Sunset Boulevard ...

Yes, we did have a really good evening last night. We went to see Sunset Boulevard at The Comedy Theatre in London. It's a fairly small theatre with a very intimate feel about it - lovely. It was an excellent production. What a talented cast! A fairly small group of actors who effortlessly (or so it seemed) switched back and forth between being instrumentalists to singers to dancers and very convincing actors. It was amazing to watch.

We were lucky again to have time for a quick pre-show drink and a light meal. This time we found another lovely, friendly pub, The Imperial, very close to the theatre, which served delicious food, and very efficiently too. It was fairly full with a mixture of people having an after-work drink, tourists and theatre-goers but we managed to find a table straight away (thank goodness as I really don't like standing and drinking in a pub).

A good run home in the coach and safely tucked up in bed by midnight. Perfect!

Manchester

We had a lovely weekend in Manchester visiting Simon. Traffic was dreadful almost all the way so the journey took a lot longer that we planned and consequently it was a bit of a scramble to get to Mass on time - not helped by the fact that Manchester City Council (or whatever they are called) have decided to do a lot of re-surfacing work in the middle of town and several roads were closed - and being Manchester, of course it was raining too! Never mind.

We've taken to going to Mass at St Mary's, (the Hidden Gem) in the middle of city. If you are ever in Manchester it is well worth a visit for the magnificent interior. They don't like you taking photos but you'll find lots of lovely photos on the website here.

After Mass we had a lovely meal in a nearby restaurant serving meals from all over Asia (or so it seemed!)

Then to the theatre for a very good production of Antigone at the Royal Exchange Theatre - so much 'angst' and all that shouting! - I don't know how the cast manage 8 performances a week and still have any voices left!

The auditorium itself is a very modern 'capsule' within the lovely old building and the architecture works very well - the beauty of the original building remains intact and the modern structure within blends well and doesn't detract at all from the rest of the surroundings.

The pictures are just taken with my phone's camera so are not terribly clear but I think you can get the general idea.

'Noises Off ' and Noses on ....

We've had a lot of social events in the last week - a very enjoyable dinner at the local Golf Club in support of our Parish Golf Day to raise funds for our parish school's new building; a company dinner at a local hotel and a trip to the theatre. This last is the 'Noises Off' referred to in the title of this post.

This was an hilarious farce which we went to on a 'works' outing' organised by Atkins. We went with friends and arrived early enough to have a delicious Italian meal before the performance in a nearby restaurant. As I said, the play was side-splitting - I really felt as if my sides were splitting! We all said we hadn't laughed so much and for so long for a very long time. In fact I was reduced to tears, and I wasn't the only one.

As for 'Noses on' I got a clean bill of health from the 'chest man' at our local hospital. He told me I had a 'good pair of lungs'. I must say I had never doubted this for a minute! He suggested my persistent cough may well be caused by 'post-nasal drip' (they've got names for everything, haven't they??) which means that I'm probably allergic to something common like house dust - no chance of eliminating that then!!!

Not standing much chance of eliminating the cause, it just leaves treating the symptoms and I think I'd rather put up with a cough than start spraying things up my nose every day from now on!

I'm just glad my nose is not on the scale of the little fellow pictured above - just think of the 'post-nasal drip' he could suffer from - more like a 'post-nasal deluge'!