... Well, blow me down, I can!

Barely a night's sleep for them or for me had happened before 07:07 when an email arrived saying I've been added to the roster of reviewers. Four minutes later I got a list of reviewable events over the next fortnight for me to choose from. I read through, checked my diary, told myself not to overcommit and put in a bid for six.

Which is now I came to be watching an open-air performance of Romeo and Juliet tonight at Oxford Castle. I'd have preferred Much Ado about Nothing (which I studied for my late-in-life-English A level 16 years ago) at the Adventure Playground (where I used to take my children 26 years ago) but someone else was quicker off the mark.

I spent the morning failing to overcome my perfectionist tendencies by digging into the internet for the castlist (harder to find than it should have been), researching the theatre company and reminding myself of the plot and characters in the play. I wouldn't do that with a play the audience was unlikely to know but I kind of feel that reviewers of Shakespeare need to know at least a bit of their stuff.

You will see that this picture is not open air. The extra is, but it started raining so heavily just after the interval that we had to decamp to the local church for the second half of the play.

After I got home it took me about two-and-a-half hours to write my 616 words which results in a very low rate of 'pay' but I got to enjoy the play (though goodness me, it's a ridiculous story) and I got to practise reviewing. I will get faster and I'm sure in future I'll do less background reading and work more on the hoof.