Lights, curtains, ice cream - the life of a theatre usher

Bloody hell... how time flies!

2010-04-12T10:51:00.003Z

Just by chance I found a bookmark on my PC at work to my old blog whatnot, and discovered I hadn't posted on here since March 2007. Three years ago and then some!

How time flies.

I did like looking at the Paris pictures though. And reading about the old theatre stuff.

Maybe I'll resurrect the blog and stick reviews on of the shows we get in at the theatre...

France! Well, not all of it....

2007-03-20T11:15:00.000Z

Where to start?

2007-01-05T15:22:00.000Z

Well, would you believe it? It's 2007 already! Hell alone knows where the last 3 months have gone. Happy New Year to everyone though, and hope it's a good one!

Steve & I are currently up to our eyes in panto at the theatre. For yes, it's that time of year again when we encourage the theatre audience to shout back at the performers (I'd pay good money to see them do it during the opera season! "La la la la oh where can my husband be" "He's behind you, you fat bint!!") Oops, bit sidetracked there. So yes, for nearly 4 weeks now we've been enduring Jack & the Beanstalk, complete with the usual lame gags, "Oh no it isn't"s, one pantomime dame (Camilla Parka Bike), one pantomime cow (Shearer), flashes, bangs, screaming kids, sick and popcorn. Aaaah yes, panto! Just another 2 weeks to go and it's back to normality again.

Mind you, we have got a superb cast again this year. Jill Halfpenny's returned as Mother Nature (the woman who enchants the beans to make them grow) along with her real-life fiancé Craig Conway who is doing a terrific job of frightening the kids out of their wits as the giant's henchman Snot Gobbler. Honestly, Craig makes his first appearance under a minute into the show, suspended from a wire, with sunken eyes & a bald wig, and it's like the Pied Piper with all the kids flooding out of the auditorium. The beanstalk is a lovely effect though, with the plant growing out of the orchestra pit right up to the top of the proscenium arch, with Jack performing a superb vanishing act from the top into one of the Grand Circle boxes. Jack is played by our Buttons from last year, Danny Adams, along with his real-life father Clive Webb as Farmer Trott. The 2 of them build up such a fantastic rapport with the kids, and Danny's Elvis bits have me in stitches every night. Rumour has it that they might be back next year for Aladdin too!

Other than theatre (and uni, as I've returned there too, though it's been very quiet this week with no students around) I've been spending most of my time playing on the Nintendo Wii that Steve got me for Christmas. Bless you Steve, that was the one BIG Christmas surprise that I really wasn't expecting. It's the most amazing console I've ever played - the neighbours must think we're totally barmy if they can see through the front window and see us leaping around playing tennis!

We've got our lovely friend Zaid coming up from London for a weekend as well in a couple of weeks, to experience both Newcastle AND the delights of panto for the first time. Just hope he's not too shocked...
I think he's definitely expecting flat caps & whippets, coal mines, and an outdoor toilet *grin*
However, he's an absolutely amazing photographer (his Christmas present to me was a wonderful book he'd had put together with loads of his photos in from his travels around the world), so I'm hoping we can show him some of the sights our lovely city has to offer.

Light, curtains, ice cream...

2006-10-16T15:09:00.000Z

Well, as the title of this blog is 'Lights, curtains, ice cream', it's about time there was actually some mention of them in the blogs themselves!

The theatre where Steve & I work in the evenings (the Theatre Royal, Newcastle) has been closed for the last 3 and a half months for the first stage in a major refurbishment, and we're now just under 24 hours away from letting the public back in, kicking off with 2 weeks of the musical 'Grease'.

It promises to be a fun time for all involved. Until the rest of the theatre is finished (pencil next May into your diary for the grand unveiling) we're going to be working in a minor state of chaos, given that the whole left hand side of the theatre is closed, which is where all of the ladies' toilets are. So... until May next year, we'll be providing PortaCabins out on Shakespeare Street for the fairer sex to pee in - gents are unaffected, other than when the women decide it's too far to shimmy down the stairs to the ground floor, and take over the gents'.

New uniforms too - I'm picking them up tonight and can't wait. We're going from our smart uniforms of white shirt, purple tie, black trousers & black waistcoat to an extremely fetching ruby shirt (see-through in the right light), open at the neck, and no waistcoat. For those cold winter months when we're freezing our arses off in the main foyer, we're having padded black gilets with the Theatre's logo in gold on the back. I think this is an added consideration for those of us wanting to take up further employment opportunites stocking the freezers at Asda...

Pics to follow... if we dare!

DS fun

2006-10-03T08:50:00.000Z

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks... at least as far as evenings & weekends go.

Just over a week ago I treated myself to a Nintendo DS Lite, and what a fantastic treat it turned out to be! Steve bought one 2 days after me too (the boy can't see me with anything!), so we've been playing head-to-head on Mario Kart DS and Super Mario Brothers, competing to see who's got the best brain in Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, and running round as a bitch-slapping Lego Princess Leia in Lego Star Wars.

My Mario Kart friend number in case you fancy some WiFi competition is 128928 041427. Just remember to let me know who you are so I know who's throwing red shells at me.

A sweatshop by any other name

2006-09-16T13:07:00.000Z

Saturday, 2.10pm and we poor Business School saps have been stuck here in the university enrolling students since 9 o'clock this morning.

To add insult to injury there's NO coffee, and we've all (oh yes, even the blokes) been forced to wear lovely pale blue sashes across our chests, à la Miss World.

There might be a photo at some point, but then again...

Back to the madhouse

2006-09-13T09:24:00.000Z

Well, back in Newcastle now, and the Ireland trip seems to be such a long time ago!

We had a fantastic time there though - Steve's family were so welcoming, and took us out & about to do the touristy bits of Northern Ireland. The North Antrim coast (Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce castle, Bushmills) was stunning, Newcastle and the Mourn mountains absolutely breathtaking, and the day trip to Belfast zoo was the best day out I've had in a long time, especially having ring-tailed lemurs climing all over me!

Back to work now though, and the nightmare that is student enrolment.

The best laid plans...

2006-09-10T17:57:00.001Z

Humph. So much for 'fingers crossed the flight is on time'. Left work on time, got home on time, only had a minor packing panic (it wouldn't be me if I didn't check my passport every 2 minutes, including sitting in the taxi and in the check-in queue), taxi arrived on time, no traffic on the way to the airport...

Arrived at the check-in desk to be told by the girl that there was an hour and 10 minute delay on the flight. Bugger.

Still, it gave us plenty of time to get through the security search (they now get you to put your shoes, belts, bags etc through the scanner - might be easier just to turn up naked on the way home), buy a few bits in Duty Free, have a row or two, then make it onto the plane. Turned out to be delayed by an hour and 40 mins in the end.

After a VERY short (35 minute) flight, we arrived in Belfast, to find that Steve's mum had only just left the house and wouldn't be with us for another half an hour!

She eventually arrived and after traversing what seemed to be most of the back roads around the Belfast area, we arrived at Steve's parents' house at 11.30pm. Just time for hellos, and off to bed!

Ireland here we come!

2006-08-31T10:11:00.000Z

Well, tomorrow's my last day in work for a week, as tomorrow evening we're jetting off to Belfast to spend a week with Steve's family.

Quite looking forward to it, as I've never been to Ireland before, and it'll be nice to see Steve's family again (I've still not met his elder brother).

Fingers crossed the flight is on time and they don't make me leave any toiletries behind!

Freecycle, ebay and pudding

2006-08-31T08:55:00.000Z

Well, it's been a bit of a slow week for blogging this week.

Spent a very quiet Bank Holiday weekend at home - Steve's busy decorating his study, so I just kept out of the way and did... well, very little actually. Sorted out some stuff to sell on ebay when we return from our jollies, and also discovered the wonderful world of 'Freecycle'.

For those who've never heard of it, Freecycle is a fantastic website (http://www.freecycle.org/) where you join up to your local group, then start posting anything that you're wanting to get rid of - the only condition being that you have to be giving it away for free. We've had a double mattress lying around taking up space for months now, so I put that on the site, and within quarter of an hour of it going up I'd had 10 e-mails asking for it! The first lady who sent an e-mail came and collected it the very next day!

I also responded to a guy who was asking for original GameBoy games, particularly Tetris. In the spirit of giving, I mailed him to say that I have Tetris and a few other games, and would be willing to part with them (as I haven't played them since about 1995). He replied saying "Thank you very much, but I'd feel guilty not giving you something in return", and offered either a hi-fi system, PC speakers with sub-woofer, or binoculars in exchange for the games! How kind! Now, Steve's just flogged his old laptop to his sister and ordered a brand-spanking-new desktop, so the speakers will come in very handy!

There's a load of stuff to put on ebay too, as I'm having a real clear-out. Fingers crossed it all goes for a nice price! There's quite a bit of decent stuff - 2 SonyEricsson mobile phones, a Sony minidisc player, some CDs, books...

My friend Victoria came over on Sunday for dinner, which was lovely as it gave me a change to spend a while in the kitchen cooking & baking. I did a fantastic (though I say so myself) chicken in honey & mustard sauce (all home-made, no Chicken Tonight in my kitchen!), followed by a home-made sticky toffee pudding. I'd forgotten how easy they are to make - watch the waistline expand AGAIN over the next few weeks!

Tales of a 'dead' Colin

2006-08-22T11:04:00.000Z

Panic ensued yesterday as Steve was doing a water change in the aquarium. The salinity's been a bit off for a few days, so he was correcting that as Tigger's been breathing a bit on the heavy side.

While he was doing the water change though, he noticed what looked like Colin (the hermit crab) out of his shell and lying on the bottom of the tank. To all intents & purposes dead.

Steve picked up his old shell and could see what looked like other bits of Colin's body inside it - turned out that Colin had actually shed his old exoskeleton, and was still living quite happily inside the shell.

What a relief!

When I went to feed Tigger before bed though, poor Tiggs was in a highly agitated state - Colin had invaded his anemone!! Tigger sleeps in his anenome at night, so was getting quite upset at the thought of sharing it with anyone, let alone Colin! Steve removed the offending critter though, and Tigger had a happy night's sleep.

Theatre gossip & beer

2006-08-22T10:43:00.000Z

Thursday night saw us in the New Bridge pub with Chris & Louise, two of our theatre colleagues, along with John (Chris' hubby) and Richard (Louise's partner).

It was great to catch up with everyone's 'doings' over the last couple of months while the theatre's been out of action.

I'd missed out on some news in the local paper regarding the theatre refurbishment though. For those who don't know, the Theatre has purchased the old Barclays Bank on the side of the building, and there are all kinds of things happening with the new space, including an extra 6m of wing space on the right hand side of the stage, plus a new box office, café, bistro and studio theatre.

Turns out though that as workmen knocked through into what used to be the bank vault, they realised that the 4-tonne safe was too heavy to move out, so they've had to bury it under the new stage instead.

Just hope the rest of the refurb goes according to plan. We're all looking forward to returning to our jobs in October, even with the new uniform *barf*

I've got gadgets & gizmos aplenty...

2006-08-17T09:10:00.000Z

Well, the carpet's now fitted, and the bedroom's almost finished. Just got the cornicing to fit, but that can wait a while yet. Had a bit of a rush job getting everything out of the bedroom in time - the fitter rang at 9.15 to say he'd be there within 5 minutes as we were first on the job list. We'd dismantled the bed and removed all the furniture, but the old carpet was still down. Cue the 2 of us running round like loons, pulling up the old carpet & underlay, and trying to get it all out of the room in time.

30 minutes later though, the carpet was down!

Headed into town later in the afternoon and finally got my hair cut - it was starting to look a little on the bushy side. It was the final straw when I got in from work on Tuesday night and Steve started laughing at my woolly head.

After a bit of um-ing and ah-ing Steve decided to get a juicer while we were in town too. He ended up getting a lovely Philips one that'll match both the new kettle and toaster we got last month. Just hope it doesn't end up unused in a cupboard like the ice cream maker and other gadgets!

The Menagerie

2006-08-14T10:16:00.000Z

As Steve has now finished the aquarium in his study, I can now take pictures of its inhabitants without the grotty wallpaper showing through.

So... here's Tigger (the clownfish), and Colin (the hermit crab). Brian (the snail) wasn't available for photos.

Drinks and stuff

2006-08-14T09:23:00.000Z

Had a text from Chris (theatre colleague) today too asking if we fancy a pint with her & John this week at the New Bridge (one of my favourite pubs). It'll be good to meet up with her - we've only been off from the theatre for 6 weeks but it seems to have been longer than that. Roll on the 17th October and our re-opening night!

It'll be a good opportunity too to have a nosey at the new University offices and see how they're coming along, as they're directly opposite the pub. It's a completely new build - 2 buildings, one for Art & Design and the other for Law and the Business School. All being well we'll be moving in this time next year, so I'll be over the road from the New Bridge - handy for those lunchtime pints!

http://northumbria.ac.uk/sd/development/gallery/?view=Standard

The end is in sight...

2006-08-14T08:42:00.000Z

Well, after a week of hard graft (on Steve's side anyway, I'm just the gaffer), the main bedroom is now finished. Just waiting for the new carpet to arrive on Wednesday this week and we're all set.

The room looks huge now - I guess that's because there's none of my clutter on the floor yet. Give it a few weeks and there'll be the usual piles of clothing, books, empty glasses etc...

Here are the 'before' and 'after' shots - 'before' is obviously with the hideous red curtains!