This is the first time I am participating in this challenge, so we'll see if I have the stamina to complete the whole month !
I am also, very ambitiously, writing for the April NaNoWriMo ! So the challenge is
twofold !!
Hang on to your horse and enjoy the ride. And good luck to all my fellow participants.
Thanks to Arlee Bird for hosting this challenge. We are nearly half-way there.
If you would like to know more go here
L is for LONDON.
My eldest daughter lives and works in London at Be at One Cocktail Bar, Spitafields Market. On the weekend of the 26th-29th April, we are flying to visit her. The whole family is coming, even her Nana who is taking the Eurostar from Paris.
We have a very busy schedule. Algae Wrap Friday morning, in the afternoon visiting the London Times, curtesy of my good friend Russel Herneman, once flash-fiction writer, now award-winning Cartoonist. Friday evening, we girls are going out to a show : the Phantom of the Opera. We are musicals' fans and especially Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice aficionados . I saw Jesus Christ Superstar, the film, in 1974. My sister bought the record soon after and I have been listening to them ever since. My girls caught the bug. We saw EVITA, on stage in London in 2006, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Coat in 2010 in Bournemouth ( I had already seen it back in 1976 or '77, in Poole). My children are hooked, they have seen the films too and enjoy listening to the music and singing along.
Saturday, the adventure continues, more packed than ever ! The Tate (old) in the morning. We have never been, although I have seen several Turners at exhibitions in Paris : my wooden desktop is covered with a Turner painting in the form of a puzzle under glass, that my husband and I completed when we lived in Barcelona. Then we have to rush to the Globe Theatre : I thought we'd take the boat to Banks. At 2.30 Henry IV, Part I starts. The girls didn't want to sit, on wooden benches, through a Shakespeare play for three hours, so only my husband, my son and I have tickets.
King Lear, 2007 with Sir Ian McKellen and The Merchant of Venice, 2006 with F. Murray Abraham
King John, 2013 with Pippa Nixon, as the Bastard (Rosalind in As You Like It, 2014)
King Lear, 2007 with Sir Ian McKellen and The Merchant of Venice, 2006 with F. Murray Abraham
King John, 2013 with Pippa Nixon, as the Bastard (Rosalind in As You Like It, 2014)
I have been enjoying live performances of The Bard all my life it seems. One of the first was Henry V in Stratford in 1978. I also remember seeing As You Like It at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1987, I took my future husband and a Business school friend to A Midsummer's Night Dream in Regent's Park, magical. Since 2006 I have been enjoying yearly sprees to Stratford-upon-Avon. I attend a seminar with talks, voice classes, Q&A with actors and Directors, but most importantly 3 to 4 live performances. Some plays from the Canon still elude me, others I have seen several times: Royal Shakespeare Company and at times international theatre companies. It has been my breath of fresh air, my week away from home, a time to muse and write, an opportunity to visit my Auntie Ann and her husband Ron, my English golf partner/mentor.
In the evening, we will be at the Old Vic for Arthur Miller's All My Sons. My mother, son and husband will accompany me. The girls will go out on the town ! I remember seeing Murder at the Vicarage in the late ' 70s but it wasn't at the Old Vic, my mother tells me.
Sunday morning, the National Portrait Gallery awaits. The magnificent 'political' paintings of Queen Elizabeth I, the first ' propaganda ' art, and to show my children the historical portraits. Full house for this outing. Lunch ' sur le pouce ', as we say in French. In the afternoon we'll laze around and visit my daughter's apartment for tea, and meet her Australian boyfriend. Birthday dinner at a laid-back Italian of her choosing, then onto drinks at Be at One Cocktail Bar. The night : the sky's the limit !
All good things must come to an end eventually. My mother has her train at one on Monday; our flight is only at 6 p.m.
My A to Z will lag a bit behind but who's counting !
©susanbauryrouchard
My friend the Cartoonist, go here
The Phantom of the Opera, trailer, go here
The Phantom of the Opera, trailer, go here
Westminster Abbey, July 2016
National Gallery and Big Ben, July 2016
My favourite Turner
Thank you for reading. If you would like to share your thoughts, please comment below