of the author) the riddle was finally de-coded by two teachers (much better). This year however the treasure hunt theme has been resurrected by gardens in the Cotswolds and instead of a golden hare this year’s prize is a silver charm bracelet (much more useful). Full details can be found here http://www.tewkesburyadmag.co.uk/news/cotswolds/4255790.Treasure_hunt_for___700_silver_charm/ I don’t think I’ll be able to hunt for the charm bracelet myself (I actually already have a charm bracelet made up with a charm a year from my birthdays) but it’s a lovely story. Happy Easter everyone.