Social Chat

Tonight was supposed to be my last social event before Christmas - meeting my ex-boss from my first company in London for our annual hot chocolate and booze. Supposed to meet in Caffe Nero - but wouldn't you know it, he cried off as well, owing to fears of Covid. One day, I suppose, we can meet in person again. For now, it was Skype - and I started on my laptop, but had to move to my phone when the laptop kept dropping connection. What the hey, it was a long, long chat, and great to get back in touch. And hopefully next year will be even more sociable, eh?

Well, I remain bulletproof, and my test today was negative again. So I'm back to Ireland for Christmas tomorrow afternoon.. (highly expensive) Aer Lingus again, for the sake of the later flight. But thank goodness it's not Stansted. Just a long slog over to Heathrow..

Well, cinemas in Ireland - like bars, restaurants and theatres - are subject to an 8pm curfew. But I was already subject to that, living with my mother - so on Friday, I'll be hoping to head to the cinema. Two films on that I want to see - and the better-rated (by far, all of a sudden!) is House of Gucci, starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, and Salma Hayek, in a dramatisation of the life of the famous Gucci family, of fashion business fame. Directed by Ridley Scott, it's bound to be entertaining - and with a cast like that, how can you lose?! Now showing only in the Omniplex.

Flying back to London on the 3rd. Unless.. I'm not. So I'm taking my laptop to Ireland for Christmas. Just in case.

Play: A Christmas Carol

For tonight, an old friend (well, his wife) bought me a ticket to watch the livestream of A Christmas Carol from the Old Vic! He and the family would be watching simultaneously. Aww, how thoughtful..

Of course, I'd rather be there in person, if I could - but one advantage to watching from home is that I could have dinner while I watched. And it worked out just perfect for that. Again, they had the atmospheric crowd noise as we waited - this time, it was interspersed with some ceilidh music, which would also feature during the show, and a quiz about Christmas traditions around the world! V interesting - I won't give away the answers, in case anyone is thinking of watching in the remaining days. But by and large, I got the European ones..

Well, this is a terrific production. Pretty authentic, although they do heavily emphasise certain aspects of the story - the young Scrooge gets much more of a romantic attachment in this version, for example. And the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come isn't as scary as in other productions I've seen. Instead, Scrooge's epiphany is given a huge amount of attention - I just love the way they make use of the whole auditorium, devoid of an audience! This aspect of the story occupies most of the second half - there's a 15-minute interval:

As I say, though, despite different story emphasis, the essential story remains the same, and this production is pretty authentic. I also loved the carol singing that accompanies it - some very well-chosen carols include some more uncommon ones (well, uncommon in my experience), such as The Coventry Carol - one of my favourites.

Very Christmassy, all in all. And in the spirit of charity, as well as the standard invitations to donate, it turns out they're collecting for FoodCycle at the moment - to provide food to those in need:

The production runs till Thursday - a very good way to get in the Christmas spirit! And a nice, long chat over Skype ended the night - with my friend, rather than the cast and crew of the Old Vic, I should add! My mother and the cat were rather put out, but well, I'm entitled to one evening apart from them, surely - my first evening event in over a month. My mother had gone to bed by the time I finished - the cat was still waiting to be made (yet another) fuss of, though.

Tomorrow looks like film again - when I get a moment; first, I have to do a click and collect from Tesco, not having been able to secure a delivery slot for this week. Just as well our lockdown has been lifted, even if just for a week or so.. Anyway, as previously mentioned, I'm thinking of watching the tv documentary made by Robert Fisk, From Beirut to Bosnia, about the relationship between the Middle East and the West. Hard to find, it's available on the Sands Films site - part of an homage to Robert Fisk.