Offstage

Day started with no children in the house, no breakfasts to be made, no demands to be met - didn't really like it, house is far too quiet without them.

And so we went and picked them up from my folks' holiday flat late morning and enjoyed their company for the rest of the day until venturing out for the evening. So, when I implied that we'd missed them that didn't mean we were going to pass up a cheap night at the theatre, not when grandparents are here and offer to babysit that is. So, the play was Age Of Arousal at the Lyceum and was really rather good. I'd booked the tickets ages ago, completely forgotten what the play was about and when I read the summary in the brochure before heading out my heart did sink a bit, did not know if I could really be arsed with it, it just all sounded a bit broad for my tastes. However, I was really impressed with it, pretty sharp, witty, some ancient vulgarity I'd never heard before and very well staged. Something I'd never seen before was the fact that one side of the stage was completely open so that throughout the play you could see the props about to be brought on, the actors waiting for their cues to come on and a little bit of the general mechanics of theatre. I only had my 'little' camera with me but think it's captured something that my 'big' camera certainly didn't on a wee blip trip along the canal earlier.

The obligatory bit of music to finish with. It's been doing the rounds on the blogs and that for the last few days but this cover of a Joni Mitchell song by James Blake is pretty startling. It might not be everyone's cup of tea perhaps but in terms of the arrangment and delivery I think very few would deny that he is nothing if not highly talented at the very least.