Piaf encore

On Friday I took a much needed half day from work and went to London to spend the afternoon with a friend of mine I haven't seen in over a year. We've tried to meet up several times but events have conspired to keep us apart so we set Friday in stone. I've been raving about Piaf to anyone who will listen since I saw it, so we went to see if they had any tickets. By some miracle, we got two of the £10 day seats, two rows from the stage.

Sometimes, when intimate little shows move onto bigger stages and play to larger auditoria, something gets lost in the transition and what worked so beautifully then seems so overcooked and flat now. Not so with Piaf which feels every bit as intense and vital as it did the first time I saw it. While my first experience of seeing it can never be recaptured (as I was so completely blindsided by it), I was very happy that a repeat viewing didn't change my overall opinion. I will see it at least once more before it closes, purely for Elena Roger's magnificent portrayal.

Important lessons I learned yesterday

1. Don't eat too much breakfast before going to the gym.

Every weekend, on one of the days I will get up at my usual weekday work time and head on out to the gym to be there for when it opens at 8am and consequently is empty so I can do my work out in peace. On those days, I will grab something tiny on my way out the door to tide me over until I get home for breakfast proper (usually it's a biscuit). However, yesterday I was not coming straight home, I was heading into town first to buy some new pillows for my bed as my old pillows are shite and I've been sleeping badly for a while now. So I figured, to stave off feeling hugely hungry before getting back home, I'd eat breakfast properly first thing, before heading out to the gym.

Big mistake. I thought an hour would be enough time to let the food digest (and it's not like I ate a HUGE breakfast or anything), but I was wrong. I had a huge stitch during most of my workout and it felt a lot more challenging than usual. I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I sweat a lot during my 45 minutes of cardio but yesterday it looked like I'd been briefly lit on fire before someone thoroughly extinguished me.

2. Pillows are heavy.

I don't know why but it simply didn't occur to me that buying four new pillows, plus their packaging, would be heavy and cumbersome to carry home. By the time I was half way I was beginning to wonder if I would ever regain the feeling in my left arm. Was totally worth it in the end as the pillows are fab and I slept like a dream.

3. There is such a thing as too much television.

I recently discovered the joys of downloading and am currently balancing a whole lot of tv shows.

Currently watching legally:

Eli Stone Season 1
Prison Break Season 4
Heroes Season 3
Medium Season 4
Bones Season 4
Grey's Anatomy Season 4
Fringe Season 1
Breaking Bad Season 1

Currently watching less than legally:

Supernatural Season 4
My Own Worst Enemy Season 1
Easy Money Season 1
The Big Bang Theory Season 2
Californication Season 2
Dexter Season 3
Pushing Daisies Season 2
The Closer Season 4
Chuck Season 2
Weeds Season 4
Dirty Sexy Money Season 2
The Ex List Season 1
Gossip Girl Season 2
Psych Season 3
Ugly Betty Season 3

When the new year rolls around (which will be in a frighteningly short amount of time) and the mid season replacements all start up, there's going to be no room for them! Thank God I don't really have a life so I can try and fit them all in anyway.

Gone In (much less than) Sixty Seconds

Yesterday, I went to London for the day. I had tickets for the matinee of Ivanov, the inaugural production of the Donmar's West End Season, starring Kenneth Branagh. In the evening, tickets for a new production of Oedipus, starring Ralph Fiennes. Quite the wonderful day of classy theatre.

After the matinee, I met up with my friend who I was seeing Ralph poke his eyes out with and we went over to Gabriel's Wharf for dinner. While we were there, for the first time EVER, I didn't pay any attention to my bag, I just left it hanging on the back of my chair, under my zippy top.

So of course, some total cunt stole it.

My whole life was in that bag. I'm such a fucking dumbass for leaving the bag where it could be taken without any difficulty (the restaurant was packed to the hilt, my chair backed into a walkway from the outside seating area to the inside so people walked by all the time). My wallet, which had every card (including a brand new card I only got on Thursday of last week) in it, my iPod (which was only just six months old), my security pass for work, my house keys (though mercifully I don't live that near London and there was nothing in the bag that had any address details on it) and finally not one but the two books I am (was) currently reading. Oh, and my train ticket home ,so I had to borrow money from my friend to buy another one to get home. Talk about insult to injury.

I was hugely relieved that just the other day, I took my passport out of my bag. I was also relieved that if this had to happen, it's happened with enough time to get all my cards replaced in good time before I head off to NYC for my desperately needed vacation. I'm only angry at how inconvenient this all is. Having to wait for the new cards to arrive, buying a new wallet, a new bag, a new iPod (which is the costliest thing stolen and the thing I am the maddest about). I already had all the cards stopped, none of them had even attempted to be used since being half inched so all the thief got out of it was my iPod and a couple of books. They probably took my wallet out and ditched the rest of the stuff into the Thames. Then, when they saw there was no cash at all in the wallet, it probably followed swiftly thereafter. All in all, it really took the shine off my day.

Naked Farmer for October

Pinch punch, bitches! I won't bore you with more dull droning on about how I can't get my head around the speed 2008 is running at and statements of "holy crap it's already October". Instead, let's focus on the naked man. We've seen him before, as it's the guy on the cover, but they obviously thought he was hot enough to be featured twice.



And who am I to argue?