General catch up

I don't have anything particular to say so thought I'd just post a selection of rambling thoughts!

• Saw a shooting star as we drove home last night. Seriously cool. Haven't seen one for ages. This is the advantage of shorter days - it increases the likelihood of spotting shooting stars.
• I. and I both caught colds over Easter weekend. He's over his and I'm still revoltingly snotty. How come? Its not fair. I'm so over this.
• Going up to the Sounds for 5 days!!! Theoretically, we should leave tonight but as we're towing the boat it makes for a much slower journey so we're leaving tomorrow morning. The theory goes that we'll be in Kaikoura for morning tea (coffee and cake looking at the sea) and Blenheim for lunch. As absolutely nothing is packed yet I'm not sure how we're going to execute that particular plan. The only thing we've organised so far is asking our fabulous neighbours to feed the cat, which they can do.
• Its a fantastically sunny day today. I noticed that the oak trees by the river opposite Princess Margaret Hospital are looking brilliant - all red and orange colours. At work we've had the paraponters floating down from the hills behind us to the park in the valley. It looks very cool but there's still no way I'll ever do it.
• Spoke to the little blister this morning (Hi E). She was raving about the fantastic home made curry she was eating as she spoke to me but as I was in morning mode, it did absolutely nothing for me.

OK, enough with the dots. I think my brain just fell out. Have a great weekend and Anzac Day everyone.

Cats

I went along to the opening night of 'Cats' on Friday night, put on by Showbiz at the Theatre Royal and it was great. I'd never seen it before but was very familiar with the music. Unfortunately, due to I's inability to take Day/Night tablets when he's got a cold, he wasn't able to go as planned so I took my (very pregnant) sister-in-law J. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

There's a lot to be said for going on opening night. You've got no preconceived notions about what the show will be like and can just get on with being involved. The theatre was absolutely full. Apparently half an hour before the show started there were 5 seats not sold and they were in the back row of the gods. It was a bit of a scrum getting a cold drink in the interval but that's to be expected in that situation.

I felt that everyone in the show was very professional. They are all amateurs and have day jobs so I can only assume that they had a lot of rehearsals because the dancing was excellent. Everyone kept in cat character very well. I only spotted one obvious mistake when two cast members ran into each other during a particularly frenetic dance scene but they recovered well. One cat's tail came off but she was able to reattach it in the interval. Minor hiccups that can happen in any show.

So, I can thoroughly recommend the show and I'm really glad I made the effort to go on opening night. Its something I must remember to do for other productions I want to see. Nice to hear that the show is almost sold out, even with some extra shows they've put into the season.

It was an incredibly cold night. J. had brought along a woolly hat to wear on the way to and from the theatre and when we walking back to the car afterwards, I really envied her the hat. I could feel the heat draining from my head as we walked.

We called in at Winnie Bagoes to have a coffee and a bit of a wind down. It was quite amusing watching some of the young girls faces when they saw how pregnant J. is! Going into bars nowdays is so much more pleasant as its all non-smoking. It has certainly increased my comfort levels. The smokers didn't look so thrilled as they huddled in the alleyway around the brazier. I'm very grateful I never started.

Spotted

• Yesterday - the peacock that I've spotted before, just wandering down the road in a very relaxed fashion.
• This morning - a sheep, looking fairly alarmed, heading towards the Lyttelton tunnel. The tunnel guys managed to detour it off the road and up the side out of the way. When I left they were trying to decided how to catch it!