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Jun. 4th, 2006 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71Was doing my e-mail at 6.30 last night when I suddenly realised I had a ticket to see the RSC perform The Canterbury Tales at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth, starting at 7.30. I immediately shut down the machine, jumped up, ran upstairs for my ticket, pulled on my London 2012 fleece jacket, discarded it in favour of my light black one when I remembered how hot it was, transferred my cash, ticket and other gubbins from one coat to the other, and belted down to the bus stop.
Took the ferry over to Portsmouth and found there were no buses going to the Mountbatten in time for the play. Had no option but a taxi. The driver was wearing an England football shirt, so I asked whether he'd seen the England v Jamaica match in the afternoon - he hadn't, he'd been working all day, following the commentary on the cab's car radio - then we talked about the World Cup the rest of the way.
The play was superb, the cast brought Chaucer's pilgrims and the characters from the tales vividly to life just as I'd always imagined them. All of them were great, but Claire Benedict was outstanding - she was very sexy both as Symkyn's Wife and the Wife of Bath, and made a lively Pertelote too. The Knight's Tale was very moving and, unsurprisingly, the Miller's and Reeve's Tales were the funniest, both very well presented although I wish Alain and John had been kept as Geordies instead of being changed to Yorkshire lads.
At the interval, among the display boards lining the auditorium I spotted a Brunel 200 board and went over for a look. Among the leaflets on the table was a notice saying 'Please take a FREE book' next to three copies of Jules Verne's Around The World In Eighty Days. I couldn't believe it at first, but soon reasoned that this was the real deal and helped myself to a book.
Coming out of the theatre after, just past 10.30, walking towards the main road I saw a bus going past. Arriving at the bus stop I learned it had been the last :( It was uncertain whether the £7 I had on me would have got me a taxi back to the Hard, and there wasn't an ATM anywhere near (not that I wanted to increase my overdraft by another £10 anyway), so I walked and walked all the way to the Hard. Back on the Gosport side, I took a taxi home.
It was 11.30. My mother was still up, doing some last-minute packing. Before I went to bed she insisted I translate a thank-you letter for our Royannais hosts into French, and listen while she gave me the low-down on my duties while they're on holiday, like watering the plants and buying The News every day.
Woken just before six this morning by the parents getting ready to leave for Gatwick. I got up just long enough to say goodbye and crawled back to bed.
Took the ferry over to Portsmouth and found there were no buses going to the Mountbatten in time for the play. Had no option but a taxi. The driver was wearing an England football shirt, so I asked whether he'd seen the England v Jamaica match in the afternoon - he hadn't, he'd been working all day, following the commentary on the cab's car radio - then we talked about the World Cup the rest of the way.
The play was superb, the cast brought Chaucer's pilgrims and the characters from the tales vividly to life just as I'd always imagined them. All of them were great, but Claire Benedict was outstanding - she was very sexy both as Symkyn's Wife and the Wife of Bath, and made a lively Pertelote too. The Knight's Tale was very moving and, unsurprisingly, the Miller's and Reeve's Tales were the funniest, both very well presented although I wish Alain and John had been kept as Geordies instead of being changed to Yorkshire lads.
At the interval, among the display boards lining the auditorium I spotted a Brunel 200 board and went over for a look. Among the leaflets on the table was a notice saying 'Please take a FREE book' next to three copies of Jules Verne's Around The World In Eighty Days. I couldn't believe it at first, but soon reasoned that this was the real deal and helped myself to a book.
Coming out of the theatre after, just past 10.30, walking towards the main road I saw a bus going past. Arriving at the bus stop I learned it had been the last :( It was uncertain whether the £7 I had on me would have got me a taxi back to the Hard, and there wasn't an ATM anywhere near (not that I wanted to increase my overdraft by another £10 anyway), so I walked and walked all the way to the Hard. Back on the Gosport side, I took a taxi home.
It was 11.30. My mother was still up, doing some last-minute packing. Before I went to bed she insisted I translate a thank-you letter for our Royannais hosts into French, and listen while she gave me the low-down on my duties while they're on holiday, like watering the plants and buying The News every day.
Woken just before six this morning by the parents getting ready to leave for Gatwick. I got up just long enough to say goodbye and crawled back to bed.