The show must go on!

I am green with envy! Bijou Raconteur has married her (new) job with her writing.... but then I don't work at my writing really- not even a night class... and someone told me my blog was a bit bland- really? I try not to be too controversial and try not to point the finger at too many people personally incase I get a nasty rebound but the comment has made me think.

A week of POSH rehearsals then performances followed by the after-show party has drained us all; returning the hall to a thousand times cleaner than the one our inclusive drama group inherited , was rewarded by an evening 'Putting on the Ritz'; Anton (du Beke) and Erin (Boag) from 'Strictly Come Dancing' strutted at the Sage; so eyecatching and glitzy with shakers, movers, crooners, big band, costumes and ballroom.


(Talking of crooners - click on him to see my robin singing his heart out? Oh the joy of a garden in spring!)

I have been so looked after recently. H1 and I met up with friends at Corbridge but first J. fed us a B&B best English brunch to fortify us before the walk- of course we popped in for crumpets at Cafe 6 in the market place later- as always, purely in the interests of supporting rural economy! Duty calls....



S. entertained us in a large and lovely group of friends for a magnificent lunch; I really must think about doing more entertaining. I seem to make the same meals all the time now.... and when I think of all the entertaining I used to do....



I was able to wear my best frock (well a long gown which hid the figure) at St. James' Park on Thursday night for the Rag Ball... Northumbria Rag has passed all previous years with £27,000 raised for charity this year.



I have experimented with a dry, sunless, shaded patch of soil and planted a climber (dead?), a clematis (looking poorly when I last saw it!) snowdrops and a skimmia; my skimmia and snowdrops have flowered! Nothing else has ever survived the arid conditions but of late I have thrown bowls of washing up water over the patch .....



We don't venture 'south of the water' often but friends arranged a meet in Weardale; today made me wonder why we don't head for 'the Land of Prince Bishops' more often! The glorious February sunshine absorbed just a little of the clarts; my boots have been scrubbed in order to excavate them from 2 inches of mudcake ; we plodged much of the time but breathing deep revives me a little after so many sleepless nights.


(Doubleclick on the photo and see if you can find the heron!)

Theatre Royal

Grr! I am stotting mad with H1; he has spent the last 5 days:-

a) holding a steamer on the wall while telling D1 & I where to scrape.

b)driving round for hours buying paint then on the next trip out to buy Polyfilla- both of which he decided we didn't need when we were originally shopping for decorating materials & D1 & I were suggesting we needed more or bigger pots of paint or tubes of stuff.

c) Polyfilling anything & everything while D1 and I cut in and rollered a double room.

Today as he directed me where I should paint & roller he declared after just 10 minutes that he had once again run out of Pollyfilla- I did know where I would like to have put the empty tube. He disappeared again for ages while I painted then when he had threatened to actually wield a brush to get the job finished (had he ever really started I wondered?) I turned round to find he had Polyfilled 3 large areas of wall with a new type of Polyfilla he had found! Thus I was unable to paint on the newly 'greyed' walls- and I couldn't get the job finished & return the room/house into some semblance of order before work starts again after half term.

I went with D1 & D3 to the Theatre Royal on Wednesday to see 'Pride and Prejudice'; the odour around us was objectionable- but the performance was brilliant. Susan Hampshire (Mrs Bennett) & her daughters were great-the directing was superb; the play stayed within 'Austen' requirements but there were little touches such as location change to the garden was indicated by actors with topiary on their heads who leapt back a foot when Lady Catherine de Berg (spelling?) shouted at Elizabeth.

After Thursday's scraping, H1 ,D1 and D3 and my good self went to St James' Park for the Northumbria university Rag Ball- the Magpie Suite was done up in black & white balloons, the food was surprisingly good, the atmosphere very pleasant as was the company- all for three charities including the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation for treatment/research in a new cancer centre - a most fitting venue. I didn't realise that Rag stood for 'Raising And Giving' (or something like that); I didn't have much to do with RAG when I was at uni; in fact I don't think our college had anything to do with Rag in spite of being part of the university.

We did not get to see friends from Norwich and meet their children as J was ill with a virus and actually did a hospital A&E visit.

Friday evening saw D1 & D3 gallivanting to the dogs so we sneaked down to the Fish Quay for fish & chip tea- well he had chips and I didn't- why isn't he fighting his flab the way I am constantly fighting mine? I was too tired to cook - that is my excuse for the stripped cod.

Saturday saw D1 & D3 on the gallivant again to a dinner dance at the Hilton to which Cinderella drove them for drop off and pick up at post midnight. 2 nights of tv viewing and Humax catch-up were quite restful after scraping & rollering- my arms should be like Popeye's.

Today is D2 and D3's birthdays; I think the only reason H1 is still alive is because I didn't want to spoil their birthdays by declaring I had murdered their father by Polyfilling him in behind a wall. We had a lovely night at Avanti - four of us- we miss D2 who is currently acting like Nurse Nancy to her beloved.

Each night brings a light showering of snow and it is cold again -1 degree tonight. I often think it is strange that a qwerty keyboard doesn't have a degree sign- written like a geographer (definitely not a mathematician). Was it Robert Frost that wrote the lovely poem ' Stopping by woods on a snowy evening'? He'd have stopped a lot this winter- we have had snow since December 15th.

'.....and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.'