Until Doomsday. Or "the 2012 Olympics", as non-Londoners call it. There's a countdown pillar thing outside Stratford station telling us how long we'll have to wait until we're swarmed by tourists and sport enthusiasts. Somehow I hope I don't live there then (I thought Norway Cup each year was bad enough when I lived in Oslo, and that's just twenty thousand kids or something).

Yesterday was the "you go, girl!" episode of Lark Rise to Candleford. I counted four utterings of that phrase by the occupant of any of the sofas in our sitting room.

Yesterday also introduced a re-run of the brilliant The House of Eliott, which I have seen twice before and which DVD boxsets I have been drooling over for a bit now. I was so chuffed I had to watch the first episode the minute I came home. I remember buying the soundtrack the first time I saw the series, hehe!

I also watched Call Northside 777 yesterday; an investigative drama based on a true story and featuring James Stewart. It was very well made and I would recommend it. There was a funny scene in the middle where a lie detector was introduced. The film was made in 1948, so lie detectors were still fairly new. The guy who explained to Jimmy Stewart how it worked, didn't seem like an actor, and I instinctively thought "it's probably the creator of the lie detector himself". A quick search on IMDb proved me right. Well, he was possibly the only one who could explain the machine at that time, LOL! He wouldn't have needed going so much into detail, though...

Anyway, the Golden Globes took place yesterday and I am fairly happy with the results, even though I didn't win any! No big surprise, really, as I wasn't nominated, but I could have got a lifetime achievement award or something! I mean, what's the difference between me and the person who actually got that award? (So as to keep this spoiler-free, I suggest you go check the results for yourself.)

Labels: film, personal, sport, TV

These are the things that have occupied my mind these past few days. I resumed my game of Mass Effect which I started half a year ago. This led to some serious power gaming until my computer simply turned itself off. Oops. Need some proper cooling. Anyway. Then the newest Lynda LaPlante offering featured Ciarán Hinds with a very peculiar haircut. I was perhaps a little too focused on that to begin with, but got into the story after a bit.

I was going to comment upon the news item about the six-year-old boy who took his mum's car to drive to school, but after some digging around for the source, I just became depressed. What started as a funny, little story that I heard this morning on the Beeb, has now turned into a nasty POLITICAL DEBATE over in the States. For crying out loud, why do they have to twist everything to suit their own political views? Do they actually KNOW what happened? Or are they simply listening to whatever they're saying at the news on their TV station of choice? I was going to say that I found it strange that someone would let their kid play Grand Theft Auto--which is an amazingly brilliant game, but should probably be available only to those who actually understand the difference between fact and fiction--but if I do, that will probably just be taken into the long-winded, boring discussion about how games, films, music and just about anything else which is remotely entertaining, may or may not contribute to an increased aggression among those very few among us who are already aggression-prone.

Computer and video gaming is officially the number one pastime in Britain. Thus I vote for ten pages of computer news in all the major newspapers, every day, plus at least five minutes worth of gaming reviews and news on telly during every news programme. It's clearly more interesting to people than sport, so it's time we got the focus off of sport. I mean, this morning the news about Kevin Pietersen quitting as English captain was the third item on the agenda. Luckily they had the common sense to put the horrible situation on the Gaza Strip first, but only just, it seemed. Then there was something about the credit crunch again. But third? I mean, a lot of people care, but it should NOT have that sort of priority! Surely there are lots upon lots of more important stuff happening around the world? I believe, for instance, there is a list of forgotten humanitarian crises we could get back to before caring about some cricket player who just couldn't take the pressure.

By the way, have I mentioned how little I can stand people who slurp when they eat and/or drink? Unfortunately I have a few of those working nearby me, and they have like three meals a day while at work (seriously!) and lots of cups of god-knows-what (probably tea). Their meals are usually stinky fish, noodles or smelly soups or stinky, smelly noodle fish soups, so there is a lot of slurping going on and it's making my blood boil.

Labels: ciàran hinds, current affairs, gaming, personal, sport, TV

And while we're sitting here, waiting for the rain around Wimbledon to clear up (in the middle of the men's final? What nerve!), I am going to comment upon last night's episode of Doctor Who, with no spoilers!

Uhmm...that makes it kind of difficult to comment at all, so I'll just say it was even more action-packed than the rest of the series, and I may or may not continue watching next year. How's that for a fascinating read, eh?

It appears I am going out again tonight, which makes it three nights in a row (although yesterday was mainly just my doing a prolonged bye-bye with a drink in my hand) and hardly any sleep. I'm too old for this, I realise. Which makes for a great excuse for not going out, of course, but those times when I actually want to go out, it's just annoying. Still, the plan is to leave rather early tonight, since, once again, I have to go to work tomorrow. Just say no, just say NO!

Ooh, by the way! Adrian Lester revealed on Wossy that they're making the fifth series of Hustle at the moment! Glee! The last series was kind of dull, so I'm hoping bringing Adrian back to the cast would help. Also very much looking forward to that new series which sounds absolutely bonkers but which does have Hugh Bonneville in it, Bonekickers; it starts in two days, I think it was. Nice.

Labels: personal, sport, TV

I have wasted three hours today on the new Creature Creator from the upcoming game Spore, available for free from their official website. You need this. Seriously.

And then you'll pay for the upgrade, haha!

Last Wednesday I went to see Judy Collins at the Southbank Centre. So there was me, a couple of others in their thirties, and lots of people in their fifties and sixties. It was fun, though; she had a lot of stories filled with name-dropping (Leonard Cohen, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, to name a few), and her voice was still amazing. All in all a nice concert.

Then I went to see Superhero Movie and the fourth Indiana Jones film. Both mediocre, I guess. I liked Indy better than Superhero, though. For those of you don't know what Superhero Movie is about, it is basically a parody on lots of those Marvel and DC Comics live-action films that have been cropping our screens since the turn of the millennium. So I didn't quite know if I should laugh or cry or bitch-slap her when the teenager next to me kept saying to her friends: "That is well like that Spider-Man film!"

I have also managed to watch the whole of American Gothic (the series) this past week. Not quite sure why I bothered, really, as it actually doesn't have an ending! LOL! I still haven't forgotten the great cliffhanger in VR.5 which turned into an annoying ending when they cancelled the show. Idiots. Wasting our lives like that. That's something I'll never get about the American TV companies. At least over here they tend to write a proper ending when they are told the series will not be picked up for a new season, or they make a Christmas special or something which will tie things neatly together. Yes, I am frustrated.

Also bought Okami for the Wii. My Gog, there was a huge difference between the controls on the Wii and on the PS2! The whole point of Okami is that you have this "celestial brush" you use to alter the world around you (it's basically a magic wand with ink), so imagine how much easier it is to just wave the remote control on the Wii instead of moving the tiny joystick on the PS2 controller. So I have actually finished quite a bit of the game already! And I have had the game for the PS2 since early 2007. Tsk, tsk.

Yesterday I celebrated my 14th day in a row of getting up early in the morning to work out with Wii Fit! I am amazed it has lasted this long, really. Let's face it; if I can sleep another five minutes in the morning, I do so. But on days when I have to go to work, I actually get up at six to work out for an hour. Wow. All hail my new-found self discipline. It will probably vanish as quickly as it appeared, so better celebrate it now, while we have the opportunity.

OK, back to the Creature Creator. Tomorrow is another visit to Hairspray! Giddy with glee!

Labels: concert, film, gaming, music, musicals, personal, sport, theatre, TV

...maybe more of this would change your mind.

By the by, if you're at all interested in who won (and wore) what at the Oliviers, please visit the excellent blog The Alternate.

Labels: humour, sport, theatre, time wasting

So the 14000th song I scrobble on last.fm is Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse with of Montreal, one of my new-found favourite songs.

And who would have though Manchester City would beat Manchester United? Good on ya!

Labels: music, sport

Watching Djokovic vs. Federer in the Australian Open (hey, I work in the sports business, and FOR ONCE the ones in charge of the nearby telly aren't watching cricket or horse racing, so I enjoy watching tennis when I can), Federer just lost (hahahaaaaah!) and things are finally becoming interesting in the world of tennis. Federer actually isn't unbeatable! Wonderful.

There are other competitions heating up as well, but those are on a more personal level. My harem of future husbands has expanded to three (previously mentioned Dale Winton and Julian Clary are just silly candidates, of course, and don't count towards the total), so they will all have to fight harder for my attention. Dennis tried creeping up the field again yesterday as I investigated my flatmate's brand new MFP and scanned a few newspaper clippings etc., but I'm afraid he is not yet a match for Philip, who is currently struggling even though he is appearing on stage in London in my fave musical and therefore VERY approachable; struggling because of That Other Bucket Midge (I should NOT have looked at that video this morning) who has, annoyingly enough, taken over my teeny weeny world with what seems to be absolutely no effort whatsoever, just by being so bloody charming. Bastard.

The trouble with those "admiration videos" put on YouTube by drooling teenaged girls (or, more often than not, by perfectly normal (although slightly bored) housewives and business women), is that they choose these songs that will then forever be connected to the person in question. For instance, I have three such videos among my favourites (the one with Philip Quast is different as he is ACTUALLY a singer, so they've just put one of his own tracks on there): One is for Whose Line in general and features Perfect/Exceeder, Mason vs. Princess Superstar, a song I already love. Then today's newly added Greg Proops drooling video features Biology by...uhmmm...is it Sugababes or Girls Aloud? I always forget. Anyway, I love that song as well. But then, THEN you have the video which I have dubbed my Marton Csokas fave video, but which also features other actors apparently in the same league as him, and the track on this particular video is Flawless by George Michael, which I originally thought was incredibly boring, but which now always makes me think of Marton. And Jason Isaacs. Hmm.

Speaking of my flatmate's scanner, I found my cherished Playbills from May 2002 and scanned them. So, just to prove that YES, I actually went to New York to see Alan Rickman on stage (and is he still in my harem of future husbands? Is he fuck), and YES, I actually got their autographs, here they are in all their glory:

Private Lives Playbill (signed by the whole cast; Lindsay Duncan, Emma Fielding, Alan Rickman and Adam Godley) and, for good measure, the Noises Off Playbill, signed by (let's see if I can remember) Peter Gallagher, Faith Prince, Patti LuPone and Robin Weigert. I'm still frustrated about the fact that I didn't get T.R. Knight's (he was in a hurry) and especially Katie Finneran's (I didn't dare ask, for some bizarre reason, when she actually LOOKED STRAIGHT AT ME with a "any more fans around?" kind of look in her eyes) autographs, but then again I'd already made enough of a fool of myself during that trip...and I'm never going to let myself live that one down, apparently.

My YouTube playlists (random link.)

In other news, and this time it really IS news, I heard this morning that "my" presidential candidate, Dennis K. Kucinich, has given up the race against the other twats Democratic candidates. So now I'll have to choose between the three heads of the monster. Reports like this naturally make me very skeptical, so I'll have to take a close look at the way their campaigns are going.

Labels: Alan Rickman, comedy, current affairs, dennis storhøi, greg proops, jason isaacs, marton csokas, music, musicals, philip quast, sport, theatre, TV

The postal strike is finally over, after three weeks of no deliveries (ok, there was one rogue delivery), so I have finally got my long-awaited (we're talking four years here) Hamlet (Branagh) DVD and the brand new Football Manager 2008 by post. Of course, I am at work, so will have to wait till I get back home, but still good news.

And then, to top it off, my favourite headmaster, Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame, turns out to be gay. Didn't we all (especially the guys over at FanFic.net who will now probably die and go to slash heaven) just know it?

Speaking of gay, I met one of my (competent) co-workers (more on that later) in the shop today and he seemed a bit flustered when he saw me. I had the distinct feeling I wasn't meant to see him with the guy he was there shopping with. Come on, puh-leeze. My gaydar was bleeping frantically the first time I saw him.

Any-hoo, since I'm in such a good mood, I am going to cheer for England in the rugby World Cup finals today. I won't be wasting my time actually watching the match, but I hope they beat the Springboks. You didn't know there was something called the rugby World Cup? Well, you're probably not the only one. In fact, most people don't know and don't care. A bit like the Commonwealth Games. Or the curling championships. Or the skiing World Cup. Ring a bell? Thought it would.

Labels: film, gaming, literature, personal, sport

Luckily Norway won their quarter finals against the host nation, China, but I must say the end was rather embarassing. I have never found the "time wasting" tactics to be fair play AT ALL, and it seemed the ref agreed with me. Still, Heia Norge!

Labels: Norway, sport

Once again my "local" paper (I haven't lived there since 1996, and I haven't felt at home there since 1993, but it's still "my" town) has outdone itself with excellent journalism. I quote from their report from the football match between local 3rd division team FK Tønsberg and a team from across the Oslofjord, Sarpsborg:

"Stian Nikodemussen ble dagens mann med fire scoringer for de røde. Etter en halvtime fikk Sarpsborg Fredrik Henriksen utvist etter at han skallet ned Anders Skarbøvik. Etter utvisningen var det kun ett lag på banen. Øvrige målscorere for FK Tønsberg var Andreas Moen (3) og Kim Nysted (2)."

Translated into:

"Stian Nikodemussen became MoM with his four goals on behalf of the reds (FK Tbg, that is). 30 mins into the game Sarpsborg's Fredrik Henriksen was sent off after headbutting Anders Skarbøvik (captain, FKT). After the sending-off only one team was left on the field. Other goalscorers for FK Tønsberg were Andreas Moen (3) and Kim Nysted (2)."

First of all, don't the rules say that every team should have at least eight players on the field, otherwise the game is forfeited? Technically, if Sarpsborg had no players left after Fredrik Henriksen was sent off, they actually started with just him, which means the referee must have been bought to let them play at all. (No wonder Henriksen attacked their captain, then; he must have been terrified and really stressed out after having to cover the whole field by himself.) Or, Sarpsborg were really sore losers and left when they lost one of their players. Once again, the ref should not have let the match go on.

By the way, the match ended 9-1, which means Fredrik Henriksen should have been MoM, managing to score a goal on his own against 11 other players.

Labels: humour, sport

We're on high alert over here at the moment. Everyone looks suspicious, they may be plotting something sinister. And that's just the new government, let alone the two (three?) car bombs that almost went off.

So we got rid of Tony Blair and got his lady-in-waiting instead. Great. But I suppose a few more years of Labour is the lesser of two evils.

Went to see Tennessee Williams's The Rose Tattoo at the National on Wednesday. Very good. Slightly long. And some poor goat was pulled across the stage twice. What a fun life it must have. Nevertheless, Zoë Wanamaker was good in it, if a little too quiet at times (luckily we were in the third row).

Today sees yet another year and Pride parade here in London march past without my being able to attend, so I have celebrated in my own little way by looking at tattoos I would like to get and searching for "old flames" on the net. Which I do from time to time. Only now I have even started forgetting people's names. I can hardly remember whom I went to school with, for instance, and certainly not remember their names! I must be getting old.

At least my bonus was bigger than expected, which was very nice and which will help towards paying the tax I very surprisingly owe to the Norwegian taxman. The bastards claim I should pay them taxes for...uhmm...not just NOT working there last year, but also at no time whatsoever throughout the whole year visiting the country. Wonderful. I wonder what they're making me do next year, when I have repaid two of my credit cards and suddenly don't have much debt left over there. They'll probably expect me to pay tax twice. Don't quite see how I shall be able to afford that. Greedy bastards. And that's with a socialist government! Who knows what the right wing would have done! Sheesh.

Since my flatmate has been occupying the living room, and hence also the telly and Playstation 3, in order to follow Wimbledon for some peculiar reason (named Tommy Haas), I have had to entertain myself by re-reading the fifth and sixth Harry Potter books. Oh, the pain. ;-) I finally got around to pre-ordering the seventh book as well. I know I probably didn't have to, but if I hadn't, chances are there would be none left by the time I reached the shop on the day of release.

Labels: current affairs, literature, personal, sport, theatre

They are probably not going to scrap it, but please sign the petition to get rid of the utterly ugly and extraordinarily expensive logo that they have made for the London 2012 Olympics. You may see the logo here, if you like punishing yourself visually, but I would rather send you here where BBC readers have come up with their own, much better and much cheaper versions.

And I finally got a computer at work where I can post to my blog. Yay!

Labels: current affairs, sport

OK, so to be honest, I actually have another three days off after today, but that means three quarters of my holiday have already gone.

However, I have been doing many things lately.

First of all, I did survive the Eurovision, not too shell-shocked, either. I just have to comment upon something. Let's not be sore losers, people! We (as in "the Western European countries") have dominated the competition for almost fifty years. Now that the up-and-coming Eastern European countries take a hold, stop talking about "political voting". The reason for neighbouring countries voting for each other is more likely because we tend to have the same tastes in music. And the UK, of all countries, should not even mention political voting. The only reason they didn't end up in last place, was that Malta gave them their 12 points...and that was apparently a deliberate protest against "political voting". Some changes should be put in place, though, now that we have doubled the number of countries in such a short time. For instance, even though this will unfortunately leave Norway as the country with the most "nil points" forever, we should give points to every country. This will probably give a more nuanced picture. We should also have the EBU physically control every aspect of the phone vote. Thirdly, we could bring back professional juries. Do what they do in a lot of talent shows these days; 50% of each country's vote comes from phone voting, the rest from a jury.

Just my opinion, of course, which no one usually listens to.

What else have I been doing with my time lately? Well, we did celebrate Norway's constitutional day on the 17th of May. I took the whole day (week) off to celebrate this year. I really, really wanted to go to the Steven Pimlott celebration at the National, but made sure that would not be an option on the day by making plans with friends all day. So we went to Southwark Park, where we were quite surprised by the large number of people having turned up.
There were speeches, food (why they hadn't taken into account the sheer need for lomper I will never know, but they were completely sold out before we got there, which meant I couldn't care less about the hot dogs), music (Sondre Lerche was there, in extremely good spirits), "walking corpses" (or "a marching band" as the more linguistically aligned among us would say), lots of children and lots of flags. And then we took part in the (almost compulsory) parade. Which was kind of fun.

When we had stayed for about two hours and they announced the games for the children, we decided it was high time for us to get something to eat. Well, leave the park, at least. So we did just that, and went to a pub a colleague of mine had suggested because of their nice garden and beer.
So we got a small sheep. I bet the beer was nice, only I don't like beer, so I didn't drink more than about one fifth of it. The food was good, though, and not too expensive.

Then we went back to the neighbourhood of the park, to the Norwegian church there, in order to take part in the rest of the celebration there...which started with us throwing ourselves at the local (week-old) Norwegian newspapers they had there and buying their shop. Well, almost. I bought four chocolates and the others just about the same. The point was that these were Norwegian chocolates and food which you can't get anywhere else.

The entertainment for the evening was much better than last year's; varied and quite impressive, some of it. Unfortunately, we were sitting next to The Parents From Hell(TM), whose kids were running all over the place and causing a lot of noise. When people asked very politely, after about 90 minutes of this, if they would be so kind as to try to keep the noise down, they were ignored completely. These people even turned out to be members of the congregation! So much for your Christian goodwill and compassion.

We spent the rest of the evening at our local pub and the next day we sort of relaxed at home before going to a local Indian restaurant. I had what I thought would be a different dish to what I had on my previous visit, but it turned out to be the same "mystery sauce" with just slightly different ingredients. My dessert was an Irish Coffee. Perhaps I'm turning into an alcoholic.

For some very strange reason, I watched the FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United. It was extremely boring, even though it did become marginally more interesting during the second half, only I think that could have been because I had put a bet on the outcome. I lost, as they just couldn't be arsed to score until way into extra time, at which point we were much more interested in the fire which had started nearby (it was quenched just about the same time the match ended).

Speaking of fires, who's the moron who set the Cutty Sark on fire? Spookily enough, the suggestion of DNA testing all new-borns for illnesses and criminal tendencies suddenly seems very attractive.

Oh, and last Monday we went to see Spider-Man 3 (which was nice) and 28 Weeks Later... (which was nicer and yet darker).

This week sees the end of the wonderful Evita run, which is sad, but also makes my wallet a little happier. And speaking of Lord Lloyd-Webber (indirectly, at least); what happened last Saturday when he let Daniel go instead of Lewis in the Joseph compo? I was sure Daniel would stay until the final, when Lee naturally wins the whole thing. Lee has a very annoying speech impediment, though, which has led me to not voting for him these past few weeks, but last time he was back on my list as he simply is at least one level above everyone else in that competition. Due to his drama education? Quite possibly, just like with Connie Fisher and the Maria bunch last year.

Labels: current affairs, evita, film, Lloyd-Webber, music, musicals, Norway, personal, philip quast, sport, theatre, TV

More than a week, in fact.

I have been reading through all of my blog posts (593 in total, counting this one) in order to add tags to them all. Also, I did not correct any spelling mistakes etc., as I believe in the First Draft Theory.

It was great fun reading through my blog, as there were a lot of things I had completely forgotten about. Even the most mundane everyday stuff was interesting to read about, so that should be a great incentive for updating more often.

Btw, the previous post, with the World Leader test thingie? Turns out I had already done that one years ago, and that time I got Che Guevara.

Since last I updated this thing, I have been working, watching a few films, playing a few games, and shopped A LOT on eBay. In fact, I have upgraded my wardrobe quite a bit. It was time to get back to the real me, because that bit of me has been dormant for six years.

Last night I went to see Evita for the sixth time (I thought it was my seventh, but my blog says otherwise) and it was as fabulous as ever, although I must admit I had a hard time keeping a straight face because even in the most emotional scenes I kept picturing Mark Heenehan as Tinky-Winky (which he played at some point in his career). I should never have been told that little fact.

Then I stood by the stage door for the first time in about four years, which was nice, especially since we actually got something out of it. The few others who had stood there to begin with, disappeared within the first 30 minutes (oh ye of little hope), so then just the three of us (the brilliant minds behind The Philip Quast Guide and myself) were left. I was actually going to leave straight after the show, seeing as I was getting up early to go to work this morning, but luckily (in this case) I am easily persuaded (in other words, Captain Wentworth would not have liked me) (bad Jane Austen reference, sorry) and stayed despite my growing headache. I always get a headache when I go to the theatre. Maybe it's the air, maybe it's the tension, who knows.

Anyway, that's when Philip Quast turned up with his bicycle and had a chat, which was nice.

Uhmm...

Yes, you're right.

I was much more ecstatic, of course. I am just trying to stay focused on the important things. Like not exploding. Or dying of a nervous laughing fit.

At least this time I remember what was being said. I don't remember a thing from my short chat with Rickers in NYC, and I honestly forgot everything but the embarrassment only hours after I met him. I must have learnt something since then. Or I wasn't as embarrassed. Or what was being said was actually interesting (Meeting Rickman, I did the talking, yesterday Quast did the talking. Huge difference.)

I am leaving work in 30 minutes and you will not believe how much I have been looking forward to these next few days off. Especially since yesterday's Grand National event; we were so busy I almost fell asleep during Evita due to being knackered! Eeek!

Labels: Alan Rickman, evita, musicals, personal, philip quast, sport, tests, theatre

Norway are the European champions of handball. Well, the women's team is. The rest of us are just very happy we beat the Russians and kept the championship within Scandinavia, at least. ;-)

Labels: Norway, sport

Lance Bass of *N-Sync "fame" turns out to be gay. Well, duh! I thought that was pretty obvious from the first time I laid eyes on him.

Floyd Landis may have been "spiked" when winning the Tour de France. I am looking for good old-fashioned, moral athletes out there who can actually do great things without using drugs, but there seems to be fewer of them by the minute.

A swedish idiot killed his own dog by locking it into a car during the recent heatwave over there. He may get a fine and have to serve some time in prison. My suggestion? Well, if you've read my blog before, you probably know already. At least ten years inside, a hefty fine and not being allowed anywhere near animals for the rest of his life. Also, snip-snip so there will be no procreation of the devil's spawn.

In personal news, I found a new game yesterday, with a lot of help from the guys at the PCGamer magazine: Kudos, a "life sim" with lots of possibilities of modding. Yay!

Labels: animals, current affairs, gaming, sport

I was a bit grumpy yesterday because I couldn't go to the West End Live event in Leicester Square. However, I then checked which performances were going to be there, and it turned out to be ok after all.

Something which is harder to swallow, though, is that I will also be working when the parade during the EuroPride gets underway. This is just annoying. Last year EuroPride was in Oslo, and I had just moved here so I couldn't attend. This year, it's over here and I will be working until after the last speeches have been made. Grrr! Then again...I do get paid for this job and can actually pay my rent and bills and still have a little left over for food and entertainment (well, when the local cinema charges two pounds for the latest films on Mondays, most people can afford going to the cinema from time to time). Nothing left for my credit cards and Norwegian loan, though, har har!

No, wait, that's supposed to be a negative thing.

We were interrupted here earlier today as the fire alarm went. I was of course on the phone at that exact moment, and in the beginning we just thought it was a test (they test the alarm once a week, minimum), especially since it happened at eleven sharp. So I continued talking to the customer on the phone, but when the alarm persisted and then became more agitated, I had to take his number and get out of here. For some reason, even though I had it in my hand, I did not bring my bag with me. We never found out what caused the alarm and were let back in after about fifteen minutes. There is extensive refurbishment work going on here, though, so that could be it.

Earlier this week was equally exciting at home, as my computer did not work after having been unplugged in wait of the terrible thunderstorms that never came (touch wood, they'd better not pop up right now). I left it until the next day (things are usually more scary in the dark) and then tried turning it back on. I don't know what made me think things would be any different at that point, but still... Well, the bloody thing wouldn't work. Thinking I'd ruined the cord, I tried another one. Still no luck. That's when I discovered the red button. Never, ever touch a red button, we all know that, right? Well, I did anyway. And then it said 'poof!' and there was smoke and my first thought was 'shit, we don't have a fire extinguisher!' The smoke lasted for about three seconds and then there was only the smell left, so I opened the window and went to take a shower instead. I quickly made it downtown to buy a new power supply unit, thinking it muct have been the fuse. When I later came back and installed the new unit, I actually red what the red button said... '110V'. As we use 220V in the UK, this was a pretty stupid move. Well, at least I tried. The new power supply unit works perfectly well, by the way, and by some miracle the rest of the computer is unscathed.

Well, it's time for lunch and some football. I need to make some money. I'm aiming for another ticket for Evita.

Current track: Nothing.

Labels: computers, evita, musicals, personal, sport, technology, theatre

It's taken me several days to comment upon Friday night's performance of Evita. Not just because I was busy at work (the World Cup has started, and boy, have we noticed!), but also because I wanted to make sure I was writing the right review.

Let's just start by once again stating that I was biased when watching this. I counted the minutes until Philip Quast entered the stage (27, by the way). That does not mean that the first half hour was boring, rather the opposite. Great music, nice flow, and all in all I was pleasantly surprised about the number of slightly older ensemble members. Very good move! I am sick and tired of this being a business for those under 30 only. Especially since I'm getting there myself, soon, ahem! (LOL!) I was sitting next to a nice couple from...ermm...somewhere in Wales, I think, who were exalted as well and we were chatting away during the interval. Nice to see Matt Rawle on stage, as it wanted me to run straight home after the performance and listen to Martin Guerre. Not that I actually, did, mind! It's on my list for when the weather is cooler (which seems to be today and for a few more days, since I start my three days off tomorrow). Elena Roger was of course very good, it was a joy listening to her almost effortless singing. Hearing her and Philip together was a goosebumby experience.

All in all, if Evita is this good after one week of previews, I think the rest of the West End should look out when it actually premieres! Looking forward to the cast album, as there was a lot of great music in there, and of course the next performance I will be attending, in August.

Current track: Nothing. I'm at work, after all!

Labels: evita, musicals, personal, philip quast, sport, theatre

Have a look at this article in the Sunday Times about the upcoming Evita musical.

I watched the whole FA Cup final yesterday. Not quite sure how that came about, but apparently it was the best FA Cup final in fifty years, according to the very excited BBC commentators, and I was trying to leap into the telly a few times myself (rooting for West Ham, of course, one does take proud in one's neighbourhood after all), so I'm pretty glad I did see it.

By the way, don't go shopping on a Sunday. Too crowded.

Current track: Aaron Hall - Don't be Afraid

Labels: evita, musicals, sport, theatre

I bought another ticket for Evita. It'd better be worth it!

I have completely forgotten to congratulate West Ham for getting to the FA Cup final and especially The O's for making the cut and being promoted to League One next year! Brilliant!

Current track: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy

Labels: evita, musicals, sport, theatre