Last night was my big night out of the year, the trip to the fancy dress ball that required a new dress to be done right.

I spent the day watching Southwark Playhouse's Christmas Carol (really fun, please go see it if you like the story and buy your tickets soon as it's selling out quickly, details to follow). When I got home I settled down to finish my review of The Misanthrope that I saw on Friday with Amy and J, the one with Keira Knightley (summary: a good night out, but not worth 50 quid - more in the 20-30 range).

wechsler and I headed out quite late to the fancy dress ball. J went to "The Peryl's (a band) Victorian Christmas Extravaganza." My evening consisted of: 35 quid tickets; 500 people in room fitting 300; performances that you couldn't get to because of the crowds and couldn't see if you made it in the room; the zipper on my dress busting (FAIL!); five quid for 1) a mixed drink 2) a beer 3) orange juice 4) water; a 40 quid taxi ride home. J had: good music; a gift from Santa; two pound beers; one pound slices of cake; piles of friends; a bus ride home. I do really think he had a better evening overall. It all makes me think that next year I should host a Steampunk Christmas Extravaganza, hire a hall, and really make an event worth attending.

So, lessee, it's been a short week for me, since I was out of town on Monday. Tuesday night I stayed out too late to see if the Royal Court's "Cock" was as good as everyone says; the next night I was off to Sadler's Wells with mabel_morgan to see Carlos Acosta (link is my review). My favorite part of the night was hanging out with her, really; she is such good company and has really clear insight into human nature.

Last night was "stay at home and catch up" night. I left work super early (5:10), came home, cleaned, and roasted a chicken. The house looks ... a wreck still, so I'll be doing Wash Rinse & Repeat before the cocktail party tonight. Meanwhile, J's show opens tonight at the King's Head, so anyone who likes Charles' Dickens, perhaps you should get down there and check it out. They did a nice recovery from having their ceiling collapse on Sunday.

My boss has been gone this week so it's been oddly quiet and productive at work. I want to write about it but it seems like I have hardly any time to be online anymore, especially since blogging is banned at work. (I can do it from my phone but it's really an effort.) I did get asked to present at the local QA conference, though it's only a book review - but still, I'm excited about it. All the way in March ... and it's on my calendar.

I've also got an idea about what I want to do about the Ozu festival at the BFI. If any of you like 1920s-1960s Japanese cinema, let me know, and maybe we can see about going together.

Cock, the play I saw last night (link is my review) at the Royal Court, is quite possibly the best thing I've seen all year. The perfect dialogue, the fascinating story, the agony of watching it take place feet away from me ... close enough that every twitch of a cheek was visible.

Since it's sold out, here are the rules of the game for returns. Royal Court does not seem to want to be selling them over the phone. Instead, at 6:30 the write a list of the people who are waiting in line for tickets, and at 7:30 they give away any that are left. At 7:45, if there are any remaining seats, they will sell those (the difference is that these are not returns but merely people who have not shown up; as the play runs straight through latecomers cannot get in the theater). the queue starts forming around 5 and thankfully people are allowed to stand IN the theater (and not out in the rain and cold).

SEE THIS BRILLIANT SHOW IF YOU CAN. There is little chance of it being remounted in its current configuration. THIS IS PROBABLY THE BEST SHOW I'VE SEEN ALL YEAR. (I'm going to go back and read my list and see if I still feel that way after reflection.)

It's odd, before the show I was thinking that I need to rethink my approach to the theater and see less shows, later in the run. Writing the blog has made me a bit of a slave to my statistics, and early reviews get more hits. But I think the toll on me of seeing so many shows I haven't enjoyed means I should see less. Maybe part of it is seeing so many new plays, which can turn out good or bad; but this past month has been full of theatrical disappointments - and has been pricey to boot.

The cat is curled up next to me and I hate to leave, but needs must. And I have a feeling I'm probably hung over after all of th wine I drank last night (with the West End Whingers) after seeing the show. It was so good I just had to celebrate.

Now that I'm, er, working while I'm at work, writing has to be done outside of work - on my phone, on the tube, at home on the couch. Thus I bring you my recently completed review of Sweet Charity at the Menier Chocolate Factory. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't a four star experience for me. No, I reserve those accolades for shows like "Silence: The Musical," which was just brilliant (thanks again booklectic for the recommendation).

The rest of the week I'd better be dragging my laptop along with me, 'cause tomorrow is Firsts at the Royal Opera House and Wednesday is the all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello. I can't wait - but I'd better be getting to bed now as I'll be getting home late the next two nights.

Last night we had a great night at Sadler's Wells watching Birmingham Royal Ballet's Cyrano. It was really just insanely fun - I mean, sword fights and a baguette dance in a bakery and even a full-on battle scene! The dancing was good and the dancers totally won me over with their acting - I got sniffly twice. Anyway, the link above is my full review, and if you're even the least bit interested, I've included a link for half priced tickets in the review.

So Monday night was work then Habit of Art at the National Theater (the new play by Alan Bennett); last night was work then Birmingham Royal Ballet's "Quantum Leaps" program at Sadler's Wells. Man, I love the shows, but the writeups (which is what the links go to) are proving really difficult to do now that I have to (gulp) actually do work while I'm at work. I was even writing up "Habit of Art" while I was at the (2nd) intermission for the ballet last night.

Fortunately, tonight finds me at home, where I've just served bathtubgin and lovelybug my pasta with pesto and new potatoes (and cream) that seems so well suited for cold nights (double carb goodness!). I added some kale and squash to make it a little more healthy, then made a flan to ruin the overall effect. Now I'm so full my stomach kind of hurts. God, pesto just makes it impossible to really get my head wrapped around what a portion size should be. Anyway, it's now after 10:30, and I'm going to take my gut and go to sleep. More ballet tomorrow and then again Friday - sleep is for the lazy, I say!

First: my long-delayed review of Inherit the Wind, the play inspired by the Scope Monkey Trial. While I expected it to be more Viva Darwin!, thanks to David Nutt getting fired for saying drink was more dangerous than dope, it's message was stunningly timely. A real shame Kevin Spacey hammed it up so much but it was a good show nonetheless.

Yesterday we did a lot of things around the house after an enjoyable breakfast at the Astoria Cafe in Streatham, which reminds me nothing more than of wonderful mornings hanging out with the Quad. My later gardening efforts did not result in even one bulb making it into the ground, as the garden was so overgrown there wasn't really anywhere to put them. We finally gave out around 4:30, cleaned up, then headed to Brighton for the Brighton Early Music Festival's presentation of music from the Jesuits in China. What was particularly interesting is that so much of the concert was Chinese instruments, Chinese music, and even Chinese poetry. I especially liked the "Farewell to Yuan," called the "passe du soleil" in my program. Here's my version of the poem:

Wei town morn, rain soaks dust
Inn willows show fresh green
Drink one more cup of wine;
Past Yanguan, freinds all gone.

Anyway, it was all done in the Brighton Royal Pavillion, which was good because from our seats we couldn't see the performers at all as the floor is totally flat and they weren't even on stage.

Anyway, shooting off to have lunch at wechsler's sister's house ... will catch up later.

Only one night of theater this week? Yes, but I tried to make it count by going to two, count 'em, two shows last night. One was supposed to be a spooky Halloween thing that ultimately just wasn't (Slung Low, "Visions: They Only Come Out at Night"). The other was a modern choreographer (Michael Clark) going wild with David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Velvet Underground and even a little Wire. This was obviously a can't miss thing for me though it did make me think of Bongwater's "David Bowie Needs New Ideas" song. My review is up, and you'll notice I managed to throw in a visit to an art gallery, too. Seriously, it was like drinking three Nutrashakes in a row after starving myself for days.

Anyway, today I haven't so much as walked out the door, though I did let the cat play in the backyard. I thought I was going to do some gardening, but when I opened my boxes I discovered the reason the big one was so light was that it was mostly empty (bad!), and the rest of the bulbs are sitting in some delivery company's warehouse, waiting for a second delivery that was supposed to be the next business day after Thursday, though for some reason it appears Friday and Saturday do not rate. Maybe on Monday they'll show up and then somehow I'll find the time to plant these things ... gah, Saturday and Sunday next week are both gone, maybe the 14th?

Today mostly I failed to ignite. I had people coming over for dinner and getting that taken care of was my big goal. I made it out to do grocery shopping at 1 and got back at around 3; I started cooking at around 5:30 (after three of my guests called to say they weren't going to be coming over, so it reduced some of my stress). T & Lauren arrived at 7 and I finally got food on at 8:10. Overall the food went well but er, I find that now it's midnight and I'm utterly exhausted. Also I have leftovers for days. And I've discovered I really just don't like cauliflower, so there are some leftovers I won't be touching.

Tomorrow I'm going to visit M but also I'm going to stop by the Borough Market for Apple Day, because, you know, YUM, apples, only sadly not Honeysweets.

I managed to be online hardly at all today other than getting my review of Shunt's Money done. All three of us hated it. But otherwise no Twittering, no blogging, no reading or commenting. It's probably good to be doing the real life thing but I tell you, I am worn out.

Last night J, booklectic, adjectivemarcus, A and I went to the suburban wilds of Baron's Court to see Silence: The Musical, the infamous musical version of Silence of the Lambs. Unlike some musicals at this degree of infamy, Silence is actually a well-written, fun spoof of the movie that well rewarded the time and money invested (and reminded J and I of some of the better productions of Seattle's Brown Derby). Sadly, it was actually much better than most of the musicals I've been seeing lately, which just goes to show you money doesn't guarantee quality. Highly recommended.

Of course the whole thing about this week is that I've been booking too, too many shows, in part because there are so many good things on right now, and this morning I'm paying the piper because I did not get enough sleep. However, this has nothing to do with when I got home (10:30 - just enough to get 8 hours for work) and everything to do with staying up finishing my review and then sleeping next to someone with twitchy legs. GAH. How I miss the days when I can show up at 9:30 but these days it's meetings at 9 AM at least twice a week so sleeping in a bit more is just not allowed. Off I go, then.

Let me know if any of you want to hear about work; I tend to think that people are bored when I write about it.

For some reason J's computer doesn't want to start before I lose interest in being on it, especially if it is late at night. It takes it about 5-10 minutes to connect to the internet. That means I sit there surfing the web using my phone while I wait for the laptop to fire up. All I wanted to do last night was make a little update to my Cirkus Cirkor review and maybe say something on LJ, but I also wanted to get to bed at a decent time. So I wound up not updating LJ again yesterday.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I must never again schedule myself for four shows in a row, three of them on a school night, because this way lies madness. I left the Theater of Horror show at Southwark Playhouse in part because I knew I needed to get some sleep, and that's just no way to go around appreciating art. On the other hand, I got back to Tooting Bec before the station closed, and that's something.

So tonight is Silence of the Lambs: The Musical and I am looking forward to that. And somehow I need to write up my review for the show last night and then there will be another show to write up on my way home and AAAAA yep, madness. At least I slept great last night and even made it to eight hours, and per J the Neil La Bute piece was totally worth missing.

Last night I was awakened by another bout of coughing. I was all ready to write a post saying I'd about licked the cold, but no; I started phlegming, and then I started hacking, and then the 7 AM start time we'd set for today so we could go to the Cotswolds with our houseguest seemed like a painful, painful plan.

varina8 arrived, made tardy by Eurostar, and we took her off to ENO for "Opera Macabre," a show that looked like a lot of fun but was hideously marred by the sort of music (singing, really) that makes me want to stick knitting needles in my ears. What is up with modern composers and their desire to not bother with any kind of melody? Why is Squeak squeek SQUAWK foomp even worth singing, much less again and again? Now, mind you, seeing people fairly well having sex on stage, a man in drag being whipped by his mistress then forced to service her, and listening to Mr Death brag about being well hung may have been a different approach to opera, but it did not compensate for the horrible music. The cool set, the giant body of a woman who frequently had projections on her white skin (ie of all of the bones in her body), rotated, and had parts come off (the nipples), DID nearly hit the "cool enough" mark, but it would have all been so much better if we'd been wearing earphones we could have tuned to the kind of music we actually enjoyed. Spectacle it was and fairly watchable, but .... I leapt for the exit at intermission and headed to the pub next door for a consoling glass of wine and the comforting arms of "Disco Inferno." Then we chatted it up (with dreamsewing) until it was time to head back to Tooting.

Really, modern opera. Next time I'm listening to the score before I buy tickets.

Dammit, I'm sitting here, two computers fired up, reading the slide show and the original printed article that are the inspiration for the presentation I'm giving tomorrow at the office 2 hours north of London, and I totally don't want to work on it at all. I've napped, I've had a late lunch, and now I'm into serious procrastination mode as I've fired up LJ. Wow, look, I didn't read it for two whole days! Maybe I can find a cheap flight to India for Christmas, that's how I should be spending my time.

I also want to write up "Enron: the Musical," about which I'll say, not much of a musical but wow, a lightsaber fight! I managed to get my review of the Scottish ballet (not a euphemism for Macbeth, I promise) done yesterday through a combination of 1) highly portable laptop with unfortunately undercharged battery and 2) my phone but I don't consider that ideal as I like to be able to put links and such in my reviews and if you can't connect to the web while you're writing this doesn't tend to happen. Still, Enron must wait until later. But why WHY did I say I'd go do this talk tomorrow? AARGH MANAGERIAL DOOOOOOM.

Last night we went to see Insane on the Brain after work, a show that rated for me because 1) Clement Crisp liked it and 2) it was supposed to run about 90 minutes, thus letting me get home for my now much earlier bedtime. Review writing was challenging though due to, well, needing to get some freaking sleep and then this strange thing that's been happening lately where I'm working my ass off at work. It's so bad I don't leave the building and I'm going to have to work hard to start getting a gym schedule back (think my stamina is up for it even though I'm still snotting and coughing). Anyway, I did my review of the show IN THE MORNING when I was hardly even awake and then finished it on my phone while walking to the tube and then to my work from the station nearby. It's dedication, I tell you. That said, I'm expecting readership of my blog will go down.

Anyway, tonight we went to see a movie, which means all entertainment and no writing duties (other than voluntary LJing). Cloudy with Meatballs was light and fluffy and the kind of thing I'd imagine psychedelic drug users would enjoy immensely (especially the bit with the gummy bears, which had just a bit of an Akira feel to it). 3D is really so much better than it used to be: it even worked for shadowdaddy!

Uh ... I'd like to write more about work but will only do it in locked posts. Also, the only reason I'm really writing right now is because I'm working at one of the remote sites and can sleep in a bit as I don't need to be at my desk at 8:30 ... I just need to be at Waterloo at 9:10 or so. Thus I can be online at 10:30 at night, but I'm so tired I don't even want to be online anymore! I'm actually kind of relieved there's so little content on LJ these days, as to catch up between what I read before I went to work and what was produced between then and now didn't even take a whole page of flist reading. Anyway, night all ....

Got an email from my dad suggesting some life insurance policy name my husband as beneficiary. I don't get it - why does he think of him first and not me?

I'm still coughing and generating snot. I hate this. My energy levels are much better, though, which is great as I don't get worn out walking to the Tube anymore. I just don't understand: what is my body trying to accomplish with all of the mucus?

Last night we saw An Inspector Calls at the Novello (click the link to read my review) and really enjoyed it. Basically it's an indictment of moralistic, superior capitalists who feel like they have no responsibility of care to the rest of society - socialist to the core. It reminded me a lot of Shaw but without the long speeches and with a much tighter (and spooky) plot. I recommend it!

Today it's off to Milan for four days to see Jordi Savall and do who knows what else. I'm looking forward to it. With luck, my cold will finally burn itself off while I'm there and I'll be able to have a really good time. If not, well, two days off work, that alone has a lot to recommend it.

Most of yesterday was spent at the BCS quarterly testing conference near Regent's Park. Good news was that I had seen the first speaker and was able to get some desperately needed extra sleep in the morning. Better news was that the last speaker, Fiona Charles, gave a great talk ("Soft Skills for Testers") that wasn't just useful to share with the other QA people at my office but also directly relevant to my new position. She recommended a book, "Games Mother Never Taught You," that I need to pick up ASAP as I need help dealing with office politics.

Then it was off to Wahaca for dinner and then to the Linbury space at the Royal Opera House to see The Goldberg Variations danced (my review here). Fortunately the piece just involved playing the music straight through (mostly) so I was only out until about 9 and made it back home by 10 PM. I'm afraid with as early as I'm getting up for work, short shows on weeknights is the best I can do. Lots of these coming up, though: tonight is An Inspector Calls, 1:45 from curtain up to end of show. Of course, I'll have to write my review up afterwards, but if I remember to bring the Eee I should be able to manage it with a minimum of lost sleep.

Today consisted of a lovely couple of hours Chez lovelybug, where I was pleased to be presented with my long-missing Fragrances and Flavors of Sicilian Cuisine (recipe for Eggplant Enchiladas to follow). Then, exhausted, home for a shower and a soak (an attempt to work out the soreness from my coughing) and a nap. Before shadowdaddy came back from his Tour de Britain ride/watching, I finished my review of The Mysteries as performed by the South African troupe Isango Portobello. (I found it too religious for my tastes.) Then we went to booklectic's house for her Fete Worse Than Death, which I was unfortunately not in good enough health to truly enjoy, as, after a really nice conversation with notintheseheels, I decided I'd burned through my energy for the night and headed home. Which is, of course, where I am now, yawning and ready to call it a night. shadowdaddy is telling us the story of his bike ride and wechsler and I are both feeling much more worn out than he is, which is kinda sad. Anyway, night all.

Yesterday was a great wrap up to gardening leave. I got a solid 9 1/2 hours of sleep (this just wasn't happening in Penzance, don't know why but I was up at 7:30 daily), did a bunch of stuff around the house, then went to meet bathtubgin for lunch at Fujisan and had a tremendously overdue catchup about everything. Then I went off to Maidenhead/Taplow to visit the Lands' End Factory Outlet, where I bought three new work shirts and a skirt (but not the trousers and shoes I was hoping to find).

I then raced back to London and fairly successfully made it to Assa on time for a pre-theatre dinner with shadowdaddy and lovelybug. The three of us then toodled to the Vaudeville theater, where we were suprised to run into djm and thekumquat also going to see Alan Cumming's one man show "I Bought a Blue Car Today," which I really enjoyed (my review here). I was really psyched because basically I'd bought the only tickets I'd thought I could afford when they went on sale, 15 quid super cheapies, and then it turns out these were for the second row. Yay!

Home after the show and sad about not getting in until 11 PM and having stuff to do - getting the wet laundry hung up, uploading my review (written on the tube), figuring out how long it was going to take for me to get to work, putting away the new clothes I'd bought. The new job is going to require my getting into work earlier and my 11:30 bed time was not going to get me enough sleep for my first day - but, as expected, it took me forever to drop off anyway (still some coughing going on but having a hard time distracting myself properly to surrender to Morpheus) so it's not like I would have been sawing logs during the half hour I imagine as missed shut-eye.

So I'm up and I'm out in 30 minutes. I'm still sick and I haven't had enough sleep. We've got new neighbors next door and can now hear their radio and even their alarm clock going off in the morning; joy. My plan for the new joint is that I won't be online fooling around during the day though I might check Twitter from my phone; expect a lot less activity from me. This is part of why I wrote my review on the train - I'm not going to be able to do stuff like this on the job anymore. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Time to put the new work clothes on. Catch up with you all later for a series of locked posts about the new sitch.

Woo woo! After having a stress dream about giving my leaving speech (and awake stress about not getting a card, and no one showing up for my leaving drinks), as it turns out everything went very well. I skipped Pilates due to still being ill, but met up with sniperi to hand of the keys (and get a good gossip in) as he's house-sitting this weekend. Then I went to work, handed in my badge and most of the books I'd taken home with me to my boss, and sat down at my desk to see if I'd get lucky or be forgotten like I had been at other jobs.

At 4:45, a bunch of people gathered around my desk (yay!). Then my boss gave a really nice talk about how I joined when the company was in a major expansion phase (basically setting up the framework for why I was leaving), then went on about all of the things I'd accomplished since I'd been there, from redoing all of the templates for the QA documentation to taking on the resourcing work (that he hated) to training up the team in Agile including tracking down the author of the only, and at that time yet to be published, work on Agile and QA and then GETTING A COPY OF IT ON PDF. Which sounded kind of impressive, really.

And in honor of my upcoming job he gave me a stuffed "Postman Pat" and a card AND a gift certificate for a shop down the street which mostly seems to sell candles and mirrors.


Then it was my turn, and I wanted to do a good job of it and be upbeat and sound sincere (AHEM) and leave everyone with a good feeling. I:
thanked a bunch of nice devs for being nice devs and showing that "we're all working together to create a good product"
thanked a particularly nice dev for being really hot lending me lots of good books and talking to me about literature.
thanked another one for working arm in arm with me trying to get unit testing and TDD up and running (which went nowhere thanks to the other devs)
thanked the CEO for supporting me going to a conference the year before (this led to a ribbing about just how much he was supporting my career, IE sending me places to meet people who would hire me elsewhere)
thanked my coworkers for being pleasant and the people who worked for me for basically being awesome and so hardworking that I had no work to do as a manager ...

And finally I thanked my boss for encouraging me and not being afraid of having someone who was ambitious working for him, for "really supporting me in my career" and for enjoying my energy and enthusiasm. I used this opportunity to give a little speech about how a good manager recognizes talent and helps it achieve the best it can rather than being afraid of them, and hopefully this was helpful or might be helpful for someone somewhere.

After this it was basically Off to the Pub and we had a nice couple of hours at the Cittye of Yorke where lots and lots of people (okay, 8 were there) tried to buy me drinks (really four drinks, two halfs of cider and two tequila orange juice things) and I yacked it up with my friends until my throat hurt and it was time to go home so our extra bed could be picked up ... and three hours later we're still waiting for the guy to show up. Ah, Freecycle. At least I spent the spare time finishing my A Streetcar Named Desire review (summary: it's very good), so that's done, and now really all I need to do with myself is pack for my trip to Penzance tomorrow. And wondering why the guy I was obsessing about through half of highschool and most of college contacted me with his phone number on Linked In. Oh, and change the catbox, because my life is that glamorous.

Today J and I had a fun time traipsing around Kent with robot_mel, beluosus, and (I think) camelstrong. On the way, I finished my review of the Jude Law Hamlet I saw Wednesday (show boo, but finishing review yay). As usual, I documented our expedition on Twitter and Twitpic - I've never figured out how to get my new phone (an Android/Gphone) to post to Livejournal, so my photoblogging is all happening elsewhere.

Basically, we saw a 16th century defensive fort that saw good action during a Dutch naval invasion around 1650; a Norman era castle that you can actually get at all of the way to the top - even though the interior wooden floors are all gone, there's a lot to see - and an also-Norman cathedral. As it turns out, we also saw a lot of the main street of Rochester, which is where Dickens set a lot of his novels. It was cool and if anyone who comes to visit has a Dickens thing, I'd be happy to return.

We're both now dealing with the fact we did this trip while sick - not sure what hit us but we're both down for the count, lungs and throat tight and exhausted. Still, I think it's worthwhile (given recent events) to share our current Real Life Astrology horoscopes. (Note I don't believe in astrology but I do enjoy reading Rob Bresny's horoscopes.) First, J's (Virgo):

No more rotten dessert, Virgo. No more silky danger or juicy poison. No more worthless treasures or empty successes or idiotic brilliance. Soon all those crazy-making experiences will be gone, blasted, dead. By this time next week, the bad influences that were trying to pass themselves off as good influences will have fallen away in response to your courageous drive for authenticity. You will be primed to restore your innocence and play in places where purity is the rule, not the exception. Already, the wisdom of your wild heart is regenerating, giving you the strength to overthrow the sour, life-hating influences that were threatening to smother your spirit.

And then mine (Cancer):

For better or worse, you are at least temporarily becoming more psychic. It could be a blessing, or it might be a bit of a burden. You may really enjoy having an enhanced ability to tune in to what people are thinking and feeling, and it could prove eminently useful. Knowing what's *really* on everyone's mind might give you a significant edge as you work to turn grand fantasies into well-grounded realities. But it also might tax your empathy or tempt you to ignore boundaries that should be upheld. I hope that by informing you of this situation, I have made it far more likely that your higher sensitivity will be a gift instead of a glitch.