Gosh, there's been a lot going on since I last updated. I popped over to Manchester to catch up with Richard de Valmont, an old friend from my Cambridge days whom I'd not seen for a couple of years. It's always nice to find that people have grown into lives which aren't entirely what you'd have expected of them, but seem to suit them very well.
The weekend before last![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
leonato came down to London to celebrate his birthday. On the Friday afternoon we spent a while in the British Museum and National Gallery, then met up with mostlyacat, robert_jones and obandsoller for a very fine dinner at Bali Bali before going to see Company at the Gielgud. Other than having given the soundtrack a quick listen beforehand, I wasn't at all familiar with the show, but it's an awful lot of fun. It's more a series of vignettes than a coherent plot, and has a nicely ambiguous feel, uplifting in parts, bittersweet in others, which I like. The music was fantastic, the singers were all really strong, and the setting was clever and worked really well. The best thing though, was watching leonato's reaction - I don't think I've ever seen him enjoy something so much.
On the Saturday afternoonsmhwpf and cm came over for a readthrough of Checkov's Uncle Vanya. I was again, completely unfamiliar with the material, but it was good fun with some fabulous interpretations. Almost everyone in the play is basically horrible and makes one another miserable, but in a way that's quite entertaining to watch. We were then joined by themidnightgirl for another excellent dinner, this time at Yaalu Yalu, which has just opened a branch on Green Lanes. The waiting staff were still learning the ropes, and we were a table of seven that had turned up unexpectedly, so perhaps unsurprisingly the service was a little chaotic, but it all came together eventually and the food was very good.
On Sunday morning Mark set off home, and I headed to church a little early where we had the Archdeacon's Visitation (basically an audit of our processes and finances). That was a bit nerve-wracking, but seemed to go okay, albeit with a few notes of things we could do with tightening up.
The weekend before last
leonato came down to London to celebrate his birthday. On the Friday afternoon we spent a while in the British Museum and National Gallery, then met up with mostlyacat, robert_jones and obandsoller for a very fine dinner at Bali Bali before going to see Company at the Gielgud. Other than having given the soundtrack a quick listen beforehand, I wasn't at all familiar with the show, but it's an awful lot of fun. It's more a series of vignettes than a coherent plot, and has a nicely ambiguous feel, uplifting in parts, bittersweet in others, which I like. The music was fantastic, the singers were all really strong, and the setting was clever and worked really well. The best thing though, was watching leonato's reaction - I don't think I've ever seen him enjoy something so much. On the Saturday afternoon
smhwpf and cm came over for a readthrough of Checkov's Uncle Vanya. I was again, completely unfamiliar with the material, but it was good fun with some fabulous interpretations. Almost everyone in the play is basically horrible and makes one another miserable, but in a way that's quite entertaining to watch. We were then joined by themidnightgirl for another excellent dinner, this time at Yaalu Yalu, which has just opened a branch on Green Lanes. The waiting staff were still learning the ropes, and we were a table of seven that had turned up unexpectedly, so perhaps unsurprisingly the service was a little chaotic, but it all came together eventually and the food was very good.On Sunday morning Mark set off home, and I headed to church a little early where we had the Archdeacon's Visitation (basically an audit of our processes and finances). That was a bit nerve-wracking, but seemed to go okay, albeit with a few notes of things we could do with tightening up.
