Stitching and Writing topic opinions please

I've just seen Justine celebrating because she's nearly reached 100 followers (Congrats by the way), I'm celebrating because I've nearly reached 10 and have just discovered that I now appear in googles blog search, how sad am I? Anyway, two updates today, firstly, as you can see from the picture, a stitching update, she hasn't grown much this week, but I have done a little. And doesn't she look a little weird where you can see the outlines of muscles starting to form, there's something strangely creepy about it. Haven't got much done because I lost my main stitching night 'cos I was ushering at the theatre, but I'm hoping to get some done this weekend, and I've got another stitching weekend planned (hopefully this time without accidently removing parts of my finger with a big knife) next weekend and Ben is going hill walking. Personally I don't think it classifies as hill walking when bits of it will probably have to be achieved on hands and knees, but what do I know? It does also mean that I'm going to spend at least part of each day hoping against hope that he makes it back intact, which probably wont be helped by the fact that they're camping so he won't have much signal, or a charger and probably won't be able to call me. Okay, breath, panic over now :-)

Second update, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, I've got frustrated with my writing and have decided to put it aside and start on something else, as I've got so frustrated that I'm just not doing anything, so a fresh start is probably a good idea, but I can't decide which idea I want to work on. So this is where kindly blog followers come in, I would be interested to hear your opinions on the final three ideas and their pros and cons.

So...

1. Something based around George Boleyn, it'll have to follow the history of his sisters but I want to push him and his relationships to the fore, probably diary style, half written by him and half by the person he falls in love with.

Pros:

• I quite fancy the double voice writing style
• It's a period in history that I like
• The plot is pretty much planned out, firstly by history and then in my head, and I'm fairly sure how I want it to end, and I do like my ending (again, I know, history dictates a lot of how it ends)
• I quite fancy working my way through a lot of historial (Tudor era) characters and telling their stories, so this would be a good starting point for that

Cons:

• I'm going to have to do quite a lot of research before I can really get into the meat of writing it, I like the period and have a reasonable knowledge, but details annoy me when other people get them wrong, so I need to show the same courtesy to others.
• I've never really written something prolonged in first person before, so that may be a bit of a challenge to me.
• Never tried my hand at a male protagonist before, so another challenge for me, don't know how well I'll be able to write male first person.

2. Something based around Robin Hood and his sister (I know, no sister, as above, I quite like throwing an unknown character into an existing history/legend and seeing what happens). Picture her as being quite strong mentally, and her brother strugglnig to come to terms with the woman she's become while he's been away

Pros:

• Again, quite well plotted out, partially by the legend and I've got a pretty good idea of where I want to go with it.
• I'd quite like to have a little romance plot running through it, and would like to see how that develops and where it goes.

Cons:

• Concerend that I may actually have too much plot and that my head will explode when I try to make sense of it.
• Has the story and the history been done to death?
• Again, historically speaking I need to do some research, although this won't need to be quite as thorough and timelined as the George Boleyn one.

3. Traditional Boarding School Story, but from the side of the teachers. When I was a kid I loved Malory Towers, St Claire's and the Chalet School and I figure it would be quite fun to write something in that style, but from the teachers point of view as opposed to the kids.

Pros:

• First and foremost, I really like the idea and just think that it would be fun.
• Again, really like the voice and would quite enjoy writing in that style.
• I hope it's a relatively original idea.

Cons:

• Going to have to do some reading to find the voice (although, is that really a hardship?).
• It's going to be slightly removed from reality, as that sort of school just doesn't exist anymore.
• What's the audience?

Anyway, that's the basics, any comments gratefully accepted :-)

Writing and Frustration

Just a quick blog today, writing based rather than stitching based (all those stitchers, feel free to switch off round about now)!

I haven't done much writing recently, in fact I've just thought about it seriously and I've realised that I've not written much in nearly two years, this upsets me! I was thinking about it earlier (there's a chance that I should have been working, but managers were on away days and my mind wandered, anyway, I've mastered the art of typing up documents while my mind does something else) and I think it's because I've got very frustrated with the piece I'm working on, and I think I need to put it away and come back to it at a later date, because while I'm getting frustrated with it I'm not taking it anywhere. Therefore, I've decided to put that on the back burner for a while and come back to it at a later date. Guinevere, Lancelot, Arthur and Elaine shall go and have a little snooze and hopefully I'll come back to it with a fresh look at a later date.

But this means that I now have to find something else to work on, not difficult, I've got the best part of 100 ideas floating around on my computer, the hard part is picking what to work on for a while, wish me luck!

Winter's Majesty and an aborted weekend of stitching

Ben was on a stag weekend this weekend, so I had a weekend of stitching and generally just chilling out, and this is what happened, to begin with. The page of Winter's Majesty that I'm on at the moment is lots of confetti, so it's very slow going, and it got slower when I tried to chop my finger off.

Saturday evening I thought that I'd make a nice sweet potato tortilla, cos I'd found this nice looking recipe, then when cutting the potato, I thought it would be fun to try and remove the end of my finger as well. Two hours later I'm still bleeding, two and a half hours later Ben's mother is patching my finger back together, it only stopped bleeding this morning, so as you can imagine, this did put a bit of a dampener on my stitching time, due to the fact that I had no desire to bleed on anything that I'd already spent 15 - 20 hours on, because that would probably have annoyed me, just a little bit! But, having said all that, I did get quite a lot done on Saturday before the incident with the blood, and there's quite a difference between this and the last update I put up, if you squint you can almost make out little white flowers (a little clearer in real life if I'm honest).  This is an incredibly fiddly page with lots of confetti, far to many half stitches and a couple of funky cottons that look lovely, but are a real pain to stitch with, and I am getting a little frustrated with it now, because it's not growing as fast as I think that it should. Having said that I'm persevering (that word looks wrong) because it will look very nice when it's finished, just as long as I havent already thrown it across the room.

New Title and 'The Owl Killers' by Karen Maitland

Firstly I've changed the title, I decided that my title didn't really mean anything, granted this one's roughly the same, but it's slightly less ponderous and pretentious (I hope) with it.

I finished reading The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland at some unnatural hour last time and thought it was about time that I wrote another book review. Like her previous book Company of Liars this took a while to get into, but once I had I really enjoyed it. Starting in England in 1321 it tells of a village, and the fight between current superstitions and Christianity. A group of religious women have recently moved from Brussels to bring their religion to the British but rather than taking their hope the village priest takes against them and fights them every step of the way.

The story is told by several people, a daughter of the local lord who he banishes from his home, the leader of the religious women, one of the other women, a child from the village and the village priest. Each chapter titled by whoever will be 'speaking' for that chapter.

The story is very enjoyable, but it does occasionally seem to jump without any real explanation, one chapter will end with the expectation of an event and the next chapter will start after it happens so you occasionally feel like you're missing out on information and events.

The voices of all the different characters are clear, and even without the name at the beginning of each chapter, you could probably tell who was talking, and it's very interesting to see everything happen from different points of view, and despite the fact that personally, I have no interest in religion, it was interesting to see the Lord of the manor's daughter find her own theories about religion and peoples faith.

Overall, I'd recommend this is a borrower, having read it I probably wouldn't read it again, but it was enjoyable to read once.

Last weeks stitching

Here's an update of last weeks stitching, the picture that I should have posted last weekend. Three pages plus the first colour of the next page. It's coming along. I'm working pretty hard on it, occasionally anyway, because I'm trying to get it finished in time for Ben's clinic's new brochure going out. Plus one random line down where I didn't want to finish the cotton off when I only had a bit left, hence she's got one line running down where her arm should be.

And now for a weekend of stitching and seeing if I can make a couple of my projects grow a bit where they don't seem to have much recently!

And it's the first time this year I've been able to sit with the window open without freezing myself half to death, so it's all good.

On the down side had a call from Ben last night saying that the car had broken down, so he's taken it to the garage today in the hope that they'll be able to get it running, hope they can other wise it's a long way from Bristol to have to push it back along the hard shoulder :-) Bless him, hoping for updates as the day goes on, in between the quad biking and general stag weekend merriment anyway.

Just a quick catch up

I'm feeling very guilty, I haven't done any stitching this week, and I didn't do my update last weekend, I just kept saying "I'll do it later, I'll do it tomorrow" and I'm lazy, so I didn't. I wasn't even that busy, just didn't get round to doing anything. Didn't get up to much, say Ben's folks a couple of times, went out on walks with said folks a couple of times, went to a Maundy Money festival in Knaresbrough on Saturday, was presented with a very nice Easter egg on Sunday (Bettys, he's a good lad) went swimming on Monday (had to work off the Easter eggs somehow) and swam till my legs weren't certain about holding me anymore, then Ben made me walk up and down hills in the afternoon, I hurt!

I'm also quite childishly because I've got my first followers who are neither my boyfriend or a kindly friend, hello Justine and Momma in Stitches, you've no idea how excited I was when I saw you! Probably quite sad if I'm honest.

Anyway, Ben's away this weekend (stag do = beer) so I've got the flat to myself and how am I spending it, eating all the things that I can't normally eat because he doesn't like them (I just ate macaroni cheese made with chesse so strong that it smelt of feet!), do my stitching and watching the DVDs I don't normally watch 'cos he won't like them, it's going to be a very lazy weekend, can't wait!

As such, stitching updates to follow!

Tenderness update and a bikini crisis

I'm liking the new blog style by the way, I got an email from Blogger the other day telling me that I could make my blog pretty if I wanted, so I gave it a shot and this is what I cam up with.

Latest update of Tenderness for Ben, he's just seen it for the first time in a while and said (albeit while sounding slightly surprised) 'that's starting to look really good', which is lucky really, seeing as I'm doing it for him.

Last Friday I got dragged into a photo session for the new brochures for the clinic, and one of the pictures that was done was something very like this (thankfully not by me, although that was threatened at one point), so I'm now trying to get this finished by the time that the new brochure comes out, not convinced that I'm going to manage it, but it's as good an ambition as any! And I did do loads of work on it on Monday night, I stubbornly got it into my head that I wanted to get the current page done so I wa stiching away frantically. Managed it, and I'm weird, I like how it looks when you've got the straight lines next to the block of solid stitching, but that'll get broken up soon, possibly even today.

In other news I'm very much looking forward to Easter next weekend, four day weekend, and even better, Ben's got a four day weekend as well, and that practically never happens. We've not got much planned, just looking forward to having some time off at the same time.

Talking of time off, we recently booked our summer holiday, a week in Bulgaria, which should be something a bit different, so of course, in a vague sort of way, the holiday preperations have begun, you know start layering on the moisturiser (and then the tinted moisturiser) so that I'm not the palest person there and no reflecting sun light with my pasty white legs. Also trying to find a new bikini, tried one on yesterday and can't remember the last time I felt so depressed about myself. I'm already pretty picky about what I wear, it's got to be shorts rather than briefs because the more of my bum and the top of thighs that is covered the better, and it's got to be a more solid halter neck top rather than a piece of string with two tiny triangles of material attached to it. I'm not saying I've got much bust to cover, but I'm fairly sure that two tiny scraps of material aren't going to do the job. Anyway, tried one on yesterday and it was wrong in pretty much every sense of the word. It was shorts, but they were wrong in so many ways, mainly in the way that they made me look as though I was trying on a size six instead of my size. The logical part of my brain says that I'm a size ten and so I can't be that big, my eyes say I looked like I'd just tried on a size six for giggles and I was hanging over the top of it, and it was quite hideous, I looked truly awful and it really has despressed me. So I'm now trying to find a way of looking less terrifying and depressing in a bikini, but the trouble is that gym memberships are very expensive and I don't earn enough to be doing things that are very expensive, so if anyone has any suggestions of cheap ways of looking less nasty in a bikini (please not jogging, far too public and just generally very unpleasant),l but all suggestions gratefully accepted.

Winter's Majesty, it's the latest update

It's that time of the week again, time for another update. Another days work on Winter's Majesty, I had some leave to use up by the end of March so I spent some of Thursday working on this. This is probably the first time since I've been posting on this blog that you can actually seen a difference from the last picture, although I suspect that that's only because I was fed up of it not looking any different so I deliberately chose a brighter colour taht would stand out next to what I've done. So progress continues, but, despite the fact that I've used a nice bright colour so you can see that I've actually done something, you still can't tell what it is. Ah well!

I'm not going to get much time for stitching this week, because I'm out Wednesday, which is my usual stitching night, and Thursday, which would have been my additional stitching night because Ben had a match, so I may not have much time for stitching, but I'll see what I can do. Determined that I have to stitch each week otherwise I'll never get anything finished.

And to continue from last week, I have acually managed to do some writing, be it it was only about 250 words last night, but I've started putting down ideas for the competition that I mentioned. Wish me luck!

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland

Forgot to say, Ben and I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D last Friday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'll start with the 3D then go onto the film, this is the first time I've seen a film in 3D so I can't compare it to other films but, I thought that it was a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it worked perfectly, generally if something was in the middle of the screen and coming towards you, then it came out clearly and was amazing. At one point there were some kids on the front row trying to grab hold of something as it 'came out of' the screen. Other times, generally when something went across the screen, or when it was half on screen it didn't work, because it spoiled the image where it suddenly stopped. Overall though, quite impressed and think that when it's been perfected it'll probably be quite amazing.

So, onto the film itself, if you've read the books (Both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass) then you could, quite happily, pull the plot to pieces, however, if you sit and watch it as an entertaining film that's loosely based on the works of Lewis Carroll, then that's not a problem. No, the Red Queen should not be the same as the Queen of Hearts, yes, in Jabberwocky the slayer is most definitely male, but if you can let that slide then it doesn't matter.

The film starts with a flash back to Alice as a child having bad dreams about Wonderland then moves forward to (her) present day at about 18 where she's going to a garden party only to find that the son of the family holding it is going to propose to her in a very public manner, Alice panics and runs away before falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. This turns into the beginning of the book, 'eat me', 'drink me', but with voices talking about her as she does, then goes into Wonderland.

Wonderland is pretty typical Burton fair, weird, wonderful and really quite dark. Really impressive cast, all doing a very good job (although I did wince a little at Barbara Windsor as the dormouse, why would you do that?). Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are old hands at Burton films and it shows, they look incredibly comfortable in their surroundings. Helena Bonham Carter is wonderful psychotic as the Queen of Hearts/Red Queen, with occasional flashes of Queenie out of Blackadder, but she's wonderful in the role and has been made to look quite freaky through it. Depp of course has been one of the main publicity calls of the film, and he was very good as the Mad Hatter ranging between comic craziness, terrifying madness and the occasional moment of heart breaking terror when he comes out of the madness long enough to realise that he is mad, he slides between this different emotions with consummate ease, and it's easy to see why he has been pushed to the fore for the publicity, this is a starring role. Matt Lucas does a wonderful turn as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, arguing with himself all along and I personally have to give kudos to Anne Hathaway. I haven't seen much publicity around her role as the White Queen but I have to say that I thought she was brilliant, she has these wonderful 'airy fairy' affectations that she puts on as the public face of the white queen, but as soon as there's no one looking she pick up her skirts and runs. As for Mia Wasikowska as Alice, I feel a bit guilty, as I don't really know what to say about her. She does hold the piece together as the one that the action revolves around, and she gives a  good performance in this role, but she pales into significance when placed next to the larger than life characters around her. That said, she has some wonderful scenes with Depp as the Mad Hatter who has the decency to not upstage her in some of his more 'emotional' scenes where she comforts him in the realisation of his madness.

All in all I did really enjoy it, and have gone around telling people that they should go and see it, and I will be getting it on dvd when it comes out, as I would like to own it, even without the magic 3D effects. It's a cast list that just roles on and on, and I can't mention all, although everyone does give a sterling effort (again, I'm possibly questioning Barbara Windsor a little bit, but apart from that). But I can only finish this review as I've been saying to the girls I share an office with, it's really good, you should go and see it!

Chalet Schools

I'm a very happy Kim. Proper stitching update to follow, probably tomorrow, but in the mean time I just need to share that I am happy.

Just been to a book fair in town and came back with three of the ones that I was missing for my collection, I now only have 18 more to get for a complete set, then I can go back and start replacing the massacred Armarda editions, but first things first, a complete set.

Oooh!

Did I mention by the way (I know I didn't, so I don't know why I'm writing that), I've just recently seen a couple of interesting writing competitions and so am currently mulling ideas over in my head. It's been a long time since I did any proper writing and even longer since I've plucked up the courage to enter a competition (where I've never had so much on an acknowledgement, never mind a success), so it's all a little nerve wracking, but I've decided you can only work in admin for so long before you brain starts to melt, especially when you've suddenly found yourself looking after recruitment (I have absolutely no idea by the way), so it's time to start doing what I want to do, even if it's only in a very little way.

Time for an update

The continued stitching of In Love by Vervaco.

Yeah, it is still a whole lot of beige, but it's now a whole lot of beige with a little dark spot that is, let me assure you, a head, so as well as beige sky and beige sea, the picture now contains an itty bit of a person.

I do enjoy stitching this, and it's going to look wonderful once it's finished, but it's just not very photogenic during these early stages, although I have at least managed to take a reasonable picture of it for once.

This is going into hibernation for a couple of weeks now, as I've mentioned before, it's going to be a wedding gift for my dad and his fiance when they finally get round to setting a date and actually doing the wedding thing, and they're coming to stay next weekend, so I've got to make sure that this is securely hidden away while they're here, preferably in a much more effective way then when I tried to hide the one I was doing for Ben.

Haven't had much time to stitch this week, only a couple of hours, but I achieved all of the right hand side of the picture, so I've not done to badly.

This week is going to be a mixed week stitching wise, I lose my two evenings that I normally have (Monday we're going to the theatre, Wednesday I'm stuck in a meeting in Leeds until 8, so I'll be lucky if I'm home by 9 ) but I've got Thursday and Friday off work, so hopefully I'll be able to get some stitching then, more likely Thursday of the two. Friday's looking a little busier cos I've got my dad and his fiance arriving, also, in a moment of stupidity I told Ben that of course I'd be willing to be photographed for the new literature for the clinic, so Friday afternoon I have to put my money where my mouth is and actually go and be photographed. Ah well, look out for my face, in a chiropractors near you (but only if you live in Harrogate).

Just a quick catch up

I haven't written anything in about three weeks, and I'm feeling very guilty about that. I haven't stitched much recently cos I've been busy, in fact up until Thursday I hadn't done any stitching in about two and a half week (and incidently discovered that where my partner needs football to de-stress, I need my stitching). Haven't even read or watched much recently, so can't write about that either.

Watched the Duchess with Keira Knightley and Ranulph Fiennes the other night, which I did enjoy, but somehow don't really feel like I can review it. Saw the first half of Absent Friends by Alan Aykbourne at the theratre the other night when I was ushering, but didn't really enjoy it, so much so that when I wasn't needed after the interval I decided that I couldn't be bothered to stay till the end.

Did some stitching on Thursday night when Ben was playing a badminton match, but was working on Winter's Majesty so I've just added to the confetti and it's not worth posting an update.

Got a couple of 'stitching days' coming up though, Ive got a couple of days off in a couple off weeks and I'm planning on using one of those for stitching, and Ben's going to a stag weekend a couple of weeks after that so I'm going to have an entire stitching weekend I think.

Currently having a very lazy Sunday, debating trying to convince Ben he wants to go and see Alice in Wonderland this evening, but not convinced that I can see it happening.

Feeling sorry for myself!

I've just come back from the dentist, and I'm feeling incrdibly sorry for myself. This was my last of five appointments so I'm happy about that, but my face is completely numb, and I must have bitten my lip while I was attempting to eat breakfast (possibly not the smartest thing I've ever done), it looks an absolute mess and is currently nearly double it's normal size, I'm really hoping that it heals quickly because I'm meant to be going to an engagement party tomorrow night and meet lots of my partner's friends from uni who I've never met before, and I'd like to not meet them looking like I've been punched in the face.

Anyway, rant over.

Latest stitching update. This is actually last weeks stitching, I haven't had a chance to get anything done this week, but I've got a day off today, I meant to do lots of exercise type stuff this morning, but I'm to busy feeling sorry for myself to do that, so I'm thinking that I may chuck a dvd on and do some now instead.

Can't remember when I last went through a week without doing any stitching, but I think I'm going to have a few weeks like that coming up.

This week was my Christmas present off my other half on Tuesday, he got us a photo session with Venture so we went and did that, it was actually really good fun, and I didn't feel anywhere as foolish as I expected to, so I recommend it. I'll try and find away to publish some picutres once we get them back. Wednesday I had a meeting at work until 8.30 and by the time I got home I just didn't have the inclination to start to be honest, then last night was badminton and packing cos we're going away this afternoon (hence fat lip + party).

Legs 11

Just a quick post this week. Valentines card for my partner, but it's been a busy week so I haven't had much time for stitching, this is all I've done this week. And looking at this picture I've just realised that the stitching on the tights is a little wobbly so I'll have to try and straighten it out a little bit. This is a pattern from Cross Stitcher, either last year or the year before, afraid that I can't remember who the designer is. I did enjoy stitching it though and it was quite a quick stitch, seeing as the majority of it is actually back stitching. I've cheated on the back stitch and done it as long stitch, just weaving it over and under, I thought that looked better for the fishnets. This did have some DMC light effects in it, which I did use, but I'm now wishing that I hadn't gone to the hassle, because you really can't see it. Out of interest it's the 'lacey' stitching, either side of the band of stitching, but it doesn't look any different to the rest of the black so I don't think it was worth it. I normally really like the light effects as they add a bit of sparkle, but the black it a waste of time, you can't tell the differene.

Anyway, that's about as far as the stitching goes this week, although I'm going to be evicted from the living room today I suspect because Ben's going to want to make my card at some point (we agreed no gifts but handmade cards this year for Valentines) so I think I may take my stitching into the other room with my i-pod. The last couple of days have been very long and tiring. We had some work away days, always a bit full on and include early mornings and late nights (left the house at 7am on Thursday and finished up at about 8.45pm), we did have a break for 'outbreak' activities, but seeing as I ended up looking after my group and mothering them, and it was ice skating, so it was just tiring in a different way, it was a pretty exhausting day. Thankfully yesterday was an early finish, I was home by about 4.30pm, but I'm still utterley whacked, so if I get my way it's going to be a very quiet weekend. Sounds like a good excuse to me anyway :-)

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention played Harrogate Theatre on Wednesday 4th of February to what was, pretty much, a full house, apart from (rather randomly) the two seats next to us and somewhere near the front where my partners parents would have been sat, if they hadn't forgotten that they had tickets.



The support act was Dark Horses (Keith Donnelly and Flossie Malavialle), a Geordie and a French lass whose been living in Darlington, that's quite an accent combination. Flossie had a lovely voice, she sings with a French accent but talks with the strongest Darlington accent I've ever heard. Quite a mix of songs, from love songs to protest songs. I'm feeling a little ashamed, I remember really enjoying some of their music, but now I can't remember any of them, but be assured they were very good, with amusing banter in between songs.


Fairport were invited on and opened with Si Tu Dois Partir, the first time in many years that we've heard it sung by someone who can actually speak French. The set list contained some new and old, including some that haven't been in the repertoire for some time. And Ukulele is a very happy little song, I never thought I'd see the day when Chris, Simon, Peggy and Ric were gathered round a microphone playing Ukuleles while Jerry played a washboard. It's a history of the Ukulele and a chorus song, which you will be expected to sing along with.


This years tour sees the revival of of some of the songs from Babbacombe Lee, telling the story of John Lee, which was a concept album in the seventies, and boy does it sound like it when you hear it now. We also had the comedy value on the night we saw it where there was a brief disagreement about how one of the songs started. Gerry gave them a count in, and no one else moved, after a second attempt there was a long debate about whether it was the right count or not.


A very enjoyable night, ending, of course, on Meet on the Ledge with the audience singing along.


After the performance, Dark Horses, Chris and Simon were all in the foyer signing merchandise for people, so I'm now childishly happy because I've got the latest dvd signed by Simon Nicol.

In Love Progress

Latest update of In Love by Vervaco, it still looks like a whole lot of beige if I'm honest, but there are now more shades of beige, although you still can't really tell what it is. I'll give you a clue, the top beige is clouds, the bottom beige is water and beige, and the blank gap at the bottom right of the shot will eventually be a head, yeah, like I said whole lot of beige. Haven't had as much time as I would have liked this week, probably put about four hours in. Wednesday is normally a stitching night for me (other half plays badminton, so I can put a dvd on and curl up with my stitching), but as I said earlier, we went to see Fairport Convention this week, so didn't get a chance to stitch that night. I might get a bit more done tonight, but we've got Ben's parents over for dinner so I have to start making dinner soon. Anyway, I've been working on this one for two weeks, so I think it's time to do something else for a while. I didn't even mean to work on it this week. I picked it up to finish a cotton off, then in turned in to "I'll just finish this colour", "Well, if I do the next colour it might actually start to look like something." "Well, I've nearly finished this page, I might as well go ahead with it." and so on, but it's definitely time for another project now.

Excuse the blurry picture by the way, If I turn the flash off it also turns off the anti-shake for some reason, and I can't work out how to make it stop doing that, and if I take the picture with the flash on it bleaches anything and you can't see that there's even anything on the material, it's all fun!

Anyway, next weeks project will be card for Ben for Valentines, I've already picked the design, I've just got to start stitching it. Don't think it'll take me long, so I should be all right to get it finished in time for next Sunday, if all else fails, I'm going away with work Thursday and Friday, so I can probably hide in my room and work on it in the evening.

Nation by Terry Pratchett - as performed by the National Theatre

I said that I'd cheat and write two today.

Yesterday I dragged my poor, rather long suffering other half to see Nation by Terry Pratchett as adapted by Mark Ravenhill and directed by Melly Still.

I don't know how many of you have heard of the National Theatre Live project, but it's a wonderful scheme. I live in North Yorkshire which makes travelling to the National Theatre a bit of an expensive extravagance, which is really disappointing when there are shows that I'd like to see. However we've just seen the first series of the 'Live' shows, whereby one performance is broadcast to cinemas around the world. Love it!

To start with, I'm quite a big Pratchett fan, but haven't got round to reading Nation yet (massive 'to read' heap by the bed), my other half isn't a fan and has never read anything by him, but was intrigued by the live concept (and a little emotional blackmail from his girlfriend) and so agreed to come with me. I also tried to convince one of his friends who's a big Pratchett fan, but he declined due to universal panning by reviewers. It has to be said that I only read the reviews this morning, having seen it yesterday, and I was surprised to see such bad reviews, I really enjoyed it.

Nation tells the story of a parellel world. Mau, a South Pacific Island boy has just completed his trial to move him from boyhood to adulthood, but when he returns to his own island finds that his entire tribe has been wiped out by a Tsunami in his absence and he's left alone on the island. Daphne is a well spoken Victorian girl who has been shipwrecked by the same Tsunami. Neither Mau or Daphne understand each other, but they manage to communicate and start to build a nation, joined by islanders from surrounding islands.

Daphne (Emily Taaffe), Mau (Gary Carr) and Milton, a foul mouthed parrot (Jason Thorpe) probably hold the performance together. Gary Carr giving an excellent performance as the young man stuck between childhood and adulthood, not yet feeling that he deserves the title of adult because he hasn't been through the adult ceremony. Pratchett has said that this story grey from the image of a young boy stood on the beach cursing the gods, and it's easy to imagine that Carr's performance of this could be pretty close to what Pratchett imagine. Emily Taaffe performs a rather fiesty woman on the cusp of adulthood who has led a life controlled by her matriarchal grandmother, although it hasn't been the sheltered upbringing you would expect, her father having been keen on taking her to science lectures. Finally Jason Thorpe as Milton. Yes, he's a human playing a parrot - Thorpe does not play this role for realism, although his mannerisms and movements (especially his walk) are wonderful to watch, he symbolises a parrot, rather than trying for a realistic performance - and to my mind it fitted in very well. He is also the main comic relief of the performance.

I don't think I've ever seen anything directed by Melly Still before, but I quite enjoyed this, and was quite intrigued by some of the design. The ship wreck was interesting, the boat on water, there aren't many ways that you can perform this on stage, and I think we're unlikely to come up with a breathtaking suggestion any time soon, however the idea of showing the characters in the water as the ship broke up was a good idea and well done. There were three large screens around the stage and during the shipwreck water was projected on to the screens and the characters in the water were on wires behind them so that they floated and 'swam' as though in the water.

Puppets were also used to represent the animals on the island, including really creepy birds and a large and slightly scary wild hog, performed using different forms of puppets.

The second half continues with the creating of Nation but also with what's happened to other people who were on the ship with Daphne and landed on different islands, causing Daphne to face up to her behaviour and decisions since she's been on the island.

The ending was rather sad (didn't end how I expected it to at all, really should have read the book by now), and also well done. It would have been easy to make the ending unnecessarily twee and sweet, but it was well performed, both by Taaffe and Carr, and also by the rest of the cast.

Personally, contrary to what a lot of professional reviewers have said, I really enjoyed this and was really impressed, and that's without having quite the same live atmosphere. There were a couple of slightly dodgy shots at the beginning of the second half where there was a five second close up of one of the actors bottoms, but apart from that it was all very well run, including short videos and 'extras' during the interval.

When the performance finished most of the people in the audience applauded, as though they had actually been in the theatre, and I have to say that I'm looking back on this performance thinking that I saw it live, and I have to keep reminding myself that I wasn't actually in the same room as the performance, so I think this is a wonderful scheme that should be encouraged and continued. It fascinates me that I only found out about this through a news letter, there seemed to be no advertising for it in the cinema, to the point that when i went to book the tickets in advance I had to spend quite a long time describing it to the two lads behind the counter before one of them realised what I was asking for. And, for a cinema that probably held between 200 and 250 I don't think it was even half full.

On a final note, my other half, having just noticed that I'm writing this has just asked 'Are you being as harsh as those other reviewers?' When I said no he said 'Good, I thoroughly enjoyed it.' Although I have to admit that he did sound a little surprised by the fact. And I should probably mention Milton again, as I think he was Ben's favourite character.

New Years Resolutions

It's safe to say that, as far as new year's resolutions go, this week has been a complete and utter failure. The end of January and it's already fallen apart. I sent a selection of resolutions this year (I always do, doesn't mean that I manage them though!), but it's been a very unsuccessful week.
I'm meant to manage three lots of aerobic exercise and five lots of toning exercise (the toning only takes 10 - 15 minutes, so it's not as dedicated as it sounds), sew for at least two hours a week and write at least 2000 words, also, unofficially I'm meant to try and write at least two blogs a week... I haven't managed any of those this week, I will manage two blogs, but only if I cheat and write two blogs today, although I do intend to. Ive done no sewing (which was basically the purpose of this blog, to say that I don't have any pictures to put up this week), I've written less than 500 words, done one lot of aerobic and two lots of toning, I might manage another set of toning tonight, but I'm not convinced.
It's been a vedry unsettled week at work this week, which has left me feeling very unsettled, and consequently not very good at sitting down to do anything, at home. It's been feeling unsettled for most of the week at work, then I got called into the office of our CEO on Thursday to say that she was moving me to a different desk and giving me a differnt job. I hasten to add this was not something I'd applied for or requested, it just happened, so I'm now a little unnerved by the whole thing. Technically it's a promotion, so I should be all excited, but I'm generally just a little unnerved by it all, there's no rise for the extra responsibility, and I don't really understand what I'm meant to be doing. I understand that there's an end goal, but I don't really know what I'm meant to be doing short term (say when I walk into the office on Monday) and that scares me a wee bit.
Anyway, all this preamble really is is me explaining why there's by nothing in way of blogs this week, and also no updates on my stitching. Hoping to do some stitching this afternoon, but I don't think it'll be enough to make putting up a new picture worthwhile.

An update on Winter's Majesty by Maia. I'm aware that it doens't look like it's grown much, but about 6 hours of work have gone into this since the last photo. I was off work sick one day this week :-( so I curled up in front of the TV with this, and this is what I achieved. I've since come to the conclusion that this page was either a really good idea to start on or a really bad idea. Having looked at the rest of the chart, this is by far the worst for confetti stitching, none of the other pages seem to be anywhere near as bad, and I think it's the confetti that means it's taking me so long to work on at the moment, once I've got bigger blocks of stitching I'm hoping it'll start to progress a bit faster. This knowledge has also made me think much more fondly of the project as a whole, now that I realised that it's not all going to be like this, and it isn't all going to be half stitches, which this section is. :-) Although I have to admit that I am looking forward to the time when it actually starts to resemble something, although I'm starting to suspect that that may be some time off.

Can you guess what it is yet? Infact, can you even tell that there's stitching on there? I'm aware that it's not easy, it's cream stitching in a cream background and my camera struggled. It was like that, without the flash, or with the flast which meant that it was basically a big square of white. My camera and I don't always get along brilliantly, especially after it decided that it didn't know how to focus last summer :-(

Anyway, another sepia from Vervaco, another present, they're just such wonderful kits for presents. In answer to the first question by the way, it's sky, lots and lots of sky, although I am aware that it really doesn't look like that at the moment, in fact unless you really squint, it doesn't look like there's even anything there at the moment. This one will, eventually, be a present for my dad and his fiance when they finally get round to getting married, although goodness knows how long off that's going to be.

I don't normally run more than one project at a time, it's just sort of ended up like that at the moment, and I'm currently undecided about whether I'm going to keep doing it when these are all completed or not. On the plus side it means that I can choose the chart that I'm in the mood to work on that night, but on the down side it takes a lot longer for each piece to grow because I'm splitting my (not very ample) time between three projects. The only reason I'm even doing it now is due to accident. I was working on Winter's Majesty for myself and started Tenderness for my partner, but that was meant to be (until he caught me) a suprise, so I needed something I could work on when he was in. Now I'm working on both whenever I wanted to. Then I decided that it was probably about time that I started working on my dad's wedding present, hence the three.

Me and Mr Darcy by Alexander Potter

Me and Mr Darcy by Alexander Potter tells the story of Emily, a hopeless romantic and Jane Austen fan who opts out of a holiday to Mexico with friends and instead decides to go on holiday to England to visit the land of Jane Austen and go on a literature tour. Here she meets Mr Darcy and romance ensues.

I had high hopes for this book and I have to say that I was incredibly disappointed by it. The original concept was quite original and I thought Ms Potter was going to do something quite interesting with it. She basically retold Pride and Prejudice, but with a lot less class than Austen ever did, and it's such an obvious retelling, there's nothing original in this book. She attempts to make herself seem clever by saying to the reader 'look how silly Emily is, she's making all the same mistakes as Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, isn't that foolish of her', but it doesn't make her look clever, it just points out that she hasn't managed to do anything creative with the plot and instead is just retelling someone else's story.
Emily's surrounding cast are Spike, a journalist who also happens to be on the tour, Eddie, a sweet coach driver and of course, Mr Darcy. Very early on Emily hears Spike describing her unfavourably (hmmm, where have I heard this before?) and consequently takes against him, so, it should come as no surprise that when Eddie tells her a heart breaking story of how he was once mistreated by Spike she feels sorry for him and longs to jump to his defence, but has been sworn to secrecy by Eddie, sound familiar? Now, I admit that I will read most forms of complete trash and consequently I could probably forgive most of the horrors of unoriginality if it wasn't for the complete and utter massacre that she makes of Mr Darcy's plot. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those die hard fans who can't stand to have the characters of the original book messed with, but I do resent someone taking a character name and then putting completely different characteristics into that person. I'm sorry, I'm generally quite laid back about books and will, as I've said, read pretty much any trash if I'm in the right room, but I found myself resenting this books depiction of Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy would not spend long periods of time gazing adoringly into the eyes of a woman that he barely knows, neither would he start, rather randomly spouting poetry, it was all a little embarssing if I'm honest, but not, as Ms Potter intended, for the characters, rather it was embarassing for herself.
To be honest it was an odd, and very predictable book, it could have been a very interesting take on an idea, possibly nothing spectacular, but something a bit more original (along the lines of Lost in Austen - check it out if you haven't seen it by the way) but instead it was just uncomfortable, stilted, and I'm sorry Miss Potter, but a little boring, completed with an embarassingly contrived and rather rushed ending.
This said I can't really recommend it, and I definitely have no intention of reading anything else by the author. As a fan of new takes on classics I can cross it off the (rather long) list of things that I'd like to read, but sadly, that's about the best I can say about it.

Stitching

When I first started writing this blog I said that, as well as books and films it was also going to be about the progress of my stitching, and then I haven't done anything about that since writing this, so this is my initial stitching news.

Winter's Majesty by Maia.

I haven't actually done much of this one yet, and haven't done anything on this for nearly two months, and most of what has been done to date was done when I was off work for a day last year, I seemed to get loads done that day, but it barely seems to have grown since then, despite the fact that I have deen working on it occasionally. I'm aware that at the moment it mostly looks like I just threw stuff at the aida and waited to see what stuck.

Really enjoying it, and it's going to be an absolutely beautiful piece when it's finished, but it's quite complicated and takes a lot of concentration so it's not something that I can pick up for a few minutes then put down again, it's got to be something that I work on when I know I've got at least an hour to work on it, otherwise it's just not worth picking up.

There's a lot of confetti stitching in it, which means I'm really having to think about not trailing cotton across the back where it can be seen. There's also a lot of half stitches, which on 16 count aida isn't exactly something that I relish, but again, I'm sure it'll be worth it in the end.

I've been stitching on and off for years, but I always give my projects away, so when I finished my last project at the end of last year, my partner made me promise that my next project would be something that I'd keep for myself, so this is what I picked as the one I'd like for myself.

Tenderness by Vervaco.

The trouble with Vervaco is that I tend to find that it's called by different names on different sites. The site I bought this off it was called Tenderness, so that's what I call it.

I'm making this as a present for a partner, he's a chiropractor, and I thought it would look nice in his clinic, it was meant to be a secret, right up until the moment he caught me working on it, so, it's still a present but it's no longer a surprise and I can work on it when he's in the flat now.

Really lovely to stitch, I'm rather fond of these Vervaco sepia kits, this has only got seven or eight colours in it and looks absolutely amazing. Also, because it's so few colours it's really lovely to work on, it's nearly all nice easy blocks of colour to stitch, no flitting back and across the material to do one or two stitches but the final effect is just so striking.

I'm enjoying this one so much that I've actually just bought another of the Vervaco sepia's to do as a present for someone else as well.

Now that I've actually started writing about my stitching I do occasionally intend to publish picture sof my progress, although I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write each time, because my opinion is unlike to change that much, until I get the opportunity to see what I think of the final piece, but I'll see how it goes.

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland tells the story of a group of travellers during the outbreak of the Great Plague. It centre's round and is told by Camelot, a traveller who sells religious artefacts (all fake), but he describes it as 'selling hope' to people. Camelot considers himself to be ugly having sustained an injury that's left him without one eye, an injury used to advantage when selling holy relics, as the injury can be used in the explanation of where the relics came from.
As plague breaks out a company of travellers (or liars) begins to band together as they travel from place to place trying to find somewhere free of plague. First are two musicians, Rodrigo and Jofre, a travelling conjuror, Zophiel, an artist, Osmond and his heavily pregnant wife Adela, Osmond, a one armed story teller, a pale haired child with psychic ability Narigorm and Pleasance, a midwife who has been caring for her, and finally, a one armed story teller called Osmond.
As the title suggests, each of these characters has a hidden secret from their past and throughout the course of the story, each of these are revealed.
The book is beautifully written and really brought the age to life, the terror that the plague instilled in people and the religious zealousy that it inspired in some people, but it also shows the other side of fear, the lengths that some people will go to to protect others, even at the risk of their own lives. It soon becomes aparent that half of thise company don't like each other, but they are a company and as such will protect each other, although whether this is for noble or selfish reasons is not always clear.
The biggest secret and the final twist of the book was, I felt, Camelot's secret, which I guessed a little over half way through after a rather sledge hammer hint dropped by a minor character, although my reason behind the secret was completely wrong.
The book does hold a mystic element to it, although more through the character's beliefs about what could or would happen to them rather than what actually happened, because of this it didn't feel out of place, as can often happen when a writer suddenly drops mysticism in.
The opening prologue is very odd and I have to admit that I read through it assuming that it would either all become clear later or that it wasn't important and so I didn't need to think about it. As it happens I was probably less than fifty pages from the end before I finally understood what it was about, although I may have got there earlier if it hadn't been for some of my pre-conceived ideas about characters and events.
Over all I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it took me a little while to get into, but once I did I was hooked and having taken me a couple of weeks to read the first half I polished the second half off in a couple of days. Maitland creates wonderful characters each one with a clear voice that's easily identifiable. Each character's story is unique and at no point do you feel that Maitland was just padding to fill space. Very well written and very enjoyable with an ending that may make you think a little.

The Taking of Pelham 123

I have to say that I wasn't really sure about this, it seemed to be lacking pretty much anything, plot, acting, competent dialogue, anything that you really look for in a film. Safe to say that I wasn't really impressed by it.
Denzel Washington plays Walter Garber, a controller of the subway when one of the trains is high-jacked by Ryder (John Travolta) and other. Unsurprisingly the 'others' don't take much part in the proceedings, serving as canon fodder and people to be ordered about by Travolta. In fact, Washington and Travolta are really the only characters in the entire film, everyone else is just plot and space filling, allowing for the fact that it would be difficult to have an hour and a half (and believe me, it feels longer) film with only two people in it.
Ryder and others hi-jack a subway train and demand $10 million within the hour or they'll start killing hostages, and yes the hostages include a mother a son, a young man with a pretty girlfriend who is elsewhere, an idiot business man and a hero, and all play their parts just as you would expect them to.
Before they realise that a hi-jack has happened, and instead think that there has been a malfunction on the train Walter Garber tries to contact the driver, thus bringing himself to the attention to Ryder and thus becoming that only man that Ryder will deal with.
As money is rushed across the city (by quite possibly the most incompetent police escort ever seen) Walter Garber is given a crash course in hostage negotiation by the only other character in the film who has more than five lines to himself, the real police hostage negotiation that Ryder refuses to deal with.
Ryder then declares that the money must be delivered to him by Walter Garber and then Garber is pulled in to the events while he and 'others' try to escape with the money. So, how will it end? See if you can work it out?
There's nothing new or interesting in the script, it's all very predictable, and the script is incredibly uninspired.

As it's probably apparent I really wasn't impressed by it, nothing really stands out in my mind as a positive point about it.

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer.

I'll be honest and start by saying that I really like Georgette Heyer's writing. I think that her plots, especially her mystery books are superbly constructed and the characters are wonderful!
After the effusive introduction I'll now try to say a bit more about the book itself. Footsteps in the Dark tells of Peter, Margaret, Celia and Charles, typical Heyer mystery main characters 1930s well off, living a life of pleasure. Peter Margaret and Celia are brother and sisters and Charles is the husband of Celia. Peter, Margaret and Celia inherit a house from their uncle, and with it comes the legend of The Monk who haunts the grounds and terrorises whoever lives there, they of course think that the idea of a ghostly Monk is ridiculous, until things start to go bump in the night. Heyer then throws in a diverse range of characters, each person capable of being The Monk.
Margaret and Celia fall into the two types the Heyer most commonly uses in her thrillers, Celia is a bit of a wimp, not quite enough that you want to slap her, although it is a close run thing, who is terrified of everything and needs constant reassurance from her brother and husband, where as Margaret is calm, collected and practical, she is of course the main heroine, and yes, of course, the one who falls in love.
The peripheral characters show quite a variety, a slightly surly land lords, a drug addicted french artist, an eccentric butterfly collector, a vacuum sales man and a man on a fishing holiday in the local area.
Plot, Heyer creates quite a ghostly atmosphere, but, because this is a Heyer thriller you know that it isn't going to be a ghost that is responsible for the 'hauntings', rather this is going to be a Scooby Doo novel where teh ghost will have his mask removed and prove to be Mr Jenkins the janitor who would have got away with it if it hadn't been for those pesky kids. So, this is a novel of who dunnit, who's the ghost? I didn't get it right, I worked out who it wasn't, but I hadn't quite got as far as working out who it was by the time the mask was removed.
I enjoyed it, it's a good fun read, not to taxing, but at the same time not something that you have to concentrate on massively either. Heyer's writing does seem a little dated to some people, but personally I don't struggle with it all. All in all I'd recommend it if you want an enjoyable thriller that you can curl up and read with a cup of tea.

Dancing with Mr Darcy

Dancing with Mr Darcy is quite difficult to review because it's lots of short stories written by lots of different authors, so while I liked one story, I didn't necessarily like the next.
The principal behind the book was a short story competition, whereby people had to submit stories that were either influenced by the works of Jane Austen or by Chawton House.

As I say, it's difficult to review the book as a whole because there are so many different authors and stories, so I'll pick out a few that stood out for me in one way or another.

Jane Austen over the Styx by VIctoria Owens. This is the story that opens the book, so you need something that's going to keep the reader interesting and encourage them to read the rest of the book. I don't know that I'd label this as the best book in the collection, but I did rather enjoy it. It tells the story of Jane Austen's trial after her death, where her prosecutors are her elderly female characters, I liked the concept of the story and it was quite an enjoyable few pages.

Jayne by Kirsty Mitchell. I have to say that I'm not sure whether all die hard Austen fans will like this one, although I thought it was an interesting take. Taking Jane's view and money and wealth this story follows Jayne as she makes the money to pay her way through her education and what lengths she goes to. Personally I found it one of the most enjoyable stories in the collection, but I think there is a slightly hard edge to it that will put people off, as will Jayne's way of making money.

Tears Fall of Orkney by Nancy Saunders. I'm sorry Ms Saunders, but I couldn't see where you were going with this one. I understand the inspiration and how you came up with the story, but I kept waiting for it to actually start or for something to explain what was going on. It's a tale of unrequited love, but I personally couldnt work out how this character had allowed herself to become so dellusioned in the first place, and consequently found it very frustrating.

Eight Years Later by Elaine Grotefield. To my mind the most 'Austen' story of the collection, a story that Jane would have been proud of, and also, as far as I can remember, the only one written by from a male pont of view. I proper Austen love story, really liked it.

One Character in Search of her Love Story Role by Felicity Cowie. I have rather mixed feelings about this, I loved the concept (really wish I'd thought of it first) but I'm not so sure about the writing style. The premise is that authors do not write characters, characters send reports of what they have been doing to their author, and as such, before they can send reports, they go to 'shadow' other literary characters to learn from them. A fabulous and, to me, very original idea. I had two main problems with this. Felicity Cowie was a little over fond of footnotes, sometimes taking as much as half a page for a foot note which got on my nerves, and I lost interest half way through. The character shadows Jane Bennett which was a lovely and rather touching conversation but when she started to shadow Jane Eyre, I started to lose interest. I don't know why, Jane Eyre is probably one of my favourite books, but I found that I couldnt warm to the Jane that Ms Cowie wrote and couldn't believe that she would speak like that.

I haven't mentioned all the stories in the collection, just a few that stood out to me for whatever reason. Overall if you are an Austen fan then I probably would recommend reading this, if only to see what takes other people have on the characters, ideas and situations that develop from Jane Austen's work

Simply Perfect by Mary Balogh

Simply Perfect by Mary Balogh could possibly be described in one sentence, predicatable regency romance. However, I'll try to go into a little more detail than that.
Firstly, this is the final in a quartet, and I haven't read the first three, however, I don't think I was missing much essential information from the last three books, suffice to say, I suspect that they all ended happily, but, if by any chance you couldn't guess how the other three might have ended, reading this one will, technically give that away. However, if you pick up something like this then you pretty much know how it's going to end anyway.
So, basic plot. Claudia Martin is the head mistress at a girls school in Bath and is planning on going to Bath with two of her charity girls who have been offered work. Her match making friends have sent Joseph Fawcitt to escort her to London. Yeah, you guessed it, two pages max before you figure out how this is going to end. However, there are a few other characters thrown in, mainly to either get in the way of their romance or to try and assist it. Including Joseph's fiance and a man from Claudia's past.
However, this isn't quite as appalling as I'm making it out to be. Yes bits of it are predictable, but not all of it. I'd say that I'm quite cynical when reading romances, but there were actually a couple of twists that I didn't guess (and did kick myself for not getting), one relatively early on and one quite near the end.
Writing wise, Mary Balogh does have the deceny to avoid most of the obvious sexual cliches, which makes a pleasant change, yes, there are a couple of sex scenes, but by the standards of such books they're relatively tasteful, and I don't remember a single mention of a heaving bosom.
Writing in general, pretty good, I did find myself getting quite fond of Claudia, she was well written. She's isn't pathetic and waiting to be rescued, but Balogh also hasn't written a modern woman who just happens to be living in a Regency world. Claudia is confident and capable of looking after herself, but she lives in the right period.
Overall, quite enjoyable, pretty predictable. I probably would leave another couple of her books, they're good fun, trash, romantic reads that you don't have to concentrate on.

Avenue Q

Went to London over the weekend and saw Avenue Q while we were there, technically it's neither film or book, but it's in the same line, so why not?

First and foremost, it has to be said that I thought it was absolutely brilliant, saw it with my boyfriend and mother (interesting combination) and we all really enjoyed it.

So, cast we saw

Christmas Eve: Joanna Ampil

Brian: Christopher Fry

Gary Coleman: Edward Baruwa

Nicky/Trekkie Monster/Bad Idea Bear: Tony Parsons

Princeton/Rod: Daniel Boys

Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut: Cassidy Janson

Bad Idea Bear/Mrs T: Maria Lawson

The synopsis is relatively simply, a group of people live on Avenue Q, mainly because they can't afford to live anywhere better. Princeton has just graduated and has no idea what to do. Brian has just been laid off from work, his fiance, Christmas Eve, is a qualified therapist but has no clients, Kate is a teacher's assistant, Gary Coleman is the child star now working as a maintenance man on the avenue, Rod and Nicky are house mates who drive each other mad and Trekkie Monster is described as a pervert by everyone else. The basic premise is watching the lives, relationships and romances develop between these characters.

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is not a show to take your kids to, a couple of rows in front of us were some parents with their (quite young) children, those children probably got an education that they wouldn't normally get until many years later. With songs like 'The Internet is for Porn' and 'You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Making Love)' this probably explains why you shouldn't take your kids.

The show is very much an ensemble piece, so it seems unfair to comment on individual performances, but it's difficult to not have particlar performances stand out in your mind.

Joanna Ampil has got a hell of a voice on her, because of the character she plays and accent she generally puts on, it doesn't come across, but in 'The More You Ruv Someone' her voice shines through, and it's beautiful.

Tony Parsons is actually the understudy for Nicky/Trekkie/Bad Idea Bear, but he was superb in the role, and I find it difficult to imagine how it could be performed better, he has such an expressive face, and quite rubbery as well, I often found myself watching his performance when he wasn't the main character on stage at the time.

Brilliant show, really funny as well, all three of us found it very funny, mainly at the same bit, but not always. I have to admit to finding the Bad Idea Bears very funny, although my mum thought that they were really creepy.

This pulls up many parallels with Sesame street, like the little cartoon animations to explains new concepts and words, but much ruder and much funnier than you'd ever find in Sesame Street.

We went because we were going to be in London for a night out, I booked the tickets because they were a good price. I knew what Avenue Q was and was quite interested in going, my mum knew a little bit because I'd mentioned it to her and my boyfriend had never really heard of it before I mentioned it, but we all had a brilliant night out all the same.

The Magician's Guild - Trudi Canavan

Okay, finished reading Trudi Canvan's The Magician's Guild this evening, and have kinda come out with mixed feelings about what I thought. I quite enjoyed it, but I'm not really sure that that can be counted as a review in itself.

So, what happens? Sonea is a 'dwell' (lower classes, when the city is cleared each year they're evicted), when the Magicians are carrying out the clearance one year she throws a stone at the Magicians, and to everyones surprise it breaks their shield and injures a Magician, thus begins a hunt by the guild to find Sonea.

And that's really where my mixed feelings about the book come in, I enjoyed reading it, it was quite interesting and I quite liked Canavan's writing style but you can only read 'they ran away and hid somewhere else' (I'll admit that I'm paraphrasing) before it becomes a bit repetative. To my mind the running away and hiding was dragged out far longer than it needed to be, it could have been done in half the time and then moved onto the next bit of the plot.

This was obviously written with the idea for the full trilogy in mind because it throws up many unanswered questions that presumably will be answered in the next two books. For instance creepy old men hiding in the slums from the Magician's Guild, and what to my mind seemed like undisclosed pasts for half of the characters that obviously need to be discovered throughout the course of the next two books.

One thing that I did find slightly off putting was Canavan's a slight habit of referring about the history between characters as though I should already know about it, as though I'd missed a book out that I should have read first.

As often seems to be the case, I found that I wasn't as interested in Sonea as I was the characters around her. Two Magicians, Dannyl and Rothen, I liked and look forward to reading more about, and a thief from within the slums called Feran. And of course we have a touch of youthful romance to be exanded upon in the next two books and someone who is not what they seem who will have to be exposed throughout the trilogy.

I enjoyed this and I will at some point track down the next two to see what happens and how it ends, but I won't be rushing out to buy them. Having said that I have sinced tracked down a couple of other books by the same author to see what her other trilogies are like. The Magician's Guild was, I think, written for children, so I'm intrigued to see how her writing changes, if at all, for an older audience.