My trip to London (Hammersmith).

Last night was a big night for me. I travelled all the way to Hammersmith to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Lyric. It was a great play, with a surprising modern twist to it, for a Shakespeare play. It was kind of part musical, part pantomime, and part traditional play. They had songs, of all different types. Most memorable was the rock song sung by Bottom, played by a well known British actor. And they had plenty of jokes thrown in for good measure, such as the one where Puck was playing a video game, with Lysander and Demetrius as players in the game. They kept shooting things (invisible to the audience) and then the game eventually turned into a game of table tennis, the 80s version.

They also used paint and glitter and food, which created a sense of fun in the play. At one point, all the characters and musicians had a big food fight, which also got the audience involved, as they threw some of the food out to the audience. They also threw something up near where I was sitting, which was very exciting to witness.

The actors were also extremely energetic and mobile on the stage, using up every available space. They even had fake walls that the actors smashed their way through - and although it looked very painful, they were only made out of paper. They even had a fake floor at the front of the stage, which one actor fell through, making the audience think it was an accident, so we all leaned forward to see if he was hurt, but we soon found out it wasn't a mistake.

Then, after the show, I went looking for a place to eat. Sadly there were no decent restaurants open, so I thought maybe a pizza place or Starbucks could serve me something. But it turned out they were both not really open either. So I ended up going to a pub. Which I have a few pics of, which I took whilst I was there.

Here's the cappuccino and packet of Cheese and Onion crisps I had at the pub. I don't drink you see, so I wasn't going to get any alcohol. And they'd stopped serving proper meals by that stage.

This was the wine list. I only took a pic of this because it says Chardonnay on it, which is what Kim likes to drink in Kath & Kim. But she calls it Cardonnay.

And here is part of the pub, where there are stairs that go down to the toilets. And the toilets (the girls ones) are lovely. They've got great big mirrors, and lots of little spotlights in the ceiling.

Also, I'm sure you'd like to see the programme of the play I saw.

And here it is. Beautiful, isn't it?

Thank you for reading about my trip to London. Please let me know what you thought below, or on Twitter.

Lots of bloggin' love, and kisses, Ss1. xxx

Blueberry & lemon muffins (recipe from Botanical Baker's blog).

So, I have been up ALL night baking, and I've made these gorgeous, gooey, and genuinely lovely muffins.

This is the one I tried earlier this morning.

And this was the whole batch of 12 muffins just after they'd come out of the oven. See how all the goo is oozing out of the sides? And I think they rose a lot whilst baking.

Check out the muffins before they went in...

They look really flat in this pic, but I had literally filled the cases as much as I could. I honestly thought there was too much mixture at first. I thought there's no way all this mixture will fit into those cases, but miraculously, it did!

And here is a pic of them still in the oven.

Thank you for reading my blog about the muffins. I'd appreciate some comments on how you thought my muffins turned out. I can honestly say I felt more confident with these, than I did when I made Petticoat Tails all those months ago.

Ss1. xxx



Choir news.

Hi everyone. Just wanted to say I'm sorry for the lack of blogging recently, but I have been pretty busy setting up a Kath & Kim blog and finding/joining a choir. And that is my big news. I have joined a choir.

I have so far only been to two sessions of it, but I do hope to keep going to it, and also there's an event coming up at the end of this month which I hope to take part in. I want to keep it on the down-low (or DL if you prefer to shorten the term) at the moment. But once it's been done I don't mind telling you all about it.

Also, it's nice getting out and meeting people, even if they are like double my age. And that for me is the only down-side to this choir - most of the people there are older than me, so apart from two people I already know, I find I have no-one to talk to properly. The up-sides are singing (because obviously I love doing that, and if I didn't I wouldn't have wanted to join a choir so badly), dancing (even though it's not a full-on physically straining dance routine involved, it is fun to do little moves with the singing) and getting out, and travelling to a place I'd never been before, even though the area the choir is in is pretty local.

Anyway, that's all I can say about the choir for now.

Thank you for reading.

Ss1. xxx

P.S. Here's the link to my Kath & Kim blog: http://mykathkimblog.blogspot.com/ x

My drawing of Sue and Giles as Kate & William.

Here's my latest drawing of Sue and Giles. It's not the most flattering one I have ever done of them, neither is it identical to them, but it does look comical, and makes Giles look younger than he is.

I have obviously altered the original photo of it, and added a blue border and thought bubble above Sue's head to show her thinking about stuff to do with their Royal Wedding - the shoes and rings.

I hope you like it. Please let me know what you think below, or on Twitter.

Thanks.

xxx

Sue Perkins and my drawings (video).

This is a video I have created which combines clips of Sue Perkins and drawings I have done. There's a funny ending too, so watch out for that. x

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

First Love.

In the show First Love on Sky Arts 1, Sue Perkins learns how to play the piano all over again, after not playing it for about 25 years. She first learnt it when she was 8-14 years old. She got up to grade 8, but gave it up after a girl in her school assembly played the piano exceptionally well, and so Sue didn't feel she could play as well as her.

To get an idea of what exactly happened in the programme, I have taken a number of pics, and a few short videos, for you lot to see.

I too used to play the piano, and was fairly good at it, but I never did any of the grades. I didn't have lessons for long enough to get them. But I did perform though. I remember doing it one lunchtime. I was a bit nervous about it, but I got through it ok. And the other day I even got my old keyboard out and tried playing some of the old tunes I'd learned to play, all because this show inspired me to do it.

So anyway, here are the pics I took of the programme:

Sue at a recording of Just A Minute.

Sue outside the Royal College of Music, London.

Sue in a book shop holding a book of Beethoven's music.

Mel and Sue in the Light Lunch days.

Sue in South Croydon, where she grew up, and first learnt the piano.

Sue at her old school.

Sue playing on the very same piano that was there when she went to school years ago.

Sue and Paul. (Sue's practising her Beethoven piece.)

Here is the video I uploaded to YouTube, which shows Sue on the day of her performance at the Cheltenham Music Festival: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-sWLKi2KYU&feature=youtu.be I must warn you, the sound quality isn't the best. I'd say you should turn your volume up to about 40, because otherwise you won't hear what Sue is saying.

This show was very enjoyable to watch, and after her performance, she says that she was thinking of Mel, and her parents while she did it. I thought that was very sweet, and at one point in the show it made me think back to when I met her, and how she has a more serious side to her, because she wasn't all jokey with me.

You lucky lot are the first to see my YouTube video of the show. And as far as I know it's the first clip from that show to go onto YouTube.

Let me know what you think of my video and blog post. Thanks for reading.

Ss1. xxx



Hair cut sketch.

So as some of you may already know, I got my hair cut yesterday evening. And for those of you who'd like an idea of how it looks, and @tearose68 who said she'd like to see a pic of my new 'do, here's the sketch I drew yesterday afternoon, which the hairdresser based my hair cut on.

That is not my face, by the way. It's just a general face that I drew.

Anyway, the actual hair cut is a little different from the sketch, as she decided to jazz it up a little, because she thought my inital idea was a little bit too old-style for my age. I did definately want a fringe though. And whenever I've got it cut in the past, the hairdresser would always make it too long, so I had to clip it out of the way. But that was in a salon that no longer exists. The salon that did it for me this time was completely new to me, apart from when I went in there before to get their card to see how much they charged for a hair cut. Amazingly, it was very cheap. But you wouldn't of thought it to look at me now. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I couldn't help telling people on Twitter about it. And a friend of mine said in a text 'Awesome bet it looks pretty :)' and yes, I think it does.

Thanks for checking out my drawing.

Ss1. xxx