Looking Back Once In A While 3...

'S been quite a while since we've been able to blog, what with my dog missing, writer's block and the lack of a topic. Not so much of a lack of a topic but more rather choosing a topic to blah about.

Work? What about it? The Health Enforcement dept for the Wilayah Persekutuan, as far as we're told by some, is a 'difficult' lot. We've been waiting three weeks for our License A to be approved so that we may start informing Guardian that we can officially start work with them as a locum...if they have a spot for us. See, just to get a part-time job with no certain fixed hours is so troublesome already. True, anytime can go back to Guardian for a job, just the general process of getting the license itself will take ages.

So, best thing to do was to seive through my 'My Pictures' folder and pick a pic for a story.

This is us at King's Theatre, Glasgow, waiting for a musical to start. All the way at the end of Sauchiehall St (very vague generalization there). The musical? My Fair Lady. Scots singing with a Cockney accent or teaching others to speak the Queen's English properly! One of the two plays we'd watched in Glasgow. We had our top three to catch in London: The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and The Mousetrap. We remember watching Phantom (my first musical in UK!) somewhere after our hectic summer course when we arrived in Glasgow. Everyone was making their first 'London Group Trip', each in their own small cliques or group, ourself included.

Only Krn was interested in watching Phantom (others were not interested or thought it too pricey). We'd remember it was raining cats and dogs when we left Marble Arch to make our way to Leicester Sq. We were slightly late and only got in after the auction scene ended - the first thing we ever saw on that stage was the elephant! So there we were, humming the songs (if not singing it under our breathe) until Karen started crying ("touched touched"). During the intermission we'd gone to look at the programmes and souvenirs for sale. We ourself eventually broke down and followed Karen in getting the programme and full CD. That night ended in us waiting backstage so Karen could get her programme autographed by the cast.

Come near the end of our so-called 'summer holidays' we'd made a second trip alone to London just to catch Les Mis, The Mousetrap and our friends (in that order). Les Mis was just wonderful and The Mousetrap was absolutely enthralling. So they had The Lion King, Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You...if you've never watched a musical and am looking to start, Phantom or Les Mis should be your first choice - those will make a lasting first impression. Phantom is colourful and comedic for a love story, and its music is written by Andrew Lloyd Weber. Les Mis does wonders with a rotating platform (there was a special name for this but it'd slipped our mind) and the music is excellent, however the story is more sombre. The Mousetrap is a murder mystery made for theatre by Dame Agatha Christie, and is the longest running play around! Very enjoyable. This was the only play where we ourself waited backstage for the casts' autographs, heh.

Have formed a new habit for watching theatricals - must have a gin tonic and lemon during intermission. Not good.

There were 3 plays we'd watched in Edinburgh, during the Fringe Festival. Lesse. Beautiful Thing, Terry Pratchett's The Fifth Continent and Terry Pratchett's Mort. Scottish accents were a bit heavy in Beautiful Thing and, er, must remember to do homework of plays before buying tickets. Terry Pratchett's The Fifth Continent was simply lovely to watch! The costumes were lovely, the characters brought to life...had a bit of fun trying to recognize who was who (those that weren't obvious). We'd even took a photo with the cast all nicely dressed up (must remember to scan it one day). Sadly Mort was a disappointment - we guess it must have been either an amatuer group or their first time at it. It was the only play that we ever left halfway! Actually we'd to leave because the Edinburgh Military Tattoo was about to begin - but we left the play without regrets.

We did get to watch Mort in the end - Glasgow had one showing in the Ramshorn Theatre! They did with less and it was sooo much more enjoyable (and cheaper)!

Sigh. If we could we'd watch all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld plays (we especially want to watch Wyrd Sisters, we're a fan of Granny Weatherwax), then we can say that, for that bit, we are complete. However, Pratchett's still coming out with more books and sure enough the plays will follow...sob. Another reason to retire and live out the ends of my days in UK.