Some great shows

I took my beloved to Merrily We Roll Along, a Sondheim revival.  It was fantastic; a really clever, tragic 'success' story run in reverse, thus emphasising its tragic nature.  The cast was just amazing.  One of the best musicals I have ever seen.  Although I did overhear someone a few rows behind me complain that there was too many songs.  I feel the same way about Rod Stewart.

The very next day with fairly low expectations, I was blown away by the absolutely delightful Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing.  I just loved everything about it.  You can just feel the love and care in the precision of the camera lines that squeezed every ounce of worth from the simplicity of the sets.  The actors brought exactly the right amount of personality to the screen to highlight rather than distract from the dialogue, which is the unfortunate tendency of many celebrated directors of Shakespeare recent productions.  Whedon transforms Shakespeare into contemporary entertainment.  Brilliant!

Photo Credits

Merrily: The Telegraph

Much Ado: ScriptLab

Glasgow Airport

My return flight got delayed and I found myself with time to kill so I wandered into a Wetherspoons.  They pulled a Wildcat for me and it was pretty good.  I should have quit while I was ahead.  I spotted on the menu a little Scottish section.  Having been assured by my concierge the day before that looking for traditional Scottish fare in Glasgow was a lost cause I thought this was an opportunity when I spotted: Highland Beef Burger, which was claiming to have haggis, beer-battered onion rings, and chips.  When it arrived, I noticed there was no onion ring, but instead bacon.  There was some mince-like brown substance that maybe had little seeds in it or something that I am assuming is supposed to be haggis, which had a tad of flavour.  But the burger and bacon was somewhat flavourless, which is quite a feat for bacon.  So I am guessing that if the burger and bacon are any indication, whatever this stuff was, it probably doesn't taste like haggis is supposed to.  

Then I spotted some English mustard. So I think, OK, I'll squirt some out to dip my chips in.  Then I think back to the breakfast at the hotel where I was offered a full English.  Hmm, English breakfast, English mustard... am I really in Scotland?  Maybe not.  So I finally taste the mustard and I think, boy, it has been a while, but this tastes like American mustard, which is basically English mustard watered down with vinegar.  So I grab the bottle again and it says 'mild' English mustard.  I flip it over to the ingredients, and sure enough, mild English mustard and American mustard are one and the same.

I know, I know, it's a Wetherspoons, what can I expect.  But it sure leaves me with a quandary if anyone asks me if I've ever had haggis.  Maybe?

Photo Credit : Millnet

The78

I found myself in Glasgow this week and discovered through the help of The Happy Cow: The 78.  It is a Samuel Smith pub, but all the food is vegan.  I had one of the best vegetarian burgers I have ever had.  I think it was some kind of seasoned mince of mushrooms and beans, but wow: thinly crisp on the outside but moist, tender, and loads of flavour on the inside.  And they had this mayonnaise like no mayonnaise I have ever tasted.  And the chips tasted just like the ones mum used to make: they had deep dark thick skin along one side of every chip: curved the whole way down.  They tasted just pure potato and oil…mmm…. And there was a little fist full of salad with many different greens onions and carrots with a light little dressing on and that was also fantastic.  I was blown away.

Photo Credit: The78

Hertfordshire Flat

A little about our flat.

The first bedroom is the office where my beloved does her brilliant doctoring.  The second is our bedroom.

The living room is very large and gets loads of natural light.  The kitchen has these very handy shelves.  The fridge is frost free and the stove is gas.  

The bathroom has an interesting colour pattern.  My favourite feature is we each have a pot of our favourite fresh herbs: mine is tarragon and her is rosemary.  

Before the spring when the trees were still bare, you could see Hatfield House, the childhood home of Elizabeth I.  Based on her saying "Oh look, a mediaeval palace" every time she passed a window, I am guessing that the view is her favourite feature. You can see just the top of it behind the trees to the right in this picture.

Letchworth Garden City

We live near the world's first garden city.  A garden city is an attempt at utopian urban planning.  It is supposed to be just the right mix of residential, industrial, and agriculture.  It probably is, but I will not get into that now.  One striking feature is the farms on the edges and the thoughtful footpaths that meander in and out of town and country.  We spent hours of the Late May Bank Holiday on these footpaths and it was lovely.

Lovelier still was another hidden gem: Letchworth Garden City is the home of the UK's very first roundabout.  I am not sure if this feature is indicated on the motorway, but it should be.  This is exactly the type of attraction that I love to stop at on road trips… pure bonus.