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Wee liberties: Beauty and The Beast: A Horny Love Story at Charing Cross Theatre

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It may not be a tale as old as time, but it’s still the same old story, almost, with Beauty and the Beast: A Horny Love Story currently playing at the Charing Cross Theatre .  As the title suggests, this is not family holiday entertainment, but neither is it all gay gore. And a surprisingly large number of clever gags, a gorgeous-looking production, costumes, and an ensemble make for a classy night out with the occasional lashing of sluttiness.  It’s been a while since I have seen an adults-only panto. Like many things at the theatre—ticket prices, opening nights, age of social media influencers—things have changed. Happily, things have changed for the better here. The show focuses on assembling an excellent cast. Elaborate costumes by Robert Draper and David Shields’ set pieces help give this adult panto a touch of class. There are the usual lewd jokes and a quick flash of buttocks.   The setting of the story is in the northernmost village of Scotland, Lickmanochers. Not...
Safe at work and play...

Working at Whitehall isn't all that bad... once you get used to the security procedures. It reminded me that yesterday after I strolled from Hyde Park back in the city and stumbled onto Grosvenor Square where the American Embassy was behind two layers of temporary fencing and a concrete barricade on the street. It would have made for a wonderful photo but I didn't know whether the guards with automatic weapons would have understood I was merely a tourist. Well I was struggling to work out where I was with a map but I wasn't so sure.

The other thing I have been travelling around with is my Diesel side bag. It is quite useful for storing an A-Z map of London book, a cd player and my pocket computer or camera. Of course when it is stocked full of these goodies it has caused some guards to be slightly alarmed at what I was carring to make it looked so packed. How could I explain it was just a few maps and Ute Lemper? I plan to get a more sensible work bag as soon as I have the opportunity but it has been so useful in the meantime.

Hard facts...
* The water here is hard, but I kinda like it. It tastes quite allright.
* Expats here blame the hard water for their hair falling out... They see their kettles full of crud and think "Oh my gawd that's in my hair". I don't know if there is any correlation between the calc buildup in kettles and the buildup in ones scalp. I just use more product.
* I try not to look too much at the floaty bits of calc that seem to find their way into the teacup anyway

Things that are so much better here...
* Supermarkets there is so much choice and everything is brightly packaged (although a drawback is the people who work in them but then again they don't speak English and are on minimum wage so why would they care?)
* Any food ending in "berry"
* Crisps... they seem to taste so much better... although salt and vinegar packets are green not purple which can be initially confusing

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