Incredibly long update.
Apr. 18th, 2006 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teylaminhI'll put the majority of this under LJ-cuts to save your friends-lists, and because I'm sure nobody's actually that interested. But anyway, here's an update of recent happenings.
Thursday
Thursday was mostly an ordinary day at work, and I got a lift home at 4.45 in order to get changed and go out again to see Sweeney Todd at the Alex, starring Jason Donovan and Harriet Thorpe (she of Brittas Empire fame - she played Carole, the mad receptionist). I had absolutely no idea what to expect of the show, other than it was by Sondheim and therefore inevitably quite good. What Paul and I sat through was two hours of complete and utter wonder. The production itself was very post-modern, comprising one set (a wooden-slatted backdrop, huge shelves reaching up to the rafters with miscellaneous junk on them, a coffin, and some chairs) and only about 10 cast members, all of whom were playing at least two instruments - yes, including the leads; Jason and Harriet were both playing percussion throughout (Harriet plays a mean triangle :D) and Jason also on guitar at one point - and singing their character parts.
The one-set setup, I imagine, is also easier to accommodate in a tour, rather than complicated set pieces, but the costumes were also quite modern. Sweeney's victims - the entire cast, one by one - were represented by wearing blood-stained lab coats, which also fitted in with the opening sequence of Tobias/Toby and Johanna as patients in a mental asylum. The music was alternatively discordant and quite annoyingly hummable, with some rather wonderful rhyming. My personal favourites was probably when Sweeney and Mrs Lovett were discussing the different types of human meat...
It was also post-modern, if such a thing can be 'defined', as such, in the way the characters didn't directly address each other, but the audience, and the multiple uses for the coffin prop.
Overall, then, absolutely brilliant. The cast were all amazing with their different instruments - I counted a violin, two cellos, a double bass, a piano, a piano-accordian, two different sets of percussion, one with cymbals and one with a xylophone/glockenspiel (which is which? It was the one with metal bars...), a guitar, two trumpets, and a clarinet. There may have been more. And that, by the way, was the entire orchestra. Harriet Thorpe was bloody brilliant and very funny, and, well, there was a very disturbing moment when I found Jason Donovan attractive. Yes, I know I must be beaten with sticks. It was just the look on his face, this sort of evil, expectant smile, and the overall tortured-soulness, all dark eyes and stubble. (I wonder, what's the irony in a barber who doesn't shave himself?) I last saw him in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London as Caractacus Potts, which is more a role to show off dancing than singing, whereas Sweeney Todd is much more multi-layered character, and definitely demonstrated his range a lot better.
And! There was shippiness! Not just Johanna/Anthony, but Sweeney/Mrs Lovett, and all the miscellaneous everyone-wanting-to-shag-everyone-else that was going on. So, more smuttiness than shippiness, but still. Enough to make the Inner Shipper more than impressed, at least. :) Jason and Harriet actually had a surprising amount of chemistry, as well.
Very impressed, all things told.
This would have been a much better review on Thursday, or at least closer to the event, but I've not had the time...
Friday
So, on Friday, Paul and I headed off into town to the Art Nouveau Poster exhibition at the Gas Hall, which was pleasant enough. This was to signify the start of a rather cultured weekend. After that we sat on the steps of Chamberlain Square in the sunshine for a bit, and went to the Yard of Ale to waste more money in their ItBox. A quick trip to Paul's to get his stuff, and then back into town to get food in the Briar, to discover that they've stopped doing the interesting-sounding nacho platter that they had in their menu for all of a week... and, of course, more money-wasting in the ItBox. We really need to get over our gambling addiction...
I don't remember what we did in the evening...
Saturday
Saturday, I dragged Paul up to Derby for the day, which was very nice indeed. It was a lovely day, and even though the city centre was as busy as usual, it was quieter around the edges. Quite a nostalgic day for me, discovering new shops that had sprung up since December 2004 (my last visit, with Vicky) and others which had disappeared.
We had a wander around the Victorian Market Hall before lunch, where Paul bought me a new hat:
Which was nice. You can never have too many hats. This brings my fedora/trilby total up to four: black corduroy with pink/turquoise ribbon band and buckle, turquoise felt, white fluffy knitted with black/gold pattern, new orange/black check. I've also got another one coming from eBay shortly, as well. Pictures of that whe it arrives.
We also went into HMV, where I bought him two CDs (anniversary presents, you see) and several DVDs: Terry Gilliam's Brazil, The Jacket, and Shirley Valentine for my mum, as all three were ridiculously cheap in the sale. I should have bought the Wizard of Oz 3-disc set for £9.99 whilst I was there, as it's not on sale in Birmingham. :(
We wandered around the museum and art gallery, since I'd spent four years in the city and never managed to do so, and continued our cultured weekend. The contemporary stuff was alternatively quite good and quite crap - the "Blue" paintings based on Mediterranean waves were really cool, as were the photographs of shoes in different locations (they were better than they sound). The museum's mummy room is frelling brilliant, too - they have a mummy in there where the face, hands and one of the feet are visible and perfectly preserved. The teeth are also bright white, which was quite scary, but they could well be fake...
After that, we went to Barracuda Bar for food, and for lunch we had an entire farm. No, really. Seriously, this thing was huge. It was a sharing platter for "two or more" - which was a severe understatement, as I think it would need at least four people to even make a dent in it. It came on a tray that was as big as the table (average-sized two-person pub table) and contained: two large beef and lamb sausages, two different burgers (one herbed/spiced beef, one beef and lamb), a huge rack of ribs, eight Peri Peri chicken wings, two 4oz steaks, and some chips. Plus a piddly of salad, sour cream, and something called Monkey Gland Sauce, which tasted vaguely of tomato. We did quite well, considering, and didn't need to eat for the rest of the day. Unsurprisingly.
After that, we went for a walk to burn off the calories and meat headaches, so I dragged Paul towards The Factory, where I took a couple of pictures on my phone. They don't seem to have emailed, though, so I'll have to try that again later. I imagine they're not that good anyway.
Finally, we ended up at Coyote Wild - another place I failed to get into at Uni, mostly because we got IDed on the way in and didn't bother afterwards, being pissed off that a predominantly student-orientated city wouldn't accept NUS cards as ID - and sat in there until 5.30 trying not to fall asleep. We definitely need a Coyote Wild in Birmingham - they do flaming shots! Including absinthe, served with sugar and a spoon! Unfortunately, by that point the other market had closed, and also the Eagle Centre is being refurbished so I was completely confused to find exits missing. Anyway, we went back to the station and managed to get straight on a train.
So, yeah. A very nice day. It seems the city is now realising the full potential of having students and graduates living there; it now has another Subway, a Benjys, and the 'pub strip' along Friargate continues to extend. As much as I would love to live back there, Paul won't have any of it. Well, except perhaps for six months or so, but I think we'd both miss Birmingham too much. I missed Birmingham when I was at Uni, but all the same, going back to Derby still feels comforting and homely...
Anyway, we bought a bottle of wine upon arriving back at New Street, and headed home afterwards.
Sunday
Sunday was our anniversary. The morning was spent sleeping due to the mad activity of Saturday, and we headed into town at 2.00ish. Of course, it was Easter Sunday, so all our plans went to Hell, as I anticipated. The original plan was to go to Bacchus (where we went on our first date) and the Flapper (where he asked me out). The Flapper was already a write-off due to the MGM rubbishness back in March, as Paul didn't have his passport, and in all likelihood the manager would have remembered him anyway. Paul had phoned Bacchus about two weeks ago to ask if they'd be open on Easter Sunday, and it turns out the woman on the phone was lying when she said they'd be open as normal. We got there at about 2.55 to find a sign on the door saying they were closing at 3.00. Wonderful. Which also sort of implies that they wouldn't have been serving food anyway.
So, we fell onto the contingency plan of going to the Brasshouse instead, which turned out to be a good idea, as they do a £6.95 carvery on Sundays. We wandered around Brindley Place for a bit and discovered a live band playing on the bandstand outside All Bar One. However, after being ignored by three entire separate bar staff on six occasions, we got pissed off and left. All Bar One is great, if you can ever get bloody served in there.
After a wander around the canals, we found ourselves going on a barge trip around the Birmingham canal system, up to Icknield Port and back again. That killed an hour and was pleasant enough, since we hadn't really planned on it. It was also pretty much the only option left, as the Malthouse was also not letting people in after 3.00 and most of the other bars in the area were shut - not because it was Easter Sunday, but because the football was on. God forbid the rest of the civilised world should want to have a quiet drink, after all.
A trip down Broad Street later and we ended up in OhVelvet, who made Paul take his hat off and caused much hilarity with some drunken lary types at the bar when they saw his hair. We sat in there for one drink and then went home. I liked OhVelvet better before it turned into a bloody sports pub, but I suppose it's rather too much to expect of a pub on Broad Street to remain pleasant and chav-free.
Quite a strange day, really. It was nice enough, but I couldn't really shake the disappointment of our plans being scuppered by Bacchus' opening hours again (the first time being on my birthday, when we got there too late) or the annoyance of everythng getting ruined by football, as usual.
Monday
Monday was quite subdued, by comparison. The morning was spent watching crap television, as usual, and I was in a grumpy mood for various reasons that I don't want to go into, and then we spent the afternoon like civilised people and played Scrabble. I won four games out of six. I rock.
Watched half of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at Paul's before bed and had tinned bolognese on toast for supper. Mm.
There was a random hilarity in the middle of the night (5.15am, to be precise) when Paul shouted "Fuck off!" to imaginary dream-people and woke me up. Somehow, it seemed to also coincide with whatever I was dreaming out, which I now can't remember. Apparently, in the dream, he was shouting to people across a road at the top of his lungs, and then woke himself up with the shouting. I just remember some incoherent mumbling and then the swearing...
I went into town with him (he had to go to work) and went to McDonalds for breakfast, then wandered around trying to find shops that were open. First, I went into Superdrug and got some disposable razors. I'd gone in for hair dye, but didn't find that until much later in the morning in the little Superdrug on New Street. I'll post pictures when it's done, if it works. Also searched for said hair dye in Boots and failed horribly. I was technically in town looking for some black cord trousers/jeans/similar and some sandals for the summer, and failed on both accounts. I got my grandmother a birthday card in WHSmiths (eventually, when it opened), and got myself a new purse off one of the stalls. It's a bit smaller than my current one, but that one is slowly giving up the ghost, which serves me right for buying cheap purses, I suppose...
Then I went to look around Primark, which was nice only in the fact that it was empty and not like a jumble sale. Didn't buy anything, though. I was going to go around the Bull Ring, but got distracted by shiny things in HMV. Unfortunately, I completely failed to get anything in the sales, and came out with four things at full price instead...
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical Box - 3 CDs for £8.99! It has some songs I don't already have, and I'm a sucker for musicals compilations anyway...
The Corpse Bride soundtrack
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack (both Elfman)
Alanis Morrisette's Feast on Scraps, which I've been eyeing for the past two years... still not reduced, but what the hell. This will hopefully be my last splurge before the flat happens, other than upgrading my computer.
And that, I think, is that.
Today, I'm going to have a shower, change my bed, and, um, do nothing much else, because my back aches. Tomorrow I will hopefully go through those bloody boxes in my room, because they're annoying me. At some point, I also need to send off more application forms for inevitable rejection.
Maybe a couple of other posts later if I can be bothered. I should say some stuff about the past year, and some other stuff, too. And I have some interesting photos to post. Brace yourselves.
Thursday
Thursday was mostly an ordinary day at work, and I got a lift home at 4.45 in order to get changed and go out again to see Sweeney Todd at the Alex, starring Jason Donovan and Harriet Thorpe (she of Brittas Empire fame - she played Carole, the mad receptionist). I had absolutely no idea what to expect of the show, other than it was by Sondheim and therefore inevitably quite good. What Paul and I sat through was two hours of complete and utter wonder. The production itself was very post-modern, comprising one set (a wooden-slatted backdrop, huge shelves reaching up to the rafters with miscellaneous junk on them, a coffin, and some chairs) and only about 10 cast members, all of whom were playing at least two instruments - yes, including the leads; Jason and Harriet were both playing percussion throughout (Harriet plays a mean triangle :D) and Jason also on guitar at one point - and singing their character parts.
The one-set setup, I imagine, is also easier to accommodate in a tour, rather than complicated set pieces, but the costumes were also quite modern. Sweeney's victims - the entire cast, one by one - were represented by wearing blood-stained lab coats, which also fitted in with the opening sequence of Tobias/Toby and Johanna as patients in a mental asylum. The music was alternatively discordant and quite annoyingly hummable, with some rather wonderful rhyming. My personal favourites was probably when Sweeney and Mrs Lovett were discussing the different types of human meat...
It was also post-modern, if such a thing can be 'defined', as such, in the way the characters didn't directly address each other, but the audience, and the multiple uses for the coffin prop.
Overall, then, absolutely brilliant. The cast were all amazing with their different instruments - I counted a violin, two cellos, a double bass, a piano, a piano-accordian, two different sets of percussion, one with cymbals and one with a xylophone/glockenspiel (which is which? It was the one with metal bars...), a guitar, two trumpets, and a clarinet. There may have been more. And that, by the way, was the entire orchestra. Harriet Thorpe was bloody brilliant and very funny, and, well, there was a very disturbing moment when I found Jason Donovan attractive. Yes, I know I must be beaten with sticks. It was just the look on his face, this sort of evil, expectant smile, and the overall tortured-soulness, all dark eyes and stubble. (I wonder, what's the irony in a barber who doesn't shave himself?) I last saw him in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London as Caractacus Potts, which is more a role to show off dancing than singing, whereas Sweeney Todd is much more multi-layered character, and definitely demonstrated his range a lot better.
And! There was shippiness! Not just Johanna/Anthony, but Sweeney/Mrs Lovett, and all the miscellaneous everyone-wanting-to-shag-everyone-else that was going on. So, more smuttiness than shippiness, but still. Enough to make the Inner Shipper more than impressed, at least. :) Jason and Harriet actually had a surprising amount of chemistry, as well.
Very impressed, all things told.
This would have been a much better review on Thursday, or at least closer to the event, but I've not had the time...
Friday
So, on Friday, Paul and I headed off into town to the Art Nouveau Poster exhibition at the Gas Hall, which was pleasant enough. This was to signify the start of a rather cultured weekend. After that we sat on the steps of Chamberlain Square in the sunshine for a bit, and went to the Yard of Ale to waste more money in their ItBox. A quick trip to Paul's to get his stuff, and then back into town to get food in the Briar, to discover that they've stopped doing the interesting-sounding nacho platter that they had in their menu for all of a week... and, of course, more money-wasting in the ItBox. We really need to get over our gambling addiction...
I don't remember what we did in the evening...
Saturday
Saturday, I dragged Paul up to Derby for the day, which was very nice indeed. It was a lovely day, and even though the city centre was as busy as usual, it was quieter around the edges. Quite a nostalgic day for me, discovering new shops that had sprung up since December 2004 (my last visit, with Vicky) and others which had disappeared.
We had a wander around the Victorian Market Hall before lunch, where Paul bought me a new hat:
Which was nice. You can never have too many hats. This brings my fedora/trilby total up to four: black corduroy with pink/turquoise ribbon band and buckle, turquoise felt, white fluffy knitted with black/gold pattern, new orange/black check. I've also got another one coming from eBay shortly, as well. Pictures of that whe it arrives.
We also went into HMV, where I bought him two CDs (anniversary presents, you see) and several DVDs: Terry Gilliam's Brazil, The Jacket, and Shirley Valentine for my mum, as all three were ridiculously cheap in the sale. I should have bought the Wizard of Oz 3-disc set for £9.99 whilst I was there, as it's not on sale in Birmingham. :(
We wandered around the museum and art gallery, since I'd spent four years in the city and never managed to do so, and continued our cultured weekend. The contemporary stuff was alternatively quite good and quite crap - the "Blue" paintings based on Mediterranean waves were really cool, as were the photographs of shoes in different locations (they were better than they sound). The museum's mummy room is frelling brilliant, too - they have a mummy in there where the face, hands and one of the feet are visible and perfectly preserved. The teeth are also bright white, which was quite scary, but they could well be fake...
After that, we went to Barracuda Bar for food, and for lunch we had an entire farm. No, really. Seriously, this thing was huge. It was a sharing platter for "two or more" - which was a severe understatement, as I think it would need at least four people to even make a dent in it. It came on a tray that was as big as the table (average-sized two-person pub table) and contained: two large beef and lamb sausages, two different burgers (one herbed/spiced beef, one beef and lamb), a huge rack of ribs, eight Peri Peri chicken wings, two 4oz steaks, and some chips. Plus a piddly of salad, sour cream, and something called Monkey Gland Sauce, which tasted vaguely of tomato. We did quite well, considering, and didn't need to eat for the rest of the day. Unsurprisingly.
After that, we went for a walk to burn off the calories and meat headaches, so I dragged Paul towards The Factory, where I took a couple of pictures on my phone. They don't seem to have emailed, though, so I'll have to try that again later. I imagine they're not that good anyway.
Finally, we ended up at Coyote Wild - another place I failed to get into at Uni, mostly because we got IDed on the way in and didn't bother afterwards, being pissed off that a predominantly student-orientated city wouldn't accept NUS cards as ID - and sat in there until 5.30 trying not to fall asleep. We definitely need a Coyote Wild in Birmingham - they do flaming shots! Including absinthe, served with sugar and a spoon! Unfortunately, by that point the other market had closed, and also the Eagle Centre is being refurbished so I was completely confused to find exits missing. Anyway, we went back to the station and managed to get straight on a train.
So, yeah. A very nice day. It seems the city is now realising the full potential of having students and graduates living there; it now has another Subway, a Benjys, and the 'pub strip' along Friargate continues to extend. As much as I would love to live back there, Paul won't have any of it. Well, except perhaps for six months or so, but I think we'd both miss Birmingham too much. I missed Birmingham when I was at Uni, but all the same, going back to Derby still feels comforting and homely...
Anyway, we bought a bottle of wine upon arriving back at New Street, and headed home afterwards.
Sunday
Sunday was our anniversary. The morning was spent sleeping due to the mad activity of Saturday, and we headed into town at 2.00ish. Of course, it was Easter Sunday, so all our plans went to Hell, as I anticipated. The original plan was to go to Bacchus (where we went on our first date) and the Flapper (where he asked me out). The Flapper was already a write-off due to the MGM rubbishness back in March, as Paul didn't have his passport, and in all likelihood the manager would have remembered him anyway. Paul had phoned Bacchus about two weeks ago to ask if they'd be open on Easter Sunday, and it turns out the woman on the phone was lying when she said they'd be open as normal. We got there at about 2.55 to find a sign on the door saying they were closing at 3.00. Wonderful. Which also sort of implies that they wouldn't have been serving food anyway.
So, we fell onto the contingency plan of going to the Brasshouse instead, which turned out to be a good idea, as they do a £6.95 carvery on Sundays. We wandered around Brindley Place for a bit and discovered a live band playing on the bandstand outside All Bar One. However, after being ignored by three entire separate bar staff on six occasions, we got pissed off and left. All Bar One is great, if you can ever get bloody served in there.
After a wander around the canals, we found ourselves going on a barge trip around the Birmingham canal system, up to Icknield Port and back again. That killed an hour and was pleasant enough, since we hadn't really planned on it. It was also pretty much the only option left, as the Malthouse was also not letting people in after 3.00 and most of the other bars in the area were shut - not because it was Easter Sunday, but because the football was on. God forbid the rest of the civilised world should want to have a quiet drink, after all.
A trip down Broad Street later and we ended up in OhVelvet, who made Paul take his hat off and caused much hilarity with some drunken lary types at the bar when they saw his hair. We sat in there for one drink and then went home. I liked OhVelvet better before it turned into a bloody sports pub, but I suppose it's rather too much to expect of a pub on Broad Street to remain pleasant and chav-free.
Quite a strange day, really. It was nice enough, but I couldn't really shake the disappointment of our plans being scuppered by Bacchus' opening hours again (the first time being on my birthday, when we got there too late) or the annoyance of everythng getting ruined by football, as usual.
Monday
Monday was quite subdued, by comparison. The morning was spent watching crap television, as usual, and I was in a grumpy mood for various reasons that I don't want to go into, and then we spent the afternoon like civilised people and played Scrabble. I won four games out of six. I rock.
Watched half of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at Paul's before bed and had tinned bolognese on toast for supper. Mm.
There was a random hilarity in the middle of the night (5.15am, to be precise) when Paul shouted "Fuck off!" to imaginary dream-people and woke me up. Somehow, it seemed to also coincide with whatever I was dreaming out, which I now can't remember. Apparently, in the dream, he was shouting to people across a road at the top of his lungs, and then woke himself up with the shouting. I just remember some incoherent mumbling and then the swearing...
I went into town with him (he had to go to work) and went to McDonalds for breakfast, then wandered around trying to find shops that were open. First, I went into Superdrug and got some disposable razors. I'd gone in for hair dye, but didn't find that until much later in the morning in the little Superdrug on New Street. I'll post pictures when it's done, if it works. Also searched for said hair dye in Boots and failed horribly. I was technically in town looking for some black cord trousers/jeans/similar and some sandals for the summer, and failed on both accounts. I got my grandmother a birthday card in WHSmiths (eventually, when it opened), and got myself a new purse off one of the stalls. It's a bit smaller than my current one, but that one is slowly giving up the ghost, which serves me right for buying cheap purses, I suppose...
Then I went to look around Primark, which was nice only in the fact that it was empty and not like a jumble sale. Didn't buy anything, though. I was going to go around the Bull Ring, but got distracted by shiny things in HMV. Unfortunately, I completely failed to get anything in the sales, and came out with four things at full price instead...
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical Box - 3 CDs for £8.99! It has some songs I don't already have, and I'm a sucker for musicals compilations anyway...
The Corpse Bride soundtrack
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack (both Elfman)
Alanis Morrisette's Feast on Scraps, which I've been eyeing for the past two years... still not reduced, but what the hell. This will hopefully be my last splurge before the flat happens, other than upgrading my computer.
And that, I think, is that.
Today, I'm going to have a shower, change my bed, and, um, do nothing much else, because my back aches. Tomorrow I will hopefully go through those bloody boxes in my room, because they're annoying me. At some point, I also need to send off more application forms for inevitable rejection.
Maybe a couple of other posts later if I can be bothered. I should say some stuff about the past year, and some other stuff, too. And I have some interesting photos to post. Brace yourselves.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-18 12:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-19 09:02 pm (UTC)I certainly remember Harriet Thorpe - turned up in Ab Fab as well.
"There was a random hilarity in the middle of the night (5.15am, to be precise) when Paul shouted "Fuck off!" to imaginary dream-people and woke me up."
-- roffle! I proper lol'd reading this!
Disposable razors? Hmm!
Congrats on 1 year!