Saturday 25 January 2020

Noah saved the day.........


Wednesday I had to be at the hospital for 11am for surgery, nil-by-mouth of course from the night before. I was prepared for an overnight stay and warned it could be a little longer. 4:20pm I was told my op had been cancelled. So messaged Hubby to come and take me home.

While I was waiting for him I messaged some of the people that needed to know starting with my children. After all the expected conversations Daughter suggested that the next day we do something extra "as it's a day you didn't expect to have free" she said, and suggested Noah's Ark Museum  which has been docked on the Ipswich Waterfront for three months and we've never found the time to visit before. Ideal!









We all loved it and it gave us plenty to admire and discuss. I adore all wood and the craftsmenship was wonderful. We are not religious as a family but mostly understand the bible stories and were amused by the narrative boards a little by some of the translations from Dutch. The dialogue was all done in a humorous way and very entertaining.

Then a walk along the Waterfront in the sunshine and a cuppa in a cafe.
My spirits were lifted.
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Sunday 19 January 2020

Packing........


Oh my it certainly has felt like a full on fortnight! We've been catching up with friends that we didn't fit in around the festive season, so a couple of lunches out and an evening out as well as our usual evenings out.

I've had a theatre night and we've had the cinema which I've already told you about.

For SERVSC Bloodrunners there was an evening at The Rosie Neonatal Hospital in Cambridge where they showed us around and fed us well with pizzas and cakes to say thank you for the milk runs that supply their premature babies when mum can't.

And a quiz night held in Ipswich which was good fun and also raised over £400 for the SERVSC charity

I'm out again tomorrow, lunching with friends but today we were home, catching up with ourselves, doing some much needed housework and thinking about packing for two weeks in Florida starting 4th February but first I've another short stay in hospital starting this Wednesday to pack for, plus we did have a visit from Daughter, R, O and the dog, a very welcome distraction! 
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Friday 17 January 2020

Date Night (part 2)......


As mentioned before, this is our Christmas present to each other.

I'd received another 50% discount at Beefeater which expired Thursday and as we were busy every day of the week before that, then Thursday was decided to be our cinema Christmas date.

It's quite a long film and as we had Daughter, R and O here for lunch and the dog for the afternoon too we decided to go and eat first film second. This time the Tesco Clubcard voucher worked and we learned that you register your car in the cinema and don't pay the parking meter.




I'll not paste the story outline here as those who love Star Wars know it already and those that don't, don't care and to me it is far too confusing.

Seems there are 18 Star Wars films which started in 1977 with Episode IV and this most recent is Episode IX.

So story and maths aside, it was the usual mix of clever film making, loud dramatic fighting scenes both in spaceships and hand-to-hand light sabre battles, familiar music and the occasional very witty line in amongst the dialogue packed script.

As expected there were some amazing "other planet" creatures and they brought back many of the original cast in cameos or hologram messages and they even included the late Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia even though she'd died before this film had been written.

I didn't hate it and Hubby loved it.........now what on earth do I get him for his February birthday?
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Tuesday 14 January 2020

Theatre: Sherlock........





​     "Who'd be interested in this old relic, Holmes?" murmured Watson, one morning at the breakfast table of 221b Baker Street. "Nonsense, Watson. A splash of cologne and a trim of your moustache, & I’m sure someone would have you". "Be serious, Holmes. Look here - in the Morning Post!"
     Thus began the case that Dr Watson dared not share with the public, till now. A case that, were its full facts to be known, would shake the nation to its very core, and beyond.
     Ancient artifacts are disappearing from museums and private collections all over Europe,. A pre-Christian effigy one day, a shamanic totem the next, a pagan fetish at the weekend. Either someone's on their own personal antiques road trip, or they're trying to summon dark forces. and gain mystical powers. But to what end…and why?
     The ensuing adventure takes Holmes and Watson from the wharfs and alleys of East London, to the icy wastes of the north and the hidden temples of the east (changing at Peterborough), as they pursue "The Warlock of Whitechapel"


     Julian Harries and Dick Mainwaring once again don the deerstalker, plus fours and travelling capes of Holmes and Watson, & are joined by Common Ground regulars Joe Leat & Emily Bennett in this classic Xmas comedy thriller.

     Common Ground have been bringing their distinctive brand of  music theatre - with strong narrative, strong emotion and just a touch of the surreal – to venues across East Anglia, since 2008.

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We try to fit in one of these every Christmas, so it's almost our pantomime. This time it had to wait till January and performed in a different venue but just as good (apart from hard seats).

It's very predictable. Makeshift costumes, deliberate overreacting, mistakes and trips which I'm not convinced weren't scripted anyway, and an abundance of rude innuendos. Total nonsense that makes us laugh out loud and come away smiling.
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Wednesday 8 January 2020

Date Night (part 1).......


Hubby and I are definitely finding present buying for each other almost impossible so this last Christmas I suggested we just didn't. It certainly took the pressure off me while I'm having to come up with good ideas for what to buy everyone else, however, I'm the only person Hubby has responsibility to buy for and he seemed a little unsure and did quietly mention occasionally "so would you like this/that/the other".

I made another suggestion "what about giving each other a cinema date night?"
We go to the cinema very very rarely as we don't actually have the same taste in entertainment at all. So I said I'll watch the new Star Wars with him, with a smile on my face, and he can watch Cats with me, with a smile on his face.

It should have been free as Hubby had claimed on our Tesco Clubcard vouchers, but armed with the email complete with QR code we still struggled at the cinema ticket machine and then carried on struggling with a real person and two of her superiors! We gave up and paid for our tickets.



It was an early evening showing which may account for the sparse audience or it may have been the very poor reviews!

I enjoyed it, the clever visual effects, the London's West End surroundings, brilliant computer generated fur coverings on all cats with active tails and twitching ears, and such talented dancers! It had the most amazing star studded cast, which distracted a bit from those that could actually sing and dance.

Some of the songs weren't songs at all, just dialogue in a sing song voice and the story was almost non existent. But overall it was a short time of complete escapism.

Hubby said "It was ok but not purrrrrrrr-fect!" hahaha

We rounded off our date night with a meal in our local Beefeater.....because we had a 50% off voucher. Then home for a cuppa as it was still only 9:30! A couple of old cheapskates but we did hold hands 😉
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