Life in Dulwich

Here I am in Munich. It has been all snowy and generally round about minus one to five degrees since we´ve been here. All proper snow too. The kind that drifts down slowly in large flakes, all silently and settles on your nose. It´s all crunchy under foot and the efficient Münchners have gritted everywhere.

Rehearsals are going well and we´ve ploughed through the first act. Only thing is we have had a trauma. We went to pick up our set from storage to find that two thirds of the main set covering has been binned in an act of mindless cleaning. It´s very sad as the set was so effective considering is was for touring. Now it will be very sad and little indeed. Berndt, the designer, is livid - as is our director and well, us, really. Ah well - the path of touring never did run smooth.

Nonetheless all is well and Munich is beautiful as ever. We went to see the Crucible last night at Amerika Haus and it was most excellent. Very powerful, well-acted and full of great imagery. Had dinner with the cast and they were all lovely and chatty.

So far have partaken of roast duck, kabeljau red Thai curry, paprika schnitzel, grilled swordfish, heaps of lovely salad and sauerkraut since being here. Paul got me a box of porridge as a pressie which is very nice indeed. (I know it seems strange to be excited about porridge).

Enough drivelling, don´t seem to have much exciting to say.

Labels: acting, food, theatre, travel

Today was the day of doing a gazillion things.
-Went to post office
-Went to sorting office
-Reposted misposted mail (our postman does not seem to have the hang of putting the right mail in the right mailboxes, which is strange as it's only his job)
-Bought warm toasty thermals
-Went to bank
-Swam 3/4 km at the gym (ran out of time so had to forego last quarter km)
-Had lunch with trusty friend, S., who is in the midst of buying a house (hurrah!)
-Bought lovely Mac makeup (in anticipation of the money I will be earning in the next few weeks)
-Sorted out bills
-Bought Don Quixote (in celebration of whatever hundredth anniversary it is since it was first published - and I haven't read it and have meant to for a long time)

and now only have laundry and packing to do.

I was so tired after swimming I turned my blummin ankle again. Sheesh. Will have to ice it up and strap it up and fingers crossed will be all right. Any kindly thoughts towards my ankle would be greatly appreciated.

Anyways, after all that shopping, shopping, shopping have come to the conclusion that being alive is a very expensive business. Or I suppose I could just have fewer things and not be warm, comfy and well-fed - but where's the fun in that?

I love University Challenge! It's such a good programme. I could watch episodes back to back with Brat Camp thrown in for respite. Cracking competition today between Durham and Balliol College. Soooo close.... I was screaming "Malaysia!" towards the end when neither team knew the answer to the question, which country has the states Perak and Kelantan in it.

Now that's what I call television.

On a calmer note...

Just come back from big slap-up dinner. Went to our new local trendy bar/brasserie, Liquorish. Had cocktail (feijao mojito), mussels in white wine, big slab of tasty sirloin (organic) and burnt lime cheesecake. All for £23.00. V. good and v. worth it. BB had Liquorish cocktail (consisting of coriander, pear liqueur, vodka, lychee juice and some other herby thing), duck liver parfait, roast chicken with cinnamon breadsauce and wine sauce, mixed berry millefeuille (without milles of feuille but some kind of biscuit base instead). All, also good.

Stomach is now round(er) like a balloon and have to lie down in darkened room in front of telly. Hurrah!

Labels: east dulwich, food, television

Surprise! BB and I said no pressies this year (or actually most years) as we don't have the money but at 16.00 this afternoon the doorbell rang...

Big bunch of roses and lots of foresty foliage - all dewy and sweet smelling - and pretty catkin thingies.

Spent a happy half hour arranging them in my swish new Christmas vase.

And though it was supposed to be no presents I'm all smiley inside and out.

The thing is it's all very well for Iceland to be powered by all things geothermal but what happens when the volcanoes run out? You're gonna be needing some big mean plumber from the sky or it's going to be one long spell without hot water.

Well spent most of yesterday editing script for Moon Palace. We've been doing it 4 years and still using the script from first year even though about 45 mins has been cut from it.

Am viewing the prospect of doing it again with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. Visions of dislocated limbs float before my eyes (dislocated my ankle during the second performance last year) and am reminded that I am becoming more decrepit as time passes. Sigh... It is also excruciatingly embarrassing to be playing a dancer and sitting on the side of the stage saying your lines for most of a 3 week tour.

Also updated my mini iPod which is now crammed full of Advanced German lessons and Charles Trenet! Boum!!! If you want to be happy, listening to Charles will do it everytime.

Labels: acting, music

Well, hurrah! I've finally beat the 100 second mark on the Expert level on Minesweeper - a feat that has only taken me several months. Or could it be years?

Am I sad?

Perhaps. But it's the weekend and I can do what I like. Now I can hold my head up high and proclaim that I am in the same elite group as JK Rowling and the boy from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Strangely, despite my triumph, I didn't win the Lottery - yet again. Tis most perplexing.

A billion, trillion things to do before leaving for Munich. Supposed to be swimming my statutory kilometre at the gym, but have to negotiate the cruddy weather first. So far we've had hail, torrential rain and bright sunny skies - and it's only 9am. Still, at least it's not minus 5 degrees, which it is in Munich. Auggh!

Besides the mad swimming have to get Euromoney, post vitamins to parentals, do laundry, acquire warm socks, look at script, pay bills, suspend voicemail activity for a month, tidy up, get reading material for long boring hours in van, buy plane ticket to Malaysia, sort out my music library on mini Ipod for long boring hours in van, wash car, fill out E111 and generally fry my brain. Oh - and pack.

I guess I should get started instead of doing this. But this is so much more fun. And doesn't involve labour. Ah well, to work...

Spent today doing chores which have been putting off for a very long time. All to a backdrop of rain, hail, sun, wind and other seasonal pleasures.

Driver's wing mirror on car has been vandalised and doesn't stay in place - except with judicious amount of Blu Tack. Even then have to adjust the mirror at every traffic light. Grrr, @£%^&* vandals. This after having driver's window broken at Christmas. I hope God vandalises the dark teatime of their souls. (Though I suspect that's happened already.)

First, off to ParcelForce in Greenwich - always a delight. They said they only had one parcel but on checking tonight find they have two. So, have to go back. Hurrah.

Then to B&Q where we were charged outrageous sums of money for eco-friendly lightbulbs. Ah, environmental friendliness - the pastime of the wealthy. Looked at expensive electronic equipment in Comet and then left. Went into Teletubby Sainsbury's and bought soul-soothing sustenance instead.

Next stop, home and then loaded car up with a shopload of deceased computer equipment. At the dump we were surrounded by the insidious hovering of weirdos waiting to make off limping and drooling with their spoils. This is why we don't go to the dump often.

Home via the scenic route - housing estates of Camberwell. At least it avoids the Walworth Road.

Then we got home to see the suspicious Paramedic Ambulance that has been parked opposite the flat for several weeks has moved - to our side of the road. Keep giving its occupants the evil eye but they seem impervious.

Labels: London

Spent 5 1/2 hours on the South Bank by Tower Bridge filming for Comic Relief.

It rained.

A lot.

Still, got to meet Jim Broadbent and see him dressed as Batman on a child's scooter, tearing up the riverpath. All in a day's work.

Don't know if I should be giving out such information - but it can be looked upon as a spoiler.

Labels: acting, celebrity

In honour of said New Year, tried out new restaurant recently called Shanghai Blues. Had great time and came out pretty darned relaxed - which is what eating out should be about. Review as follows:

"This beautifully decorated restaurant has definitely taken a leaf out of Hakkasan's book when it comes to interiors. However, I'm glad to say the staff do not maintain the same level of pretension as its predecessor. The manager, Michael and his staff are all extremely warm and friendly and on our visit the service was efficient and not overbearing.

The bar serves your usual selection of drinks, nothing very different, but there is a good selection of wines (pricey) and we had a very palatable Sommelier Rhone.

Menu is great. Very wide variety of dishes with a real mix of traditional and new fusion. There is an emphasis on seafood including Alaskan Crab, seabass, dover sole, lobster, razor clams and scallops cooked in a variety of ways. The lobster and crab are quite pricey. We had filleted seabass with strawberry sauce, which was interesting - but not sure we would order it again. The fish was great - the strawberry sauce, not so much. Razor clams with beansprouts and chinese chives were pleasant but perhaps not outstanding. The braised pork belly with Chinese spices was to die for. So tasty with pickled vegetables stirred into the sweet savoury sauce. The manager asked if we were put off by the fattiness of the meat but as that is what pork belly is all about, we assured him that it was perfection. We also tried two vegetable dishes - morning glory with Shanghai spice sauce and kailan (Chinese broccoli) with salt fish - both divine. There is a great choice of vegetable dishes (though beware - some are not necessarily vegetarian) and also an interesting dim sum menu.

Desserts are good, but portions are small - except the fresh fruit platter which was a good size and included mangoes, papayas, lychees, strawberries, melon and others. We had red bean and green tea pudding and Yuan Yang delight (a glutinous rice pudding) - both extremely tasty.

There is a good selection of teas though not too adventurous.

There is so much to choose from in the menu that the restaurant definitely merits several return visits - especially as the food was generally so tasty.

The bill came to £125 including wine, desserts and drinks for three but after the introductory 40% tip we paid just £84.00. A definite good deal and wished we'd gone for the lobster!

The restaurant is divided into several rooms which makes it quite intimate and we are told they have live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings.

On a final note, the washrooms are lovely and they use Molton Brown toiletries - another plus!"

Labels: festivals, food, restaurants