Day: October 7, 2011

It was our anniversary last weekend and Katy, the Bean and I went to Leicester. The plan, originally, a long time ago, was for us to leave Bean with the oldies and go down to London for one night to have a nice meal and some R&R time. This, unfortunately, was tossed out of the window on several occasions when the oldies got their hospital appointments mixed up, sorted out, and then mixed up again. In the end, we stayed in Leicester but tried to sneak out as often as possible. Even this was pooh-pooed though, with snarky comments about costs and eating plans. Poo on the oldies, I say!

Still, we had some good moments. Katy and I had tickets to go see the live telecast of the 25th anniversary performance of the Phantom of the Opera at the Showcase cinema. The male lead wasn’t as good as Colm Wilkinson, but the female lead was excellent. We also went to Twycross Zoo, where we saw lots of amnimals and debated leaving Bean in a monkey enclosure. Bean rode on a train and saw some Lennies, and then went on a ride with Mel, but didn’t seem too keen on it.

We also went to a farm not too far away from Leicester, where Bean was almost eaten by a sheep (which provided much mirth to his parents), got covered head-to-toe in loose straw and rode on several tractors (including a live one, though this time it was in a haybale ride).

We decided to leave a bit early on Wednesday to go see the Christmas display at Scottsdales. That was cool, and provided some good ideas for the huuuuuuuuuuuuuge Christmas display I’m planning to make in the office this year. I do have to admit that I’m going a bit mad with the planning of it, but I can’t seem to help myself ebaying more stuff to get for it :) Watch this space!!!

Pics online: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/leics_oct_2011

Katy and I went to see the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers at the Cambridge Corn Exchange last week. It’s something that I organised through the EBI Staff Association and it was a really good show. We had to rush a bit getting there, because Bean was a handful to get to bed, but even though we got there a few minutes after the show started, it wasn’t a problem to get to our seats and we were really up-close and personal with the action (a bit too close at times, because one of the drummers freaked Katy out with his demented-drummer face).

I’m really happy to have seen the show. It was really powerful at times and most excellent. The technique and the movement is beautiful to watch, and they had the choreography spot on. It was fun because, even though they’re very dedicated to their craft, they don’t seem to take it too seriously (as demonstrated by a man built like a brick shit-house playing a teeny-tiny percussion bowl).

It really makes me want to see the Kodo Drummers even more now, and hopefully they’re going to come to the UK next year.