Bank holiday fun: duty, dancing and a swan named Asbo

The boy elected to work Good Friday and Bank Holiday Monday this year, leaving me to twiddle my thumbs somewhat on those days. This led to the production of a 'traditional' Easter cheesecake on Good Friday. (Really it's a birthday cake but we won't be chez nous for the boy's birthday.)

Saturday involved a limited amount of rowing. Limited because the boat house door has been broken for some time now meaning certain boats can't be got out safely (grrrr). This did give me another opportunity to watch 'Mr Asbo' in action. The so-called 'Mr Asbo' is a male swan who has been terrorising rowers on the Cam for some weeks now. He's quite a spectacle, when viewed from a safe distance. It's cruel, but the stroke of my four has been known to do the theme tune to "Jaws" when moving through his self-proclaimed zone of the river just to freak the cox out that little bit more. The real exercise of the weekend was a walk. Doesn't sound hard, but when you cycle everywhere, walking suddenly becomes a bit of an issue. More so when you've booked to go to the Lake District for a week and your wife expects to be taken hiking. So the boy went for a bit of a drag on Saturday afternoon, and is booked for another one in a fortnight's time. (Hopefully we will both have recovered by then).

Easter celebrations at church were, in my view, cool; at least for the 'Presentation of the Gifts' section when Indian members of the congregation performed a West Syriac rite, involving lights and dancing. I thought it was just a touch Bollywood, but of course I got in trouble for saying so. The slight, ever so slight, Bollywood theme continued in the afternoon when I took the boy to see Slumdog Millionaire. My boss had told me it was sad because of the poverty and that was the overall message I took from the film, whatever the critics have said. The boy, who had been planned to endure the film, admitted to having enjoyed it.

Easter Monday saw my first sculling outing of 2009. I managed not to send my partner for a swim and, of course, stayed well clear of Mr. Asbo, so all was well on that front. The sculling season may commence.

Weekends away

Weekends away should involve as many historic sites as possible, even when the real reason for the jaunt is to catch up with friends and, sadly, attend some meetings. We did manage a few minutes (scarcely more) in my favourite building in the world, aka Durham cathedral. It spoils you for all other cathedrals, trust me. Tynemouth priory was also on our list, but in the end we looked at it from across the street, under some awning, watching the flag-pole wave worringly in time with the lamp-posts on what was a particularly gusty Saturday. A new-to-us site also made it briefly into our weekend: Fountains Abbey. We liked this. The boy has a date to take me for a weekend to Ripon at some point in the rest of our lives so we can "do" this properly, and Ripon cathedral too. In addition, in keeping with the season of Lent, we attended a showing of Into Great Silence, discussed here.

Days out, grand and otherwise

Last Friday the boy and I skipped off work for the day and had a "Grand Day Out". This comprised:

1. getting up a bit later than usual
2. going to the Tower of London
3. eating copious amounts of apple crumble and custard at St. Martin's
4. watching Avenue Q

Sounds grand, but I felt a bit otherwise about the Tower. I'd been there once before (scarily over twenty years before) on a truly grand day trip from Birmingham to London with my sister. That day had been glorious sunshine, and we had caught the boat up the Thames and arrived at the Tower by that means, if not literally through 'Traitor's Gate'. It was probably about the time that the film Lady Jane came out, so the historical romance of the place would have been pumping through the youthful veins. The highlight then, indeed, was locating the graffiti 'Jane' in one of the Towers. I remember this, the sunshine, and the fact that we decided we weren't going to pay to go and see the Crown Jewels. Last week wasn't so exciting. I blame various things. For one, it has been very much done over for tourists in the intervening 23 years, and I don't make a good tourist at historical sites. For two, there wasn't much medieval going on, and these days that's more 'my bag' - a downside of specialization. On the plus side, the boy enjoyed it, and it was his day out.

simply the beth talks musicals (1)

First up for the simply the beth treatment: Mamma Mia!

I'd heard that Merly Streep was very good in this film, and Pierce Brosnan less so. So I wasn't horrified to find that the men weren't as strong as the women in the film, having been over-prepared on that front. If you enjoy Abba, nice landscapes, good acting, a touch of Bollywood here and there, then you'll love this. If you don't know how the story pans out, you'll enjoy it more. I didn't know what happens (despite various attempts over the years to get friends to go to see Mamma Mia! in the theatre with me), so I particularly enjoyed the twist on 'I could dance with you baby' and other touches. 'The winner takes it all' scene could have benefitted from being less stationary. For me the best part was undoubtedly 'Slipping through my fingers'. It brought tears to the eyes of a childless woman mourning the time she hasn't spent with her child yet. Generally, a big thumbs up. Buy the DVD when it comes out and watch it with your daughter or mother.

Secondly: The Sound of Music; a musical we have all seen, I'm sure, and can't even remember the first time we saw the film.

What's its secret? Listeners to Elaine Paige on Sundays on Radio 2 will know how often her guests cite 'The Book' as the most crucial element in their essential musicals. And there's no doubting that the book behind this show is fantastic, all the more so because it's true. If you haven't read the story of the Van Trapp family after they made it over the mountains, get a copy of it now.

The success of the film cannot be doubted, even by those who are unaware of the phenomenon that is Sing-along-a-Sound-of-Music. It was quite an eye-opener for me when I went to this event some ten years ago in Newcastle upon Tyne. All those men dressed as nuns. I went as a brown paper package tied up with string, a dress my then boyfriend made for me. Sadly a more conservative Maria won the best costume competition.

The Sound of Music has got a new audience through the BBC1 programme 'How do you solve a problem like Maria?' And it was this take on the reality TV show that caused a friend of mine to be quite so desperate to see the show at the theatre. So this August we finally went to see the show at the London Palladium.

What did I think? Let me review the show itself before I discuss the whole experience package. Captain Von Trapp aside, who, for me and my companion lacked any stage presence whatsoever, the show was good. The Mother Superior had a truly superior set of pipes. The scene between Liesl and Rolf was neatly choreographed and original. And the stage management was on another level - you have to check out the rotating hill.

But, overall, I didn't enjoy it. Why? The audience. I paid £35 for the pleasure of being up towards the gods and, guess what? I got to sit behind a women who decided a modern take on the beehive was a good idea for a theatre hairdo. When you're struggling to make 5' 2'' this is not good news. The end result was that I spent the whole show fully aware of the audience.

My general advice? Stick to the film. It can't be beaten.