The Blurb: June 2007

The midsummer rains

Friday 22 June 2007 8.12 pm

Lovely, wasn't it? Midsummer's day (which is bizarrely considered the first day of summer by some) was ... well, fabulously British, at least. Great for Glastonbury, so Radio 1 tells me. Even though I don't actually listen to Radio 1.

For us it began, somewhat appropriately, with morning prayers on the subject of the plague of darkness. I didn't attend because it was my day off, but I heard great things of it.

The day continued with much seasonal weather, and culminated with a little jaunt to see Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End in Lynton (it's the pirates that are at the world's end, not Lynton). Pirates 3 is actually rather good - very witty, very spectacular and quite beautiful (the film, I mean, not the actresses). At least as good as the first one, in my opinion. Good fun.

Today I did another one of those lovely Kitchen shifts. This time it was a "B cook", making sticky toffee pudding and working with Marta on dinner. You know, it was remarkably relaxed! Which is good, because it came between a horrible morning at the office struggling to be creative to deadline and an evening of AV which I'm doing now as I type this on the Octag computer. :o)

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London in four days

Friday 15 June 2007 7.49 pm

Thorpe Park. The Natural History Museum. The Guiding Shop (don't ask). Buckingham Palace. St. James's Park. Horsemen with silly hats. Ice creams. Trafalgar Square. Stall seats for The Phantom of the Opera (awesome). St. Paul's Cathedral. Tower Bridge. The Thames. The Millennium Bridge. Covent Garden. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). A stroll round the London Eye, Big Ben and Westmister at night. Chelmsford Cathedral. Dan and Tracey. And complete circuits of both the Circle Line and M25.

Not bad for four days in the capital, is it? I have to say, though, that the highlight of the amazing little jaunt I went on this week with Rach, Clare and Jo (pictured) was the Phantom on Tuesday night. Who would have thought that a musical with so much hype could possibly live up to it? But it does. Oh yes, it does. The acting is top notch, the singing makes your heart beat faster, and that's to say nothing of the pyrotechnics and the falling chandelier. Go and see it now. :o)

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Appearance: Exceptional

Tuesday 5 June 2007 2.35 pm

Yesterday evening, I and four Community friends decided to go on a little road trip in the Community car. However, on the way to Woolacombe, as we came down the hill to a remote pub called Hunters Inn, a grinding noise indicated something up with the brakes.

Amazing - we could have broken down anywhere on that road and it happened to be right outside the pub where we could sit and have a drink and some cheesy chips! That is, after convincing the RAC phone operator in the West Midlands that the Hunters Inn postcode did, in fact, exist.

When the nice RAC man arrived, he quickly identified that we actually had no front right brake pad left and were braking with the metal disc instead, which is probably not a very good idea. And he towed us home.

It was quite cool actually - I'd never been towed before, so that was exciting. Anyway, when we arrived back, the RAC man gave us a survey to complete on the standard of service we had received. Questions went by, and we answered positively because we were pleased, and actually quite excited about the whole thing. And then came an interesting question: "Please rate the RAC member of staff on ... appearance".

I turned to my four young, single, female travelling companions, and with one accord they advised me on the appropriate answer to this question: "Exceptional". :o)

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