Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

I had failed to get tickets for the original outing of 4000 miles, which was due to play in 2020 but got cancelled by covid.  So, it was great to get another opportunity, this time with Sebastian Croft as Leo, but still with Eileen Atkins as Vera.  Set completely in Vera’s Manhattan apartment, Leo, her grandson, turns up out of the blue, she complaining she hasn’t got her teeth in, and he agitatedly pointing out that she still hasn’t changed the name on the door from her husband who died many years before.  This pithy scene sets the tone for the rest of the play, which is a thoughtful look at getting old and growing up, grief and communication. It’s not a loud, shouty sort of play, but allows the characters and relationships to show themselves through the various conversations they have over a few weeks and the stuff said, unsaid, or not heard between them.  There’s obviously an odd couple undertone here, both lefties but with different understanding of what that mea...

Just need to get this off my chest, so feel free to scroll on by if you aren't interested in this (not very) important issue. I'm back from spending some time in what was overall, a very nice hotel, but with the standard attitude to mirrors.  It actually doesn't matter whether it is a grotty B&B or a 5 star luxury hotel, the same issue appears each time.    I'm a person of a certain age who needs to spend some time with makeup, mirror and hairstyler before going out in public, and almost every hotel I have ever stayed in ignores this basic need.  In the latest hotel, they moved me to a new, much fancier, room but still the same issues. The obvious place to put makeup on and dry my hair would be the bathroom.  But, no plugs for my own hairstyler, misted up mirrors placed too high up the wall so that you need to stand (yes, even if a stool is provided), and harsh overhead lighting means that this isn't an option.   So, what about that dressing table/...

Day 1 - Flying….  I don’t love flying, it’s such a faff and always a bit stressful, having to have the right bits of paper and bags in the right place at the right time.  But, apart from being an hour late, this was ok, with a happy baby playing peep-bo most of the way.  We flew across Gozo on the way in and my first impression was Arabic rather than European… possibly because everything is so dry.  Lots of a beautiful coloured rock and stone but very few trees.  And not much green already (it’s only May..).   We stayed in Sliema which has an 80’s seaside town vibe, and none the worse for that.  Lots of noisy bars and incongruous sightings of M&S and Mothercare.  Not sure if I was on the Isle of Wight at times.  But the people we met were friendly and the first impression was of cheap and frequent public transport so we knew we definitely weren’t in the UK anymore.   Day 2 Valletta and TarxienTemples Our first hiccup was that the wea...

The last week or two here’s been a bit of a post colonial civil war theme running through my reading and watching Funny boy Streaming on Netflix, this 2020 film is a coming of  age story for a Tamil boy in post colonial Sri Lanka during the civil war. and based on the novel by Shyam Selvadurai (now on my reading list!).  Arjie is already a boy who doesn’t fit and as the tensions begin to mount between the Singhalese and Tamils, he finds that more than one of his identities are under attack.  Played by two actors and jumping back and forward between the boy and young man this is both a sweet story about a boy finding out who he is alongside a pretty brutal story about bigotry, hatred and violence.  Shocking statistic at the final credits that over 1 million Tamils became refugees during this period. Definitely worth a watch.  The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak Another story about a civil war, dealing with love and loss, but this time in novel form, in pos...

Riffing off Animal Farm, this novel is a political satire set in a fictional post colonial African state 'Jidada... with a da and another da' and follows political machinations and personal struggles to maintain power versus those seeking freedom and democracy in a state populated by animals of all kinds.  When we join the story, the revolutionary government and its president, the Old Horse, is almost literally in its dog days, ruling over the worn out and poverty stricken country with an iron fist, enabled by the dog militia.  It could describe a number of regimes, but is particularly referencing the overthrow of Mugabe in 2017.  Mugabe is represented by Old Horse and his young wife is Marvellous the donkey.  The old guard is overthrown by a younger horse, the vice president Tuvius Delight Shasha and we follow the rising of hope of 'free fair & credible elections' and the brutal crushing of those hopes through the eyes of Destiny, a young goat who moves back to ...