usedtobeljs

It was chilly in the subtropics overnight, which meant I worried about my thermostat setting (I have a heat pump, which is highly efficient until 40 degrees F and then...is not.) Now the subtropics are getting a tropical wave of warmth, which means it will be uncomfortable next weekend. Sigh...

But otherwise, I am back at work, hanging on by the very tips of my fingers.

What I'm reading: Miss Dior by Justine Picardie, which focuses on Catherine Dior and her relationship to her brother Christian. I'm in the section where Catherine, who was a member of the French Resistance in WWII, was sent to Ravensbruck, so it's not exactly light entertainment.

What I'm watching: All Creatures Great and Small (the season the UK just had), the occasional Marple mystery on Britbox, and still Slow Horses. But does anyone else struggle in watching new shows? I am v. busy and I just don't have a lot of time....

Lastly, I'm thinking about British theatre and the two (!) new productions of Oedipus in Fall 2024 and Winter 2025, as well as trying to cajole my travel buddy into seeing the Brian Cox-led Long Day's Journey into Night in May. (I will skip Player-Kings, wherein Ian McKellan plays Falstaff. I fucking hate Falstaff.)

So -- hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Back after a few days of travel to my favourite city, looking at my to-do list, heaving a sigh....

It was lovely to be away, despite Tube strikes making at least one planned activity impossible. The place my travel friend and I stayed was an amazing terrace house in Chelsea, owned by a person who is heavily into country-house style and conveniently placed for hanging out with friends and the King's Road. I visited the Thames multiple times, did some shopping, did some eating...

And saw a WONDERFUL production of A Number at the Old Vic. Lennie James and Paapa Essiedu were outstanding.

But of course it's been a sad, sad week + of world news, and I'm thinking of the people in Ukraine and those in Russia who don't support the war but are trapped in a country where the economy is about to collapse.

Sending hugs and light to all those who need it.

So tired. So sad at the news of RBG's passing (may her memory be a revolution). So ready to move out of this time.

Instead of thinking of that, 10 Good Things:
1) The Old Vic livestream of Faith Healer, brilliant and unsettling theatre. Mr Michael Sheen, mesmerizing (well, he plays a faith healer) and shaggy and feral; Ms Indira Varma, tragic and elegant; Mr David Threlfall, pathetic and perfect.
2) After reading a lot about sustainable fabrics and the problems with polyester as it's usually used (there are some exceptions), I was bummed to see that a skirt I wanted from a London brand was polyester. But lo! A massive clearance was happening at Needless Markup, and I got an equivalent piece in silk at 1/3 the price.
3) Boot season!!
4) It looks like (knock on wood) Hurricane Teddy will miss Bermuda, which already has been hit with Hurricane Paulette this season. Ready to go back to Bermuda once this madness is finished.
5) The local forecast teases us with a cooldown to average temperatures this week. I need autumn...
6) Blueberry pancakes (with ginger and nutmeg in the mix, peanut butter and agave nectar as toppings) this morning, finishing the mix I had.
7) Made it through the HARD exercise class Thursday, and am almost over the soreness.
8) Someone's reading my Anthea/Mycroft series on AO3 and leaving me kudos on every story. Since I am feeling insecure, that's a real lift.
9) Finished a longstanding knitting project -- which doesn't look great, but is off my needles. ;)
10) Also finished knitting my first cowl! Cream cotton, suitable for 8 months of Florida weather.

What good things in this vale of tears are you thinking about? Hugs to you all.

So, I have been buffeted by work crises and family crises, all amidst the general pandemic/lockdown anxiety, and really, I can't stand to think of any of it right now.

But before I turn to an afternoon of work, here's a quick 10 Good Things:

1) The National Theatre at Home this past Thursday showed a 2017 Twelfth Night that I missed in the theatre. You can still watch it for free until this Thursday.
2) It's really delightful. Oliver Chris is an Orsino I've never seen before (sort of bisexual Bertie Wooster with Shakespeare's words), and I loved Tamara Lawrence's Viola-Cesario, and I ship them like burning.
3) My thing for Tim McMullan (who will also be in the upcoming Antony and Cleopatra) got even more intense after seeing his louche Sir Toby.
4) Also continuing to love Christian Kane and Almost Paradise.
5) Shifting gears: read the first in Ashley Weaver's 1930s historical mystery series, Murder at the Brightwell. Heroine Amory and her wayward, louche husband Milo are a rich couple in England, negotiating marriage issues, when Amory stumbles into investigating a murder. Fun, even with 1st-person narration. Will read the next in the series and report.
6) Shifting gears again: have been spending too much money online, but I bought on rare sale a Liberty-print popover shirt from Ann Mashburn, and it's joy-making to wear.
7) Also? My purchase of a straw Stetson last summer is looking prescient, because I need a hat to go out these days.
8) Miss Adventure continues to be a wild child, but I see moments of trainability which encourage me. She's currently in heat (because of course) and she can't be spayed until lockdown is over anyway, but once that's done, we'll try walking in the park.
9) She is the cuddliest cuddle-bug there ever was, too, which is a delightful change after Master Danger.
10) In two more weeks I'll be able to breathe more easily. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Hugs and good days to all.

Welp, I had not planned to go silent for the last month, but it's been hell at work and then my big trip, so....

I'm back!

My birthday, which was a big one, was v.v. quiet. Had a lovely lunch with Freixenet and went to my killer exercise class, with work bits inbetween. Had a dinner with best bud A and her husband the week before (because they were on their way to a Central America holiday), and am promised dinner with best bud S at some point in early January. So there we are.

Did make it to London and back. (I just missed the horrors of train delays and washed-out motorways, so it was all good.) You might know that I'd planned an overnight trip to Paris as well, but, er, the Paris transportation strikes and the cancellation of our Eurostar meant it was just London. That was all I needed.

Theatre: A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic, with Paterson Joseph a great Scrooge and inventive, interactive staging by Matthew Warchus and great singing and energy from the company, pity about the muddled script by Jack Thorne; The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National, SO FREAKING GOOD, magic and sadness and scares and healing, with Samuel Blenkin excellent as the Boy and Justin Salinger handsome and effective as Boy Grown Up/Dad, and Pippa Nixon as a first-rate creepy Ursula Monkton (one major plot point changed from the book, but it really worked); Cyrano with James McAvoy, directed in stripped-down moderne stylee by Jamie Lloyd as is his wont, GREAT first half, slow second half where the directorial conceit and script did not work nearly as well. McAvoy is as excellent as one would expect, and also hot as hell.

Exhibitions: first time to the Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury (tiny, evocative); a powerful, magical, transformative Tim Walker exhibition at the V&A, which I will be thinking about for a long, long time; the small but choice exhibition at the Museum of London for the 40th (!!!) anniversary of the Clash's London Calling.

Visits with Paratti and L, as well as my brother and brother-in-law.

Eating out: Ivy, Tower Bridge, for my birthday dinner; Champagne and cheese at Champagne et Fromage near Covent Garden; dinner at Joe Allen which I enjoyed tremendously. Oh, and tea at the Ritz, where the Good Omens references came thick and fast.

Shopping: exhibition T-shirts, loads of books (including Zawe Ashton's latest play), stationery, Fortnum's (OF COURSE), and a gorgeous Stina Goya silk shirt from the Shop at Bluebird.

Master Danger was moderately pleased to see me return.

So -- will try to post one more time before the decade ends, but until then, happy holidays.

Where have I been? Nowhere? What have I been doing? Spinning my wheels in mud.

Otherwise, 22 points:

1)I am passionate about my new car. As a person who has hitherto not liked driving, I thoroughly enjoy zipping it around.
2)I do not understand all the connectivity bits, however. It will take a day of sustenance and poss. prayer to be able to make it through the manual.
3) Master Danger has not yet been in the car, but I have a new fleece backseat protector so that he, King o' Shedding, won't leave an ineradicable presence.
4) My baby brother was here this past weekend, and he spoke warmly about the car, which is nice since I drove him around for two days.
5) Saturday was a perfect morning for our beach walk. I am reminded that I like beach-walking, and I like the sound of the ocean.
6) It's odd what one forgets, eh?
7) I did NOT forget to book a ticket for a November night of Betrayal on Broadway. Hooray! Orchestra seating (I still think of it as the stalls), albeit a goodly number of rows back.
8) Look, I just love Hiddleston and Ashton and this production, I don't know what else I can say.
9) It'll be the only show I see, because DEAR GOD Broadway tickets are expensive. (Like, double the price of West End seats.)
10) I'll take the train up to the Bronx to see a dear friend of mine and his family instead.
11) I also need to book for this exhibition at the FIT museum. It is my kind of thing.
12) Weather permitting, I'll also check out the High Line.
13) That's about it. Am not an NYC person.
14) What else... I de-accessioned a few pieces from my closet yesterday.
15) And, er, I purchased YET ANOTHER shirt-dress, no I am not going to link, I am too embarrassed.
16) But it is my style, after all.
17) Have also been revisiting the Tenth Doctor era of Doctor Who. Lord, DT was young back then. I was struck by the star power of "The Lazarus Experiment," too -- Mark Gatiss as Main Baddie, Bertie Carvel casually walking through as sinister person from Harold Saxon (sadly never to return), Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Martha's sister and Adjua Andoh as Martha's mom. Wow.
18) Also rewatched "School Reunion" (evil Tony Head, BLESS) and "The Girl in the Fireplace" (which is my favorite of Tennant-era Who). Love love love.
19) Off to work now, but I am glad to have checked in.
20) Master Danger will go out into the steam-heat and then head for his bed, where I have a fan just for him.
21) And I will be driving to a Nearby Town, poss. in the rain, for a TSA Pre-check appointment. I am so very spoiled.
22) Hugs to all, and joy for you!

So anyway, my right foot is Not Right.

As a Woman of Mid-Heels, I have had trouble with my feet before, but not serious trouble. However, a couple of months ago my right little toe was probably broken -- let us not dwell on the accident -- and I didn't have it looked at. (For what would they tell me to do? You can't put a cast on a toe.) In favoring that side of the foot, however, I messed up the other side of my foot as well, and basically, ow.

This poses some problems a few weeks before five-mile days in London, in addition to hurting now.

So I have had to rethink outfits so that I can wear sneakers most of the days, which also means that I have to rethink what sneakers to wear. Luckily they are on trend, and I have replaced less comfy trainers with some rather fancy ones from Air and Grace London. But still. BUT STILL.

Ow.

(I am making an appointment with a podiatrist, but the problem won't be fixed by trip-time.)

Making me feel slightly better is the sight of Ms Zawe Ashton wearing sneakers and cropped trousers in the rehearsal photos for Betrayal. Actually, the photos themselves of Ashton, T Hiddleston, and Charlie Cox are things of beauty and joy forever, not even mentioning the sneakers. So that's something.

Cheers and better days for all. We persevere.

Let us begin the year with my guilty confession.

I have been thinking seriously -- amidst clearing and organizing -- that perhaps I should do a clothes-fast for six months, other than replacement of crucial daily goods as needed (socks, for instance, and trainers). Seriously.

Until yesterday, when the Boden catalogue came and there was a Shirt Dress which needs to live in my closet: long, swingy, vaguely Union-Jack patterned, 70s-inspired. It was/is everything.

I've haven't bought it yet, but you know... you know.

Otherwise, I am still obsessing about who will play Jerry and Emma in the upcoming production of Betrayal. Last night I suddenly thought of Laurence Fox (ah, Hathaway), and then I thought of his wife Billie Piper as Emma, and got v.v. excited -- until I googled. I had somehow completely missed that they had had a v. acrimonious split. Also, then I read his Twitter and eye-rolled for almost ten minutes, so I withdraw the suggestion, universe.

But I'll probably buy the stupid shirt dress.

Cheers for your mid-week!

Oh, yikes, I hadn't realized it had been three weeks since I posted.

Well, it's been a whirl of Stuff, from work-travel to work to extra work, and then there was the election, and I am not handling any of this particularly well. Hoping that Thanksgiving week makes me feel better. Better-ish.

So what is good? Um....

*I am feeling some kind of way about Tom Hiddleston's failure to get his hair cut, and by 'some kind of way,' I mean, Thank you, Tom, and may the Lord bless and keep you for this bounty. I just love the curls and the messiness (and the gentleman's, um, high forehead, bless), esp with the glasses.

*Also, Betrayal (see link above). Oh Lord. Am I getting up at 5 am on Friday, Nov 30, to try to get a ticket? Yes. Yes I am.

*Autumn has (mostly) come at last to the subtropics, and I am indulging in pots of tea. Tonight, because of a sore throat, it's a Twinings lemon-ginger tisane.

*Master Danger reports that CBD oil, taken on a treat morning and night, is the absolute business, and he is playing and running much more than of old.

Otherwise I am here, and sending hugs to you out there.

1) London was lovely, despite the shortness of the visit.
2) I am currently in love with Rory Kinnear, Bertie Carvel's curtain-call bow, walking across Tower Bridge at night, James Tissot's 19th-century society paintings (like this one), Fortnum's (as always), visiting with friends, shopping at the Covent Garden Paul Smith shop, and splashing out on a posh hotel.
3) I also saw Belleville at the Donmar, which featured James Norton in a fine performance (with moments of undress) and Imogen Poots but also was just the kind of play I am inclined to dislike. Well done, though.
4) Now, home, I am sick. A chest cold has fallen upon me in manner of ravening bad thing.
5) Christmas, quiet but nice.
6) Master Danger has gotten over his joy at having me home, at which point he was sweet as cake, and is now snappish again.
7) The Christmas Doctor Who wrecked me, because I am not ready to let Twelve go, but I liked the episode (and loved Mark Gatiss's performance, my darling. Also -- how nice is Steven Moffat as a best friend, to write that gift of a part for his work husband!).
8) Time for tea.
9) Hugs to all!