Birthplace

Spent the night in Sale, the place of my birth all those years ago.  We stayed with my 2nd through 5th year form teacher and English teacher and his wife as he was the producer of a show at the Waterside, Robert Bolt Center.  He had previously told us about a local opera company called "The Flat Pack Opera" and I had said that it was a shame we would probably not be in the country when they performed any time.  As it happened, they were performing Marriage of Figaro by Mozart in the evening and so we had arranged to be there.  It was a great experience and the performance was minimalist with a keyboard and guitar for music but the singing was brilliant throughout, and the opera is funny and very beautiful in places.  It was all sung in english, the first time I had been to an opera sung in English and the libretto had been updated to include some more modern phrases, including some humorous lines.

My teacher, in typical teacher fashion told me that Robert Bolt, who the theater was name after was also born in Sale and the only person from Sale with 2 Oscars and he asked me to think about what he may have received the Oscars for.  I failed, but he then went on to inform me that Robert Bolt wrote the play "A Man For All Seasons."  He received an Oscar for the screenplay which he also wrote.  His second Oscar was for the screenplay of Dr. Zhivago.  He also wrote the screenplay for Lawrence of Arabia.  As it happens, the music artist David Gray was also born in my birthplace.

Today my friend Chris, who I was with on Sunday last and who lives local to where we both grew up.  We walked along the Bridgwater Canal (the first canal to be dug in the UK), to a coffee shop to catch up with both of us before we headed back down tot he Midlands for a couple of restful nights.