E Bay

If the expression "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" is actually true then we are a Richard Dawkins kind of a family. Erin is spectacularly untidy, really, even by the standards set by our family. However, she has hit upon a novel and profit making way of tidying her room. Instead of putting her clothes in drawers and wardrobes she is selling them on E bay! You must admit that's smart. She's already made about £100.
Actually, we were all fascinated to see that somebody called Steven had bought her pink stiletto shoes.
Now all she has to do is not buy any more clothes with the money she makes

Who are those people in my picture

I expect you've all seen this. A couple were posing for a picture on the timer in Banff when a curious rodent took a look

Hamlet

Last weekend I went to London with my lovely friend Emilie and some of her other friends to see Hamlet. I got to go for free because somebody else dropped out (excellent for me) and was really looking forward to doing something vaguely cultural for once. It was also made more exciting by the fact that Hamlet was being played by Jude Law. Jude Law, if you don't know, is a film star, bit of a play boy but generally agreed to be really rather nice looking. Here he is:

I thought I was going to the Donmar Warehouse but it was actually part of the Donmar's year long residency at the Wyndhams Theatre which is a very different venue! I don't really go to the theatre as much as I'd like so am not qualified to be a critic at all, but I do know Hamlet pretty well having studied it at A-level. I've never been to one of these 'star' plays where they have someone ultra famous in the lead role and pretty well nobody else you've ever heard of in the rest of the cast, so I was interested to see what effect it had on the play overall. They also did it in modern dress which some people have an issue with. I don't if they do something with it but more on that later. My unqualified opinion was that Jude was actually pretty good. He was a troubled and dramatic Hamlet rather than a cocky or a funny one, which is fine I think as that is one interpretation of the character. What I did find was that he out-acted everyone else in the cast. The only other person I thought was any good at all was the guy playing Polonius who did the flappy Dad/politician bit really well. Penelope Wilton was Gertrude and alright, Gertrude is a bit of a rubbish part overall I think, but she didn't bring much to the stage at all. Having said that I've never seen a good Gertrude so maybe it is just the part.

The scenary was very dramatic and looked like the ramparts of a castle which was quite mean and moody and felt right for the play but I had an issue with the costumes, or lack of them. They were in modern dress, which is fine, but all the clothes were black or grey which just gave no interest to the eye on stage and made it all feel a bit oppressive. At the beginning when they urge Hamlet to 'cast off his inky cloak' I was thinking that it would make no difference as everyone else was dressed like they were going to a funeral as well!

However, that aside I did really enjoy it. I'd forgotten how many famous quotes come from Hamlet and let's face it, when Hamlet looks like Jude it doesn't really matter what he's wearing :)

Here is what The Independent thought of it (they're a bit harsher than I was I think):

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/first-night-hamlet-wyndhams-theatre-london-1696528.html

A lovely day was then finished off by wine and grub at Pizza Express and left me thinking I must make more effort to get tickets to things like this. I also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the Liberty's haberdashery to get bits for customising our wedding invitations - it's like a treasure trove in there I could've spent hours digging around!

Love Kate xxxx

Momento

We have just had a lovely walk from Great Chesterford to Saffron Walden across footpaths. It is a sunny walk and we got to a staggering 90 metres at one stage! Can you imagine? When we got there there was a thoughtfully placed bench. I love it when people put benches in parks and on footpaths so that their loved one, dog or whoever can be remembered fondly by them and appreciated by those who want a sit down and a chance to admire the view. However the plaque on this bench was thus!

What's all that about?
The little plaque next to it had been scratched out but you could still read:
To David from Gertrude. Happy Birthday!
Clearly somebody really didn't like David. I wonder if we will ever find out who.

Fat cat.

This is Maru a japanese cat who is obsessed with boxes. Brilliant! This is totally what the internet is for!

Day out in Warwick Castle

Here we are at Warwick Castle. All the Martins and partners, plus Kate, Brian and I had a get together in the middle(ish) which was Warwick Castle. The weather in our lovely sun drenched island was - wet actually. It rained, significantly for most of the day. However not all day - here we are during a dry bit outside the orangery.
Here is Alice shooting a bow and arrow. Underneath are Mike and Kieran shooting bows and arrows. Alice was actually better and got more arrows into the target.
Here we are trying on hats in the castle. All very entertaining.
Here we are having lunch. There aren't that many picnic benches, and very few under cover, so we sat on plastic bags for our picnic. We has a really good lunch, and not much overlap of food. Kate is not here because she got stuck behind a horse box and then a caravan, and then had no change for the car park, and then having got change, the machine ate her money and she had to phone the car parking people. I think she needed gin when she arrived, but had to make do with food instead.
We had a really nice day. The castle is a bit too 'hollywood; and doesn't actually feel really like a mediaeval castle. Having done lots of castles this year and spending a lot of time in a medieval castle at St Donats we consider ourselves pretty up on castles. There were some things that were excellent - the trebuchet firing a fireball at the end was brilliant. Lots of things like the fighting, the jousting (which actually was rained off for us but is usually there) and such like would be great for kids, who seemed to be having a great time. However it was heaving so you were in queues a lot of the time, and in wet weather the restaurants were insufficient for the numbers, but we were unfortunate with the weather.