Sunday, August 28, 2011

Four days to go ...

Life News:

Only 4 days to go now until we finally move to a permanent home, hurrah! I really can't wait. The drip in the ceiling in the rented flat had a bit of a surge yesterday with the torrential rain, but it's calmed down now. Sunshine is indeed our friend, or at the very least dry weather. Still, it does give our collection of buckets a purpose, which has to be a good thing.

Thursday night found us at the local theatre watching an adaptation of Wilkie Collin's The Woman in White. Hmmm, not convinced it's persuaded me to read the book. I appreciate it was originally a serial, but having no fewer than thirty-five scenes in a play doesn't really help the audience connect to anything. Also, the actors were startlingly melodramatic and a couple of times I got an attack of the giggles and felt like I might be heading into the twilight zone. Again. Still, K and I had fun trying to guess the evil baronet's (the most fully rounded person on stage) guilty secret. We thought he might be a Morris Dancer (ah the shame ...!), but in the end it turned out to be nothing more interesting than a marriage certificate problem. Sigh. Also, it did annoy us that the mad Woman in White kept rushing onto stage, telling everyone how much she hated the baronet and would do anything to destroy him, but never got round to telling everyone his secret (which she knew). Ridiculous! If she'd said something at the start, we could easily have cut thirty-two scenes, at least. However, the ice cream in the first interval (of two ...) was very nice - salted caramel. Mmm. Am definitely having that one again.

Have also had a lovely lunch and catch-up with G, my ex-neighbour's daughter, so that was great. And a nice break from houses and moving, etc. Hello, G! Yesterday, K and I visited Waddesdon Manor for the day - fantastic house and well worth a visit (you'll need to book before you go ...), but the gardens are seriously dull. They look like they've been done by someone trained in designing municipal parks - not that there's anything wrong with that, but it just doesn't enhance such a gorgeous house on any level, sadly. Indeed, when we drove through the town nearby, the colour schemes and plantings were almost exactly the same - perhaps the Council does the Manor gardens on the cheap? It wouldn't surprise me.

This afternoon, K and I are off to see The Turn of The Screw at Glyndebourne - which is their last opera of the year, sob. It's a great production and we've seen it before, but honestly it's utterly worth seeing again, multiple times, I think. Haunting and compelling stuff.

Book News:

Gay short story Tommy's Blind Date gained a 4-star review at Goodreads (thanks, Dlee!), which was very pleasing indeed. And the comments thread there also discussed my gay crime novels The Bones of Summer and A Dangerous Man, so that was nice too. Thank you, all.

Here's the next small section from fantasy novel, The Gifting:

It is Johan himself who has proposed this solution to Gathandria's troubles. Even now, he can't quite believe it.

The latest meditation poem is:




Meditation 564
The last thing I want
is a long list of Levites
but that’s exactly
what I get

which just proves the point
that following God
is always
a challenging bet.


The Sunday haiku is:

After this dark rain
the day begins with silence
under brighter skies.


Anne Brooke
The Thoughtful Corner

6 comments:

Jason said...

Happy Sunday. Happy Weekend too. Hope you have an amazing week, moving into the new place, gosh so very exciting. Hope all goes smoothly without any major hassles, breaks or losses.

Anne Brooke said...

Thanks, Jason! Hope you're having a lovely bank holiday Monday - it's sunny here right now, well gosh!!

3 days to go ...

:))

Anne
xxx

Krista Walsh said...

Bah - my comment didn't post? Let's try this again:

I recommend you give Wilkie Collin a try! I couldn't put down The Woman in White or the Moonstone.

Anne Brooke said...

I'll have to give it a try one day, Krista! Surely it's got to be better than the play of it ... ==:O

Anne
xxx

Devin OBranagan said...

Congratulations on your new home!

Love your poetry. :-)

Anne Brooke said...

Thanks, Devin! I'm certainly looking forward to Thursday, that's for sure xxx