The Gym Group

Dare I say it, but I have once again signed up at a gym!

I’ve not been to a gym in London before, namely as they all appear substandard, overly busy, and certainly not worth the inflated prices that they charge down here.  As an example, my employers have a deal with an unnamed gym company who I think are awful… and despite us being a large company with what would be perceived as a ‘good’ offer, it would still cost me £60 per month!

When I was back in Manchester, I used to be a member of Holmes Place for around £25-30 pcm, and that had top notch facilities!

However, recently I’ve started to feel rather fat and as if I’ve been putting on weight, so was looking around for a gym to join… and then stumbled across The Gym Group.

The Gym Group is one, of several companies around the country I might add, that are offering gym membership for ridiculously low prices. In my case, for the Vauxhall -  London gym, I am currently on £14.99 per month, one off £20 joining fee. There are no contracts, and I can cancel at any point simply by cancelling my Direct Debit. As it doesn’t need a full-time staff, the gym is open 24 hours a day. You pretty much manage your membership yourself too.

They largely manage to keep costs down by doing away with a pool and having minimal staff on site. Indeed, it is a fairly autonomous/self-service process – from arriving to leaving. You can arrange for a trainer to meet you at the gym if you require one, but staff will not be on site unless specifically booked to be there by a paying member.

According to industry ‘experts’, this is the future for gyms and so we can expect to see this business model repeated time and time again. I believe the model has shown great potential across Europe already. No doubt it will be a big success in the UK too, (similar companies I’ve seen in Manchester, for example, are also doing well out of this apparently), and I have to say, it makes the gym and having membership a much more attractive option for me now.

To get all of the information and concept of The Gym Group, a visit to their website is probably the best bet.

Here’s hoping that I am able to make good use of the facilities, and that I manage to find times when they’re not too busy (I readily accept that 5-10pm is going to be a nightmare, and will  try and avoid – for my own benefit, of course!). I will probably go on my days off (one weekday, one weekend) and one evening. Some of my friends live in the building above the gym, so they can go at all kinds of ungodly hours – lucky them! The upshot of that though is that I can either go with them to the gym, or pay them a visit on the way home, so it’s not all bad and may actually encourage me to go heh!!

My induction session is on Thursday evening, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all works and whether or not I rate it – look out for future blog posts heh!

NB/UPDATE: – My thoughts on TheGymGroup Vauxhall are HERE.

Manchester – July 2009

I have just returned from spending two days (one night) back home in Manchester  – and am feeling much better for it!

I decided to go up on a whim as a hotel room in a Travelodge was £19 for the night, and train fare was only £5.30 each way, so for those kind of prices, I thought I’d be silly not to!

A larger photoset of my journey exists on Facebook for those who have access to it.

Although Manchester was forecast heavy rain for the duration of my stay, I am VERY relieved to report that not once did a single drop of rain hit my pretty little head heh. Most of the rain came whilst I was sleeping I think.

The only thing that I didn’t like was the amount of roadworks that are going on at the moment(!). I know a lot of it is due to the Metrolink upgrade, however Deansgate was also very messy, and I can only imagine how hard it is to get around Manchester by bike/public transport at the moment. Didn’t see too many roads in the city centre that were wholly open for business heh.

As an aside, I really liked the DVD machines at Piccadilly Station – very clever idea, especially if they can get them into smaller stations with decent footfall such as Stoke-On-Trent, where they don’t (to my knowledge) have a HMV already there etc.

When I got to Manchester, I met up with the chap who now does my old job at work and had lunch at the Soup Kitchen – they were doing a lovely lemon/lime chicken, rice and salad (all for a reasonable £4.50-ish). The hotel that I was staying at is next to our Manchester office, but even still, I wasn’t expecting to be able to see my old desk from the chuffin’ window of my room!!! heh.

I’m going to a wedding on Sunday, so went out to Next to purchase a shirt and tie, which took me ages. I can’t shop, simple as. If I go out looking for something specific, then I fail miserably to get anything. After about an hour and a half, I decided on one, and then promptly, and unexpectedly, nipped into HMV and bought 4 DVDs without question LOL!

In the evening, I met up with a fellow whom I know through twitter, Joseph, and we went for a few drinks in the Village. Fun to meet Joseph as he was one of the people who I find that I have quite a few twitter (and ‘real-life’) friends in common with, so he was like adding-in a missing link in a way. It’s a bit like Pokemon – gotta collect ‘em all heh! We stayed in Via for around 2 hours, popped into Spirit which was absolutely deserted and then finished up in Tribeca with a pitcher of Cosmopolitans – yum! Ended up with the traditional kebab on the way home, in bed for 2am and no hangover – bish-bash-bosh, job’s a good’un.

Incidentally, and speaking of twitter, I did use the service an awful lot whilst away… looking back, I think it shows just how much I was missing Greg as I was reaching out and connecting with people constantly. Didn’t know I was that high-maintenance heh!!!

Next morning I was up early to go see my family in Stretford. The Metrolink was especially efficient for once, taking only 8 minutes to cover the distance. Had to catch from St. Peter’s Square due to the engineering works. Very well managed I thought, and I liked the wit of the ’sorry for the inconvenience’ posters – made me giggle.

Unfortunately Stretford seems to have gone down hill quite a lot these days, and it has also garnered some bad national press in recent months due to a failing grammar school and a stabbing. I must say, when I lived there, it was a lovely place and is somewhere that I still hold dear, though walking through the re-branded Stretford Mall and seeing that around 80% of shops were unoccupied and had closed down when previously they’d had 100% occupancy, it did really hit something home.

Great to see my family, especially my niece and nephew who seem to shoot up tremendously between visits! I asked if we still had some of the old home videos of my sisters and I as kids and we managed to find some grainy old VHS copies (from 1992 and 1994) which I’ve taken back with me and will get onto DVD shortly for everyone! Some were slightly embarrassing, not least the one where our Mum forces my sister and I to perform ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ in our backyard heh. And they sometimes wonder why …?

After my visit, I dashed back into Manchester to meet Marc for lunch in Strada at Spinningfields. Back when I lived in Manchester (i.e. any time before I was 22 heh), Spinningfields was just being built, and, as Marc worked at the main office building that exists in Spinningfields, I really did get to see it grow around me. I must say, I am very impressed with the development now, it’s even bigger than I thought it would be! I think it needs (an unknown) something else too add to the attraction of the nightlife it wants, but not a cinema as there are already too many screens in Manchester I think.

I had a few hours to kill, so headed off to perhaps my favourite place in Manchester; the Museum of Science and Industry! A very pleasant 90 minutes was spent poking around the trains and planes and whatnot that they have there.

So all in all, I had a rather hectic, but marvellous time back home. Can’t wait until Manchester Pride in a few weeks as I’ll be in the city for five days with plenty of my London friends too (and Mister Greg!) – hurrah!!

(I love the contrast of old/new - Manchester does this very well imo).

Mister Greg’s 30th Birthday in Brighton

So, dear old Greg turned 30 the other day, and to celebrate I organised a secret day out in Brighton with all of our fabulous friends!

I had a right old time trying to get him out of bed so early in the morning; he was having none of it! I’d promised him a ‘Birthday Breakfast’ as a cover for me still being home that morning, so he looked quite disheartened when I chucked a croissant at him and started pecking at him to get ready heh.

The most fun part of the surprise came when I managed to confuse him with all of the connections that we made via rail to try and get to London Bridge. Needless to say, when we got to London Bridge and he saw everyone, he was very surprised, and also thrilled! Yay!

There were 10 of us in total, so we were able to make use of the GroupSave discount that is offered on groups of 3/4 travelling together (essentially you pay for 2 and then get either 1 or 2 respective tickets free!).

The train ride down was a little busy (apparently half the World was descending on Brighton that weekend!) but I love travelling by train, and I love doing it with large groups of friends, so it was lots of fun!

When we got there we headed straight down to the pier to indulge in fish, chips, mushy peas, bread and butter and a glass of champagne! All for a very reasonable price of £12.95! Marvellous! Anyone who is heading to Brighton would be recommended to stop in here for lunch/tea!

After that we decided to crash on the beach for a bit and, with a few friends, Greg and I decided that we wanted to go for a swim in the sea! Cue much kerfuffle whilst we went to source some swimming shorts, flipflops (ugh!) and the obligatory beach ball heh.  Footwear is definitely needed to cope with the pebbles on Brighton beach!

The sea was lovely and warm, though I discovered that I may need to grow a little before the next time I go into the sea… I took an absolute battering from all of the high waves heh!! We also managed to do our very own rendition of the YMCA whilst in the sea (thinking back, I’m horrified to think of how many people may have been staring heh)… and at one point, our swimming shorts simply *cough* fell off!

Once we’d had enough of the beach, we headed to The Amsterdam (I’m not a fan I’m afraid) and had a few relaxing drinks whilst some of us watched the end of the Wimbledon men’s  final, before heading back onto the pier so that the gang could have a go on the dodgems.

We decided to grab some tea on the way back at a lovely little restaurant, which was in a square serenaded by an opera singer! I say an opera singer… more of an opera busker… but to call it that cheapens it I reckon heh! It was lovely to sit there with friends, eating, drinking, relaxing, reviewing the fabulous day and listening to her music! She tried to do a rendition of ‘Barcelona’, but strangely always cut out the word ‘Barcelona’ from her performance for some reason heh!!

All in all, we had a tiring but absolutely magnificent day, and our sincere thanks go out to all of our friends who came along, and to those who wanted to come along but could not make it. I have a lovely golden brown colour to me (as does Greg) – amazing what just one unintentional day in the sun can do for you! Personally, I think that it was one of the best days that I have ever had down here, I enjoyed myself THAT much, and I am very very pleased that Greg really enjoyed his birthday!

A selection of pictures from the day follows below:

We held a pow-wow to assess the notion of going into sea heh!

Confidence levels, perhaps foolishly, certainly have increased this summer (see previous blog posts!) - whoop!

(previous posts)

Just like I said... they just *FELL OFF!*

Mister Greg (r) and I

I think that we ALL liked the totty behind us on the beach heh!

More beach totty!

2 years in London

Following on from last year’s post (it is really weird looking back at it), I thought that I would also recognise that today marks my second year in London – hurrah!

To be honest, I still find London as a city a poor substitute for Manchester, however I think that’s just homesickness etc talking as obviously I recognise that London has a far better transport infrastructure, amenities etc (though I think Manchester has a better standard of housing, and prefer seeing occasional streets without chicken shops on them heh!!).

I find myself saying this a lot, however it really is my friends (and obviously Greg!!) who keep me wanting to stay in London. I am very fortunate to have such a fab group of people around me, and I definitely think that they’re worth hanging around for!

I can still remember the day I moved very clearly; Marc and I had to say our goodbyes (which was horrible), and then that awful (and silent!) 9 hour ride down the M6 in the front of a white van with two rather butch blokes with whom I shared nothing in common! To be fair, I wasn’t really in the mood for talking with them, what with me being so upset and apprehensive about everything. When we got to London, we came in via Willesden (I was staying in Kensal Rise originally) and it took us an hour to make a ten minute journey due to the poor driving skills down here… that was my first proper impression of London.

My first evening in London was a little scary… I was in a gorgeous apartment, with more floor space than you could imagine, however for the first time in several years, I felt so alone. Cue me logging into MSN and ending up chatting to Danny, and thus everything that has happened to date happening.

So yeah, 30th June marks a real turning point in my life. A lot happened on this day, some of it good, some of it bad, but inevitably all for the better, I’m sure.

Two years on, I am very happy with where I am, I am fortunate to have a wonderful fella in Mister Greg (whom I love lots and lots and lots) and a marvellous bunch of friends who I really enjoy spending time with. Hopefully I can build on this further in the coming year and gain a few new friends in the process (I’m lovely I am! hehe).

HURRAH!

So, until next year…!

Me two years ago

Recent photo of me

Kilimanjaro 2010

Bit of an unusual post from me now…  so do bear with me, it’s all for a good cause, honest!

Last night I was approached by an acquaintance on facebook and asked if I would mind supporting his participation in a Mt. Kilimanjaro climb in aid of Scope, a UK charity aimed at helping those with Cerebral Palsey and helping society to integrate better with those with the condition.

Of course, how could I refuse?!

I would do the climb only if I was allowed to ride a giraffe to the top (thus doing it in style... none of this sweating and panting for me heh!)

The team are aiming for a rather ambitious £7K, and need to have sponsorship in place by November 09. The climb itself is at the end of January 2010.

I’m sure that we all saw the Comic Relief climb done by the celebs and marvelled at just how gruelling that was, and so anybody prepared to put in that much training, comittment and ’suffering’ deserves (at least!) £7K of sponsorship in my opinion!

There is plenty of information available on the team’s ‘Justgiving‘ page, and I’m certain that Rob won’t mind you contacting him via facebook or via his Kilimanjaro 2010 blog if you’d like any further information!

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a huge amount, I’m sure that even £1 would help and be gratefully appreciated by Rob and Scope (as would the £50-s, I’m sure heh!)!

Don’t forget that if you’re a UK tax-payer, you should ‘Gift Aid’ your donation (at no extra cost to yourself) and the charity gets additional funds presented to them from the Government!

Hopefully Rob will keep in contact with his progress when it comes time for the big climb and we’ll all be able to see how he’s done!

Perhaps the only English worded song in the World with Kilimanjaro in it’s lyric!

Sister Act – The Musical

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Adam and I caught the matinée for Sister Act – The Musical; currently in previews at the London Palladium and set to open on Tuesday June 2nd, 2009.

I was very fortunate to get chance to see the show as my original opportunity was for the week prior and clashed with Little Shop Of Horrors; so hurrah for Adam and the Hairspray outing! I was especially pleased to be watching the show with Adam as I was looking forward to an ‘insiders’ view of the staging to contrast with my own ‘enthusiasts’ view.

We both came out of it thinking the same thing really; the opening was terrible, but as it went along, it got a lot better, and we were both up at the end, wildly swinging our rosary beads with the rest of the jubilant (and upstanding) congregation.

Realistically, we’re talking about a a show comprising of Sheila Hancock and a sisterhood of disco nuns… so it’s hard to go wrong really!

First, I shall tackle the thorny subject of the opening few minutes. You’re opening the London Palladium of all places… you want a huge opening, maybe a lounge act, a few bangs and sparkles, maybe Delores flies in over the crowd… and instead you get Mother Superior stood in the corner, meekly asking for someone to help the convent. Disappointing.

The pre-set of a purple curtain and a large gold cherub was like something ripped off the So Graham Norton credits… ugh! I do hope that the creative team behind the show tweak the whole opening before they get out of previews, as, if you open the show on a bad note, it takes a long time to recover in my opinion; which was true of this show.

The gangsters who were after Delores were comedic (and rarely in a good way… sorry!… script more than actors, of course!) and in my opinion should have been a lot nastier and scarier than they were.

However, those are my only major (and grudging) criticisms of what is otherwise a fantastic show!

Whilst Alan Menken’s soundtrack for this musical isn’t going to set the world alight I’m afraid to report, there are only two decent songs in the production (which they repeat endlessly!), it is certainly foot-tappingly fabulous.

The real winners in this production are the people behind the set design. It is absolutely remarkable how they turn the stage around… it really has to be seen to be believed. A very versatile set with some innovative mechanics behind it. I envisage several technical awards when it comes to award season next year!

Most of the characters were great, with my particular favourites being Sister Mary-Lazarus, Sister Mary-Patrick and, of course, Delores. Some great casting / portrayals in there from a very accomplished company of actors.

Patina Miller is a genuine gem and I think she’s great in the role of Delores.

Disco Nuns!

Disappointingly, Ian Lavender (of Dad’s Army fame, in Sister Act playing Monsignor Howard) was barely in it and didn’t really have much of a role to play, and I thought the back-story behind  Sister Mary-Robert was surplus and bored me slightly.

There has been a lot of hype about this show (unfortunately, most of it self-generated by the Sister Act press office!), however I do think that this is a good show, and it managed to do something that a production has not managed to do for me in quite a while; which surprised me. I was actually welling up a little and felt very uplifted at the end of the show…! I’ve been jaded in my theatrical pursuits in the past few years, however this show really did give me that huge overwhelming feel-good-vibe that I’ve probably not felt since first seeing Hairspray (and them finishing on”You Can’t Stop The Beat”)

I give it a few years in the West End and think that it is definitely fabulous as a new piece of musical theatre making it’s debut.

I would heartily recommend it as a fun and uplifting show – at times you want them to just burst into the songs from the film (and to hell with the copyright… I’ll pay my share!) – however the story does transfer well, and definitely works as a stand alone piece of theatre.

Sister Act is currently booking until February 2010 at the (gorgeous) Palladium Theatre, London.

The show runs for 2 hours and 30 minutes (including interval).

For a BBC interview with Sheila Hancock (Mother Superior) along with a few clips of the show, please click HERE.

Update to the recent goings-on in the realm of DarkAeon

So, it’s time for another bit of a personal update to my blog I reckon.

It’s all been rather busy recently, especially so with work and college. Yesterday I finished the classroom study element of C4 (Fundamentals of Business Economics) on the CIMA/CBA course. I think that I chose an especially good time to study this element of the course what with the current financial problems, fiscal policy and the recent budget announcements, it made it really easy to relate the course notes to real life scenarios. I am more of a ‘finance’ person, and so economics was a little off the beaten track for me. It was all common sense really, but with them trying to attach fancy names and formulas to it.

I have my exam on Thursday 30th April, so we’ll see how that one goes!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been a little ill, dental infection, ear infection, severe migraines – it’s been a constant flow of problems! Argh! I reckon that I have spent around £100 on NHS services and prescriptions in the last 3 weeks… it’s shocking! Hopefully I’m through the worst of it now, and my health will improve. I am thoroughly fed up of being in pain and trying to scramble to get seen at emergency NHS services in the community!

As always, when you know something is wrong, you go and research the heck out of it (and usually end up worrying yourself silly over nothing!). I fell into a bit of a Wiki-hole (thanks to @rosspj for the term!) the other day and was very surprised to learn that Boots the pharmacists were actually the people who developed Ibuprofen, in addition to the fact that when you take codeine, it actually metabolises into morphine at around 8-12% strength. I also figure that I have a fairly efficient metabolism, which when taking antibiotics is very good to know!

I’m off to see Sing-A-Long-A-Hairspray again tomorrow (third time now!), which I understand is shortly to be discontinued (which is a shame!). Always a great laugh and a relief to see that I’m not the only person who knows the entire script inside out heh! Introducing a friend, Ryan, to the shenanigans too, so that should be interesting…

I noted t’other day that I’ve not seen quite a few of my friends for such a long time, so I’m hoping that we’ll all have an excuse to meet up sometime soon… there have been a distinct lack of social events thus far this year, and absolutely no dinner parties yet. I’ve a few invites to Eurovision parties (though I’m working the next day, so I’ll have to weigh up transport home options!), so I think that’ll be the next ‘big’ social occasion.

I also need to try and plan my route into work on Sunday so as to avoid the London Marathon runners. It’ll be surreal as I’ll probably watch it online in the office, despite them running less than ¼ of a mile away from me!

Anyway, I’m off out for lunch to enjoy the 20oC temperatures that London is currently basking in!

I’ve been tweeting quite a lot on twitter for things that don’t really warrant a blog post so do feel free to follow me via http://twitter.com/darkaeon if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty day-to-day stuff.

Thanks for reading! x

Recent shennanigans in the realm of DarkAeon

Rar,

So I figured that it was about time for another personal update to my blog; I never seem to find time to be able to do these sort of posts any more.

That said, not all that much has happened if I’m honest (well, nothing interesting enough to blog about!).

My employers have decided to shackle me to my email inbox with a new BlackBerry – I have the Curve 8310, and so far, I really like it (the device, not the email and the constant beeping!). I’ve named him Barry as it is easier to exude my wrath onto a personified object as opposed to an objectified person!

The spec of the device is rather good, and along with my N95 8GB (personal phone), there is pretty much nothing that I cannot accomplish thanks to the wonderful smartphone technology. Between them, they can do more than my computer can I think!

Size Dimensions 107 x 60 x 15.5 mm
Weight 111 g
Display Type 65K colors
Size 320 x 240 pixels
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Trackball navigation
- Wallpapers
Ringtones Type Polyphonic (32 channels), MP3
Vibration  Yes
- 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
Memory Phonebook Yes, Photocall
Call records Yes
Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
- 64 MB flash memory
Data GPRS Yes
HSCSD No
EDGE Yes
3G No
WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, miniUSB
Features OS BlackBerry OS
Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser HTML
Games Yes
Colors Silver
Camera 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, LED flash
- Integrated GPS
- Java
- Media player
- BlackBerry maps
- Organizer
- Voice dial
- Built-in handsfree
Battery   Standard battery, Li-Ion 1100 mAh
Stand-by Up to 408 h
Talk time Up to 4 h

… now, I just need to find a way to get it to use the dishwasher and I’ll be sorted for life!

I am still loving the musical that I went to see the other week, Spring Awakening. I now have the soundtrack too, which is on a constant loop it seems. There’s nothing better than missing your train and breaking into ‘Totally F**ked’ hehe.

The Saturdays are featuring quite highly on the music that I am listening to at the moment too, as are P!nk, Queen, the Dreamgirls soundtrack, the Pan’s Labyrinth soundtrack, the Across The Universe soundtrack and the ever fabulous Scissor Sisters.

Greg and I have recently started shopping at Waitrose and are very impressed with them as a supermarket. A completely different work ethic seems to be present when compared with their larger competitors, most likely due to the differing business models. We’ve found that Waitrose do price competitively, have pleasant staff and sell excellent quality food (especially fresh fruit and vegetables) – I don’t think that we’ll be returning to Tesco anytime soon to be honest. For those who haven’t tried Waitrose yet (and happen to have one nearby!), I’d heartily recommend them.

I’ve just embarked on the CBA stage of the CIMA exams, and plan to study for my first paper (Business Economics) over the next 8 weeks or so, so that is a bit of an adventure I guess… be intrigued to see how this all pans out, as I’ve wanted to get back into study for quite a while now, and so this is a perfect opportunity to spend several years working towards becoming a Management Accountant and hopefully carve out my career further as time goes on.

A friend of mine, Adam, has suggested the BBC comedy series ‘Beautiful People’ to me… does anybody else have an opinion on the series before I go out and spend £20 on it?

(ooo, I’ve just noticed a strange correlation between the freeze-frame poses of both P!nk and the chap from Beautiful People! Is this the new fashion? Should I arrange myself in a similar picture and send it to Vogue??)

I think that’s it for news really, and most of the above isn’t really all that newsworthy! Should I feel depressed?

Right, that’s decided, I feel depressed and I need, no, I DESERVE(!) chocolate… which I will see to, right after I’ve slapped Barry Beeping BlackBerry back into silent submission!

Spring Awakening

I have just gotten back from the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in London where my friend Adam and I went to see ‘Spring Awakening‘, a new musical based on the 1891 play by German playwrite, Frank Wedekind.

First off, I really must say that I was terribly impressed with this show.

Although I was unaware of the original play, and thus cannot comment upon it’s comparison and likeness to the original work, I thought that it was a coherent piece of theatre, with a strong cast and top-notch quality acting.

For those people interested in such a comparison, Wikipedia has quite a good analysis on the page for the musical version of this play (as well as having a seperate page for the play itself).

The story is set in late 19th Century Germany and focuses on a small group of teenagers and their new-found discovery of sex and sexuality. As you would imagine, Spring Awakening is not really suitable for children due to the overarching themes of sex, sexuality, rape, masturbation, abortion and the bad language that is sometimes used (there is a song called ‘Totally F***ed’ for example). Perhaps not the most likely of subjects to make a new rock musical out of… but I can think of a few West End shows with yummy actors in them that I’d like to see explore some of those themes hehe!  (note to self – “TSK! Shame on you!” hehe).

A great mix of drama and songs, I thoroughly enjoyed this performance – it is easy to see why this show garnered 8 Tony awards in the USA (incidentally, this show has just closed on Broadway and is currently touring the USA).

It has just been announced (literally this afternoon) that Spring Awakening will transfer to The Novello Theatre the week after closing at the Lyric Hammersmith (it closes 14th March, re-opens 21st March) where it will initially run until October 2009. The  soundtrack for the show (the OBC and not an OLC) will be released in the UK on 23rd February 2009.

The stage set itself was lovely, both Adam and I remarked on it, and we especially liked the use of lighting – it was a fantastic set-up that they had with numerous bare lightbulbs hanging down from the ceiling – it almost made me want to up sticks and head back to Manchester to start work on a warehouse conversion project so that I could have lighting as fantastic as was on display on stage!

The picture below gives a fair idea of the lighting design that we so loved.

The space was very well used, and it was really easy to follow all of the action. They managed to make the space versatile enough for one to watch for two hours without it becoming dull. (NB – the show is 2 hours, 20 mins, including interval, though the timings may change when it transfers to The Novello).

As an aside, both Adam and I reckon that this is the start of Harry Potter the Musical…. the lead chap, Anuerin Barnard, looks just like Lee Meade… who in turn looks like Harry Potter we think! If you squint a little bit, Charlotte Wakefield (the leading lady) could pass as Hermoine Granger, and Sian Thomas (who plays the Adult Lady – and was one of my favourite characters!), is actually IN Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, hehe!

Plenty of totty in this musical, though I must say that Iwan Rheon (who plays Moritz) wins the over-all prize:

Followed shortly by Jamie Blackley who plays Hanschen:

It was really nice to see such a young cast… I have read somewhere that only three of the cast members do not fall in to the 16 – 24 age bracket (and two of those are middle age adults). I must say, I did initially remak to Adam that I had enjoyed hearing a youthful ensamble when it came to the singing… having adults singing some of these songs may have caused for the vocals to be a little overpowering perhaps.

I have also posted regarding the OBC recording on THIS post – it’s remarkable how quickly the soundtrack has become one of my favourites of all time!

The show also has Chris Barton in it as a swing, whom some of you may remember from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Any Dream Will Do” show when searching to find his new Joseph.

I’ve posted my four favourite songs from this show below, although for me, it was really all about the acting on this occasion:

And Then There Were None [my over-all favourite]

Mama Who Bore Me

Totally F***ed

The Bitch Of Living

At this point, I hasten to add that I in no way condone people recording in theatres and whatnot… especially when the production’s own website carries audio/visual on it (it’s just a pity one can’t link to it!) : http://www.springawakening.co.uk/

If you are considering frequenting the show, I would judge it based on the clips on their website, and not the random YouTube links that I have posted above (as there really wasn’t much kicking around on there!).

To finish the post, I thought that I’d do so on this brief clip… the legend that is Whoopi Goldberg getting in on the action at the Tony Awards hehe!

GO AND SEE THIS PRODUCTION – I implore you!

News And Views Update

A bit of a personal update for my blog as once again, it’s been a while!

The most exciting bit of news that I have to share is that Greg and I are moving in together – hurrah! We started looking at the end of August and were lucky to find somewhere 5 weeks before we were planning on moving (29th September 2008). Therefore, the process involved in finding somewhere to live actually wasn’t all that stressful (well, I don’t think that it was!). The stress is really building up now though in preparation for the move – erk!

We’re moving to a really nice new-build development out in Zone 6 of London – everything is brand new and shiny – hurrah! I’m a big fan of new builds and so, after putting up with the general standard of housing in the Capital, I am really looking forward to something new again. Plus, you never find spiders in new build developments!

It’ll also be fab to get to live with Mister Greg too of course! Really looking forward to getting settled down with him – very exciting!:)

In other news, work seems to be going well for me with several new and interesting focuses being moved into my realm with one or two of the more ‘icky’ ones / ones which are no longer relevant to my role hopefully scheduled to be handed over to other colleagues in the near future.

I’ve adjusted my hours so that I now work on a Sunday, though I get Wednesdays off instead (most of the time, dependant on when Month End falls). Although some may baulk at the idea of this, it’s actually really beneficial and it was work that approached me to see if I could do it in the first place. Ultimately, the office is nice and quiet, I’m the only one in, and so I can have my music on full whack and dance around like a loon, I can get so much more work done and I can work to my own pace without interruption. It is also required for some of the new focuses I’ve been tasked with at the moment. This also fits in very nicely with Mister Greg’s working hours, plus I get Wednesdays off – always good to get a day out of the office during the normal working week!

The other day I realized that I’d been with my current employer for 4 years exactly – not a bad achievement I think considering my current age! It’s flown by, but yet dragged – it’s kinda weird to try and apportion it all out given the multitude of roles that I’ve had over the years and the constant move onwards and upwards. In another year, I get some vouchers – hurrah!

For the moment, I am really happy about everything and how it’s all going. Well, pretty much everything. A few times recently I’ve felt a little bit like I don’t get to see some of my friends as often as I used to. I’ve especially noticed this at parties whereby people have all re-grouped together and I feel like I’m being a little intrusive by being there and thus end up sitting on the sidelines on my own and feeling awkward. Sure it’s just me being stupid and that none of the group dynamics have actually changed, and so hopefully I’ll feel a bit better about everything on that score soon as I really do have a cracking set of friends that I enjoy spending time with. It’s probably due to the change in seasons or something equally as old-housewives-tales-y hehe.

TV wise, I’m currently enjoying Neighbours, Mock The Week, X Factor; Xtra Factor; Stargate Atlantis; Hairspray School Musical and am eagerly looking forward to Strictly Come Dancing and Merlin. Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons and Family Guy all start new seasons in the US at the end of the month, (not to be confused with the UK series’ – many of which are coming back mid-season from the writers strike earlier in the year) which again I am really looking forward to!

I keep on meaning to start playing on my PS2 again – I bought Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II about 8 months ago, and despite being hugely excited about them, have yet to see anything other than the opening video on FFXII – grr @ me! The idea of having to spend 3 days building up my character is what’s currently putting me off I think, as I’ve not really got the time to do that anymore. Greg bought me Buzz for my birthday the other month, which we both really enjoyed playing. We also purchased a cheap geeky game where you get to race trains across various terrains/underground – it may be cheap and geeky, but it’s awesome!!! Hehe.

I’ve also gotten used to the new Facebook design, and on reflection, don’t think that it’s as bad as I had originally pegged it. That said, there have been numerous changes from when I first saw the site a few months ago and now that it’s a mandatory format for everyone.

Off out for a few drinks with a friend from Manchester this evening, I am at The Royal Albert Hall tomorrow to watch Mario Frangoulis with a couple of friends, and then doing the (dreaded?!) meet the parents thing on Saturday afternoon over a BBQ – which I’m sure won’t be half as bad as I worry that it will be hehe.

The nerves are really kicking in now though!!! I even went out and bought a whole new outfit and everything! From what I’ve heard of them, they sound very nice and so I’m looking forward to it. It can’t be any more car-crashy (in a good way though) than when I met Marc’s parents…. He’d not announced to them that I was coming and was planning to just spring me on them. Now me being me, I said that wasn’t really fair on them and so when we got there I went and hid around the corner as he was supposedly just nipping in for a quick minute to pick something up. Next thing I know, his Mum comes rooting through the hedge that I’d pressed myself into and said ‘So, you must be Gari then. Why on Earth are you hiding?!’ *BLUSH!* hehe! I blame my misguided sense of politeness kicking in and making me do strange things hehe – it does that quite frequently unfortunately. It goes without saying that the embarrassment of being found pressed into some bushes far out-weighted the embarrassment I may have felt being sprung to someone’s parents unannounced on their door-step! Still, that was about 4 years ago now… fortunately my bush hiding skills have developed a lot more since then P hehe.

So, there you have it; a snap-shot of how life is for me at the moment and some of my current thoughts. I think I’m perhaps the most relaxed and content that I’ve been since moving down to London – which is fantastic.

Long may that continue!

Thanks for reading xx