It was Emma’s birthday today so, to celebrate properly, I took her for a haircut. We took the long walk up to Kate, trying to keep in the shade, the dogs puffing and panting underneath their thick fur coats.
We made it to the bench at the beginning of Fox Poo Alley and I took a before photo.
Kate thought they both looked like little sheep. She was being generous. They looked very messy given the Gaz Hacks I’d subjected them to over the months. I was worried that she’d lose her scissors in their coats.
After the long, hot walk up to Kate’s, I caught the bus back down, faffed around for an hour then caught a bus back up. So love having my bus pass. The walk back was a lot better given it was mostly downhill. Mind you, I was pretty exhausted.
The dogs, however, were a lot happier on the walk back given their new lack of fur coats.
They really are terrible at posing. The photo above was the best out of about ten.
The rest of the day was, basically, a build up leading to our night out. Well, it was for me. Mirinda, on the other hand, was involved in a few digital job interviews for one of the boards she’s involved with. But that all went out the window as we headed off for Chawton for another birthday.
We’ve been seeing the Handlebards since 2018 and always try and attend their local performances. They are celebrating ten years this year and are brilliant. Four people, cut down hilarious versions of Shakespeare, usually a picnic. What’s not to love? And tonight was no exception.
A Midsummer Nights Dream is a fun Shakespeare and one I know extremely well. I remember seeing the brilliant Emma Rice version at the Globe in 2016 which is still one of the greatest theatre productions I’ve ever seen. Okay, so tonight wasn’t going to be anything like that but we knew it would be superbly hilarious. And we were so right.
Chawton looked wonderful as a backdrop for our Rude Mechanicals, fairies and the Duke of Athens.
And there was an excellent audience, picnics aplenty, and absolutely no rain. It was perfect.
Actually, it was better than perfect because, at one point, a biplane flew over. I thought this was a missed opportunity for the actors but, maybe they didn’t see it in time and there had been other light aircraft flying over the house.
The play was delightfully re-written in that chaotic way that the Handlebards do so well. It’s safe to say that everyone enjoyed it. In fact, I overheard one older chap, saying to the woman he was with that, although she’d told him that the picnic would probably be the highlight, he thought the performance was jolly marvellous.
Another great evening out with the ‘Bards. Happy birthday and thank you.
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