This was my last free weekend until the end of July - my Saturdays and Sundays are taken up with rehearsals from here on in. This weekend it was only Sunday. Yes, for most of the day the temperature was 27 degrees, I was standing or jumping around on black tarmac in Dagenham. But it was worth every ache and pain.
We celebrated the last free Saturday by pottering around...visiting a few shops in Epping and then into Loughton. The Cat's Mother decided I needed more clothes, so I was frogmarched to a menswear store in the high street. I was just coming out of the changing room when at the front of the shop there was a bit of hubbub, and three youths grabbed some clothes from the shelves and ran swiftly away. The owner was the picture of calmness, but perhaps his shaking hands gave him away. Our heart went out of trying more stuff on...of course it did. It probably happens several times a day in shops across the country, but it felt sad and shocking. The impact of the crime on all of us was no doubt much more than the value of the goods that got stolen and probably peddled for a fiver in the back streets somewhere.
This coming week is relatively quiet, which is good. Exams will come to an end, and half-term beckons for the offspring.
Last week was busy enough...we went to see the ever so wonderful Temper Trap with our Spanish friends. I think they're the best thing ever, and the evening started off well having pizza outside before the band began to play. If you don't know them, try this:
They've just released a second album...and we'll be back to see them at Somerset House in the summer (proper)
Thursday saw us at Sadlers Wells to see Matthew Bourne's early work...another excellent evening - humour in modern dance....this was Spitfire and takes as it's theme mens underwear advertising from the 1950's (of course)...
