Kindle wakes...

After a week of trying to get the e-reader to talk to the router I finally brokered an agreement between them in the early hours of this morning and (touch wood!) they're still on speaking terms... Watch this space!

Spring Flings!

My camera, pointing straight up to the sky in the middle of Kensington Gardens last Tuesday, managed to capture this blossom-laiden tree and the blue above it.
It's been a wonderful, settled spring and it felt like summer here today, down by the river in Durham where the trees were all in leaf and the birdsong was orchestral!

I'm already into the second week of my Easter holidays - although thanks to the extra long Royal Wedding bank holiday weekend, I'll only be back at work for three days next week.  Last week was dominated by the London trip - marvellous exhibitions at the V&A and the Imperial War Museum and theatre in the form of 'Love Never Dies' - again!  Batteries recharged and soul restored, this week sees Birmingham Royal Ballet in Durham and York and the chance to interview one of my long-term dancing heroes!  And there's chocolate after that...

And did I manage my 'no book' resolution during Lent???
Well, it's not been easy.  There's been plenty of temptation thrown my way.  But with three noteable exceptions (listed below!), I've done quite well - well enough to have ordered a Kindle!  I still, however, have a very long wish-list...  Happy Easter!

My Lenten lapses

1. A book from the fabulous 'Pleasures of Past Times'  run by David Drummond in Cecil Court, off Charing Cross Road: the shop specialises in 2nd hand theatre books but isn't open at weekends.  Since we were there mid week and it was open it would have been criminal not to go in and once in...well, I'm only human!
2. The catalogue from the V&A Aesthetic exhibition.  As it is a catalogue, maybe it doesn't really count as a book?  Also, the paperback is only available from the exhibition shop and is almost half the price of the hardback so again it would have been foolish to wait till next week.  If it makes it any better, I've left the cellophane wrapper on for now!
3. No excuses for this one - in my internet browsing I came across a book called 'Victorian CSI' - a reprint of an 1890s book on Forensic Medicine.  I needed it.  Immediately.  It arrived yesterday. I'm half way through already and it's wonderful...

Elbow and after

Wednesday of this week was a very special evening.  Elbow - the best band in the world, ever, without question (no -this is not open to debate and everyone is entitled to my opinion!) - played Newcastle Arena and for a couple of hours on a cold misty drizzly night in March I was transported to the foothills of heaven.  The after-glow lasted until today - now I just wish I could repeat the experience.  My brother and I have seen them play live four times in a variety of venues and every time it's magic. Even the barn of a building that is the arena didn't manage to dim their brilliance.  I came out smiling and walking on air.  Fabulous.  We started off the night in a Persian restaurant which was delicious so cake of the week has to be the baklava we woolfed down in record time - sweet, sticky, cardomum-y - yummy!  Not too worried about the calories - I think I probably danced, sang and clapped them off before the night was over!
http://elbow.co.uk/

40 days and 40 nights...

I couldn't get through my front door tonight.  There was a big parcel wedged behind it with the Society of Theatre Research's annual publication in it.  STR is a wonderful organisation for theatre history junkies like me because they send you a gorgeous hard back book every year as a present - it price is paid for by your annual subscription.  Thisyear's offering is about Pantomime and I'm drooling already at the prospect of starting it.
It's come at the right time: Lent starts today and once again, I'm giving up buying books.  It makes sense: I need to find homes for all the volumes that have wandered in since Christmas and give the postman a bit of a break from the endless Amazon deliveries.   
It isn't going to be a problem. I can do this. I don't need to buy books.  I really don't.  I've got plenty to be going on with.  In fact, my final spending splurge from the weekend should be arriving any day now...

To Kindle or not to Kindle?

That is the question.  Yes, I'm debating about whether I should join the e-book revolution and become a Kindle reader or not.  I'm fascinated, I must admit and the list of pros is outnumbering the cons at the moment.  I'm still up to my ears in research and it would be very much easier to do it via Kindle - and probably cheaper in the long run. It would be portable - meaning the train journey could be put to better use. A lot of the stuff I'm reading at the moment is on PDF anyway - and  is out of copyright. And there's the fact that my poor over-loaded bookshelves couldn't cope with another 3,500 volumes...However, the literary Luddite that is me is holding out a) until the price comes down a bit b) until I'm sure Kindle isn't going to be a Betamax c) until I can have a test drive on someone elses!!  So today (last day of half-term holiday so work avoidance technique #1) I've been downloading more old, potentially unloved books from the internet and spending a little more of my ill gotten gains on Abe books.  Kindle might be instant, but there's still something satisfying about ordering, waiting and then unwrapping the brown paper/envelope/jiffy bag from a new book!  I don't want to lose the romance of re-homing books in a flurry of e-reading!  Maybe I'll just wait a bit longer...

Mourning The Book Inn, Billingham

One of the best little independent bookshops I've ever been in has closed, leaving Billingham Town Centre an even greater cultural wasteland than ever before.  I had many dealings with the Book Inn over the years, taking advantage of their fantastic ordering service, friendly staff and serious bargains.  When I first started work, I was in there at least once a week, buying a book to get me through the next week's train travel. I always bought book tokens there and they did some excellent deals for our staff reading group. It was a tiny shop, not much to look at, but always crammed with good stuff, it smelled of paperback books - ink, paper, laminated card... There was a little stationery section at the back, and a friendly (sometimes!) cat who would look at your purchases with distain as they were bagged up to be taken away.  I loved it. I never came out empty handed.  Sadly, Billingham has lost yet another retailer and the town seems destined to be bookshop-less from now on.  What has happened to the town centre in general is nothing short of scandalous, but the loss of The Book Inn is an absolute tragedy.

Cinderella, but Matthew Bourne style

I am tired.  Very very tired.  And, for once, it's almost entirely my own fault!  Left work last night and headed straight to the Theatre Royal in Newcastle to see this production - a 3 act epic of a dance show - and then hung around until almost eleven as Matthew Bourne was doing a post show talk.  I adore his work - it always feels as if there's a heart and soul and intellect behind it - and this was as fabulous as ever.  The stunning Prokofiev score, played at just the right volume augmented by Blitz sound effects, a magical re-invention of the story in a very credible setting, the hallmark humour and pathos I've come to expect from this company, some deft references to two of my favourite films of the 40s ( A Matter of Life and Death and Brief Encounter) - fabulous frocks, and some exquisite dancing - one of MB's very best pas de deux.  Oh, and a scene on the London Underground and a celestial motorcycle and sidecar!!  FABULOUS!
We were up in the Gallery - the only seats we could get - and that was wonderful too - I spent many happy evenings up there as an impoverised but theatre obsessed student.  The Gallery is going to undergo a major refurbishment as part of the renovations which begin in March and so it was lovely to be up beside the muses above the proscenium for one last time before it changes forever. 
It was well past midnight when I crawled into bed and had officially changed into a pumpkin and had no concept of where my shoes might be.  When the alarm went off this morning I was bleary-eyed and seriously weary.  But if it wasn't entirely sold out, I'd be back there tonight!!!
When it's magic, it is MAGIC!
www.new-adventures.net/productions/cinderella