Confessions of a Theatre Snob

Sunday, March 21, 2010

It makes the theatre snob in me quite proud

I heard from my lovely ex-boss last week. This is the boss who had only ever seen two theatre productions in his life. As a life-long Hull City fan, Confessions of a City Supporter, and then a few years later on a trip to London, We Will Rock You (yes, I did mock). When I used to rave about the magic of live theatre, he always told me that theatre wasn’t for him, as it was ‘posh’.

In an email about work, he also told me that he had started going to the theatre, and sounded quite excited about it. He had recently see Blood Brothers, Billy Elliot and even Jerusalem (ahead of me there). He went on to say that he had also booked for Phantom of the Opera, Thriller (I will allow him an ‘off’ day) and The 39 Steps.

It was lovely to read his final comments: ‘Have really enjoyed all of them and I can absolutely now see why you love the Theatre so much’.

Awww!

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Travels with my iPhone

I admit it, I am in danger of becoming an iPhone bore. I’m told it happens to us all.

After about 3 days of wanting to chuck it at the wall, as I could neither download or text, and the most useful thing I’d discovered was how to find out what the weather was in Luxor, I started to get the hang of it. Setting up an iTunes account helped*.

I’m thinking it’s going to be most useful when I’m out and about. I’m not interested in the many games Apps, but there are some wonderfully geeky mapping Apps, and I’m nothing if not a map geek.

I got to test it out on Thursday when I had to go to Manchester with our Finance Director for a meeting. He had a paper map, but it wasn’t that good, so I tapped the post code of the place we were going into the iPhone. It didn’t just show us the route, but also show us walking along it as a little blue dot. We were like a couple of children, giddy with excitement (I know, it doesn’t take much)! Coming home, I was able to find the times of the next trains to York (ok, I missed the first of them, but that was because I don’t do running).

Then yesterday we were having a shopping day in Liverpool, and wanted coffee. I was standing in Debenhams and searched for coffee shops. The nearest one was actually one I’d been to last summer, Rococo, and wanted to visit again. It's a bit like a tart's boudoir, and a welcome change to Starbucks or Costa

Mind, I also discovered that this same App shows you where the nearest places of interest are to where you’re standing, and gives you the history of them. I find this fascinating. My colleagues just rolled their eyes and groaned.

I am going to enjoy this!

*Yes, I know this is the basic thing, but I didn't have one, and hadn't set it up right at first.

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Friday, March 12, 2010

In which I finally get my iPhone

When I went into town the other day I got my iPhone. After my strop with Vodafone I hadn't had time to get it till now. As with many things which bring with them huge expectations, so far it is proving to be a bit of mixed blessing.

You see, I can’t actually work it very well. What I hadn’t appreciated, even from seeing others use them, is how very different it is to a ‘normal’ mobile. As someone who has struggled to get to grips with my work BlackBerry, it’s proving to be something of a challenge. Couple that with the fact that I so far have not been able to log on to download any ‘Apps’, and I’m getting to the point where I’m about ready to chuck it against the wall (only I won’t, cos of the cost).

I’m sure I will get there, it will just take me longer. I’m finding the keyboard particularly difficult as it’s so sensitive, and I’m used to bashing at the keypad on a phone. I therefore tend to end up with gobbledegook. At the moment, everything is taking me three times as long as it did before.

And all those wonderful Apps, well, they’re still a mystery to me. Even browsing them, apart from obvious things like Facebook and Twitter I have no idea where to start, (though Cat has offered to advise me). It’s proving quite stressful at the moment, when I foolishly thought it would be a breeze. But then it’s me, and technology. And that rarely ends well.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Cleveland Way - Part 3

Let’s face it, it was always going to be a bit piece meal. It’s a linear, but not a sequential, walk as far as we’re concerned, by which I mean we will probably jump around a bit depending on which bit takes our fancy. I’m already playing catch up as J and V walked one week when I had to go to rehearsal, so I’ve only just done my first 10 miles, in three separate stages.

This time, we started from Osmotherley, and had the advantage of convenient husband, (V’s) and sometime honorary handbag walker, K to meet us in the pub and collect us at the far end, so didn't have to move the cars around.

I’d done the first part of the walk last summer, when it was a lot less muddy, but emerging from the trees and looking out across the still snow topped moors to Roseberry Topping and beyond, the view gave a sense of scale of the thing we’re doing.

It was all very well marked, and there were a lot of other walkers. For once I too looked like a serious walker, as my handbag had been replaced by my bright blue back pack (only because I decanted into a smaller handbag for hols, and haven’t ‘upgraded’ again since). V managed to get a bit of shopping in by buying a dozen eggs from a farm en route. It was slight less eventful than last time, i.e. no evil turkey (though there were a couple of cockerels and some hens which I gave a very wide berth).

After about 4 miles we detoured, and headed into the village of Swainby, discovering a very nice pub which we’d like to return to. This time we just had tea, but they had a lovely range of food on offer. I'm still thinking that this is really all about what surrounds the walking; the food, the drink, and the shopping.

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