747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Jun 1, 2019 10:02:58 GMT
Thought this was excellent...Sharon D Clarke was the standout for me and I was in tears at the end of the first half....and what lovely singing. All the rest also excellent and good clear production. It really is a cracker of a play isn’t it.
|
|
747 posts
|
Brexit
May 27, 2019 18:33:16 GMT
Post by Latecomer on May 27, 2019 18:33:16 GMT
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 26, 2019 11:18:41 GMT
I enjoyed this as it created such a good portrait of a family under the clear rule of the father and excellent acting all round meant that it was very believable. As such it still seemed very relevant to me....and well worth my time. It is often difficult when you come from a family where someone is domineering to explain exactly why they are so awful (and how they get you to “go along” with their will) to outsiders. This quite subtle portrait of a family living in fear was excellent.
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 25, 2019 20:45:17 GMT
So, I had seat A19 in stalls. The stage comes forward at the start....the bit that juts out most stops just before my seat, with a small stool placed at the very edge of the stage. Damn, I think, this is going to be bad. A character sits on the stool near the start....I have to crane neck to see her and cannot see anything past her...I am now rather panicking that this is going to be awful....she moves, I try not to be anxious that she will return. Good news is the stool is only sat on once more (briefly) and it is not solid, so some of the play can be seen through the stool when needed, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought....
BUT HONESTLY DID THEY KNOW I HAD BOOKED THAT SEAT? WAS IT AN EVIL JOKE?
Apart from that all good, liked the play, actors great, husband enjoyed it.
I see Peggs also has this prime seat booked.....
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 18, 2019 7:23:53 GMT
I had a terrible job interview yesterday, where I couldn't even complete a simple practical task that I should be able to do. Really losing any positivity I'll find a job I'm good at, or any decent job at all. It’s hard isn’t it. Remember you only need to succeed once and just keep ploughing on. Also when you mess up tell yourself that it is probably as the place is not quite right for you (your sub conscience has picked up that the office is not supportive/ too cheery, whatever...) and don't be too down on yourself. Eventually you will get an interview where you hit it off with the interviewer and it seems just right. It will happen! X |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 17, 2019 7:57:37 GMT
To celebrate my 40th birthday today I’ll be doing the Up the O2 roof walk this morning. If I survive I’m then off to the Duke of York theatre tonight to watch Rosenholm. Happy birthday! Have a splendid time!  |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 14, 2019 21:38:32 GMT
I think maybe I shouldn’t have watched just before going to bed.....
Loved it. Slightly traumatised....
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 11, 2019 17:59:33 GMT
Standing ovation today from me at Oxford....excellent production with very good set and lighting and great impact. Go and see it if you can!
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 6, 2019 11:36:07 GMT
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on May 6, 2019 11:34:25 GMT
I don’t get any of that sort of political stuff on my Facebook feed. Probably because I’m extremely careful about what I post on there in the first place. My profile is completely locked down, nothing overly personal or political, and I don’t indulge in the sad popularity contest of befriending anyone I haven’t met in real life (and not all of those I have met make it either!). And none of this “friends of friends can see your posts” rubbish either. Why would I want people I don’t know seeing my whereabouts or opinions on anything? If you started hanging about in real life with people with dodgy politics you’d rightly expect to be exposed to their views and propaganda. It’s just the same with the internet. If you put it out there you’ll get something back. Every action has a reaction etc. If people learned this and stopped exposing themselves to strangers, whether individuals or organisations, things would change. Sadly the genie is probably too far out of the bottle now Hope you realise that in the last election you wouldn’t have seen much...unless you lived in a marginal constituency. Most people’s vote don’t count as many seats are safe Tory or safe Labour, so all the “spend” went through marginal places....to work out what adverts were being shown people set up fake Facebook profiles in marginal constituencies so they could “capture” adverts.....I think the fact that we are not all seeing this stuff makes you think it is the “fault” of people if they see stuff! These are paid adverts, so hard to avoid them....are you claiming you never see any adverts on your Facebook feed? Of course it does suit the powers that be to have everyone complacent....you don’t believe it because it’s not true for you! There are also studies done on voting in America years ago showing that nudges on Facebook increase the voting turnout. There is quantifiable proof using mass Facebook data but of course I have yet to meet 1 person who feels any of this applies to them! |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Apr 28, 2019 19:30:25 GMT
I remarked that peggs and theatremonkey are at too many performances together for sheer coincidence ....peggs suggested she may BE theatremonkey and is just pretending she isn’t.....I chuckled.... but maybe it is a double or triple bluff? I may have been watching too many spy thrillers! I quite liked this, without being wowed. I think if you update things you have to go modern on everything and the dialogue in this felt stilted and unnatural...plus there were moments where things like Chair-ography or scene changes were more interesting than the rest and that surely should not be the case. Wasn’t bored and quite liked all the women though. Followed up matinee by going to Shakespeare in The Abbey and had fun tracking Mark Ryalnce down and dancing to Happy by Pharrell Williams with peggs at the end....surreal. |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Apr 28, 2019 14:27:00 GMT
I once asked the usher, about 5mins before the start, politely, if I could move into empty seat and she agreed, if no-one arrived she would give me the nod when closing the door...and she did. I also think it’s sort of allowed from the pillar seats at the Almeida if the middle seats ar empty but you do then have a moral duty to slump in your seat and not be tall!!! People behind get remarkably grumpy as they have usually started to feel smug about having a better than expected view due to empty seat...and then get annoyed when someone gets a better seat that they haven’t paid for...human nature I guess! |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Apr 18, 2019 20:06:47 GMT
I think maybe the point of these protests and the school protests is that we haven’t got time to mess about anymore and our Government does not seem serious about tackling climate change.....where are the renewable energy investments? And we live in a country with wind and surrounded by waves, with mountains and rivers and the technology to make new generation batteries.....it’s not rocket science is it? We should be 100% renewable energy.Get on with it....create a department, get the best scientists on it, give out money for the best projects in each region, have a prize competition for the best ideas from universities, buy back all those diesel cars you made people buy as they were better for the environment, get green issues put at the heart of ALL planning applications, pay farmers for hosting solar panels, come on come on, be drastic!!!!
This is an EMERGENCY and pretty soon your exam results wont matter as you wont be able to thrive in this country....because of global issues linked to global warming. We should be at the forefront of creating something amazing.....this could be our new NHS! When that was invented it was radical, seemed impossible.....we need radical change and we need politicians with genuinely radical solutions.
People are getting increasingly frustrated that Government shows no sign of realising what is important.
Plus we are all talking about it, so they must be doing something right (and don't tell me ANYONE would have been on here talking about it if they had organised a nice well behaved march)
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Apr 17, 2019 16:48:47 GMT
I don’t see what’s wrong with ANYBODY protesting that not enough is being done to halt climate change.....that is obviously true to all of us? So what if they are old, young, white, black, rich, poor....we need to take action NOW and our government are not interested. If people are inconvenienced then that’s the whole point of it....I’ve been going to London for long enough to know that really large peaceful protests are ignored by the press (there is one every weekend but never see them on the news when I get home), so they needed to do something different to get press coverage.
And when did it become Sky news policy to patronise the young? That’s twice in as many days!
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Apr 14, 2019 14:05:38 GMT
This was splendid. One of those theatre experiences where the acting is so good and the play so absorbing that you sort of emerge blinking into the night trying to adjust to “real life” afterwards, as it has transported you to somewhere else completely for the duration. Lovely also to hear young people next to me discussing the issues next to me in such a passionate reasonable way...sometimes the youngsters give me such hope for the future!
Front row seats are a bargain....great legroom, low stage and stage well organised so you can see everything.
I liked the ending.
|
|
747 posts
|
Brexit
Apr 6, 2019 13:56:00 GMT
sf likes this
Post by Latecomer on Apr 6, 2019 13:56:00 GMT
I am always amused (despairing?) about the idea of “no deal”.....we would then have to negotiate a “deal” very quickly and with no bargaining chips as we are an island than needs lots of things shipping in....while the other side are a huge bunch of countries that can continue to get things from each other no problem....and if a country is going to suffer a lot from no trade with us (or more accurately chaotic trade with us) then the EU will no doubt club together to help the affected country.....that’s how the EU works if you have an unexpected disaster...
So “no deal” actually means “desperate deal” with no bargaining chips and they can make things as hard as they like for us. Plus we will have left so we will have voluntarily given up our chance to ditch all this rubbish and keep our deal with opt outs that we already have!!!!
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Mar 23, 2019 19:09:41 GMT
I am thoroughly enjoying this and wanted to yell “yes!” at post menopausal rant (I have recently been AMAZED that there has not been more publicity to the fact that the new NICE recommendations say you can take the pill continuously and no need for break through bleeding periods and the only reason we have had these all these years was as the MAN who designed the pill was trying to keep the Pope happy and make him accept it......I had to put up with periods for years when I didn’t need to? Really? For the POPE?)
It is incredibly bleak at times but I love how only families understand other family members and how mad they always are!
Quite glad we can only watch 1 episode at a time as it strings it out a bit.....dont want it to end
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Mar 23, 2019 16:23:50 GMT
I thought this was ok but I found it a bit dated if I am being truthful. And is it me or is it a bit like watching an old drama on TV...everything moves so much slower years ago and is signalled really clearly....plus one of the characters just reminded me of the annoying guy who worships Kiera Knighlty in Love Actually.....but that’s probably just me! I was glad I had a standing ticket and hadn’t paid too much and thanks for the tip re arrival....got the centre place one that I had bought on line (and wouldn’t have realised they were unallocated spaces unless you said!) On the plus side I liked the staging and the fact that for so much of the time the person not taking part in the action empathised with us standing punters by having to do the same themselves. Fan from Australia standing next to me (she had been at a business trip to Reading and had tacked on an extra day at the end so she could see Hiddles) perfectly behaved and wonderfully excited by it all! |
|
747 posts
|
Brexit
Mar 23, 2019 9:06:58 GMT
Post by Latecomer on Mar 23, 2019 9:06:58 GMT
I think the petition took off so quickly as May’s “I know what you want” speech just angered so many people and it was an outlet to be able to say “you dont speak for me”. Constantly amazes me her lack of leadership.....we need something to bring people together. She has lots of valid arguments she could use to double check that we really all do want to leave (the vote is criminal due to actual fraud in the spending of the Leave campaign, plus some of those dark Facebook messages were clearly lies)....but she doesn’t. And it is also a lie that everyone who voted leave wanted to leave the customs union and single market but we will never know how many wanted Norway+ as NO_ONE EVER ASKED! This is what happens when a stupid question is put to people in a binary choice and then a pig headed politician refuses to ask parliament for input as she is too scared of a small faction within her party. I have no clue what will happen but I do think the on line petition is a pretty clear indicator that a large section of the society is enraged by how this is being dealt with and that should not be taken of “proof we all want to remain” but as an indicator that something here is going badly wrong.....
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Mar 21, 2019 19:13:41 GMT
Gosh, peggs , you just took me back to the time I day seated the Donmar Othello - which was the production that got me well and truly hooked - and an old hand in the queue told me everything I needed to know about getting hold of cheap tickets. And it worked! This was the first theatre production that I ever saw (booked tickets in a startling piece of good luck when daughter changed A levels rather late in the term and she had to do Othello, so just googled it and came up with the Donmar production....2 seats left in the Christmas holidays that I could make, no idea of the cast!) ....also got me hooked on theatre completely! |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Mar 3, 2019 14:15:56 GMT
I went for standing ticket at the back of Royal Cirlce for £15 in the end.....as all other hideously expensive. Seemed to be on sale for next two weeks only so far
I loved those £5 pillar seats...
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Feb 20, 2019 8:22:15 GMT
Lib Dems were hurt primarily because of a lack of understanding, from too many people, of coalition politics. The cancer in our parliamentary system is the idea that you get to vote for a party that gets all its own way if it finishes ahead of the others. This ‘winner takes all’ idea is a complete anathema in most European countries and a major part of the reason for our divided politics, culminating in the current disastrous parliament. What we need is more compromise and a culture which prizes negotiation and consensus. If we had this entrenched then we just might have avoided our current descent into chaos. It isn’t just politicians to blame either, they are just doing the bidding of every single voter who has seen politics as the act of waiting for ‘their turn’ in government. The sooner that our party system becomes much more fragmentary the better. I think it was also the case that a typical Lib Dem voter at the time was HORRIFIED that they chose the Conservatives over a (more difficult and possibly fragile) Labour+others coalition. Our divided politics mean that sometimes we are voting to STOP a party getting into power......so if the party we vote for then goes into coalition with them we are very disillusioned. I would argue that Lib Dem + Labour +others were a better fit at the time than Lib Dem + Conservatives. |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Feb 19, 2019 23:34:49 GMT
Option poll now done that says 10% of the country would vote for this new movement. As they have no policies and no leader and their one unique selling point seems to be they hate everyone else in politics this confirms my view that we might as well give up now......
|
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Feb 19, 2019 19:17:29 GMT
Always associate Little Chef with visiting relatives and holidays as a kid, always a sort of treat. Once I started driving myself the Oswestry Little Chef was a regular stop as I visited my Father in Ludlow, drawn by the Olympic Breakfast, why does nobody else include sauté potatoes with their breakfasts. We used to call in there with the children...it was always half way to North Wales for us and we loved it! We all got ridiculously excited when we went on a canal boat holiday near there years later and went past it on the canal....out of all proportion to the actual event!!! |
|
747 posts
|
Post by Latecomer on Feb 1, 2019 21:36:55 GMT
Have discovered “The Good Place” on E4. Very funny and unexpected twists and turns along the way. I like that it moves on nice and quickly and it’s very witty!
|
|
