So much to tell, so little time. No, literally. I’ve been trying to find a spare moment sometime in the last couple of weeks which have just been crazy and hectic since work has found out how dedicated I am at most times, and have taken great advantage in that knowledge.
Even the nights I’m at the website I’m still doing an extra hour or two care work in the evenings for some clients who live around the area. Thursdays and most weekends I do a twelve hour shift. I’ve been having Tuesdays off just to have a break.
That’s not to say I’ve been doing nothing but working either! Tuesday night Lija and I went to see Mary Poppins. I went to Leicester Square during the day to get cheap tickets, by much luck the girl rang the theatre and we got 60 pound tickets for 30 pounds and it was the second row from the front and pretty much half way in.
The play itself was colourful and vibrant, with a lot more music than the original film. They changed several key scenes, but the elements remain the same. The little kids next to us sat their with their mouths open, staring at the actors jumping and gliding across the stage.
I just didn’t enjoy this one that much because Mary Poppins herself came across as quite superficial, arrogant and self-possessed. So of course I felt kind of betrayed. There were no women suffragettes, Uncle Arthur laughing on the ceiling, or racing on carousel horses.
But Mr Banks was very well played, and although Bert didn’t have much of a cockney accent the actor was GOR-GEOUS! No, he wasn’t out of the ordinary but he had the cutest smile and even though, having done enough student productions to know that with the stage lights shining into your eyes you can’t see anything past the end of the stage, a few times it looked like those smiles headed straight towards me.
Anyway, enough of the hot actors, I’M PRACTICALLY PERFECT…IN EVERY WAY…PRACTICALLY PERFECT, THAT’S MY FORTE! Of course, those aren’t my words because luckily I’m far from – how boring would that be?! but Mary sang it to the children when they asked what her measurement was and then I couldn’t get it out of my head and ended up singing it all the way home on the tube hehe.
Like Billy Elliott, there are three or four children each who play Jane and Michael Banks, and our night the girl was uncannily like Jane in looks (in the programme there’s a red head and a brunette) but her attitude made Jane a little twat, and that’s putting it nicely!
Of course, the part I mostly agreed with Lija about what was so good were the special effects. Mary Poppins being who she is flew several times around the stage and at the end up over the audience and into the rafters.
When Bert and the chimney sweeps were “stepping in time” on the rooftops of London, Bert walked up the wall, upside down across the roof of the stage on a rollerboard and then walked back down the other side, naturally harnessed by the waist and without landing on his face. The great thing about our seats was that we could see the band pit really well, sometimes they were louder than what we could hear of the voices on stage, but they were really good. The conductor seemed really young. But we watched the flutes, the baby grand, and the drummer.
The other cool special effect was when the kitchen literally broke and fell to pieces, and of course with a click of the fingers Mary, Jane and Michael cleaned it up and it was better than new. Some of the unknown/new characters had great costumes – the statues that come alive in the park, and the dolls and toys that come alive in the children’s bedroom.
I felt like I had to get more into the Christmas spirit so I borrowed a couple of Christmas movies. I’m sitting here watching Love Actually which is actually quite a depressing movie at times, but there’s so many parts that make you smile and go all tingly and bite your lip while you close your eyes moments that make watching the whole 2 hours worth it.
In saying that, I’ve also been reading a book that is having the same effect, and reading it on the train is quite hazardous. Atonement is out at the cinemas at the moment starring Keira Knightly and James MacAvoy, but I refuse to consider seeing it until I’ve finished the book. Jasmine’s seen the film, and David’s read the book, so I’ve got a few different opinions. But I agree with David that Ian McEwen’s novel is amazing with the amount of feelings and emotions he, a man, is able to convey through several women’s points of view.
Well, even the care work isn’t all fun and games and has its difficult moments, like last weekend when one client tried to throw her walking stick at me several times, quoting that we were having trouble communicating because of our language difficulties, yes an Irish living in London for 50 years is having trouble telling an Aussie what to do because of our dialects.
I covered an emergency shift late Saturday night, and calmed down a seizure on Sunday. One of my lovely ladies is not well waiting for a hip operation, aren’t they all at that age?! But many of these women have been through wars and depression, with husbands long gone, and they are strong and independent and oh-so-stubborn! Most don’t want the help, but will accept it under doctor’s advice or the threat that the alternative is going into a home.
Often coupled with this are cases of dementia that weave in and out of the normal mind, which can be quite difficult to deal with, and wobbly structures that lead to the amount of falls and knee and hip injuries that occur in older people. I’m no expert yet, there’s plenty of time to learn more, but these are just some initial observations.
I’ve been enjoying the different stories of way back when – the name dropping which, unlike our teenagers talking up celebrities, was knowing the people and relatives who impacted London most. Mrs Twinnings is still up and running around, as is Mrs Marks (ala Marks and Sparks). And then the stories about running across Europe during the war, what the grandchildren are up to, but most importantly, what to make for dinner.
And last night I made pork spare ribs with a honey soy marinade, roast potatoes, and carrots and broccoli. Lija and I have also been doing a few different soups, but we’ve also been out quite a bit. Some of my shifts I get dinner, and some I don’t. I actually had a Christmas party this year, with Strand on Wednesday night. I went over after I finished work, had a few champagnes, met more of the staff and the other HCA’s and nurses and just had a really good time.
Supposedly they bought half an offy worth of booze and it all went by 11pm, amazingly I was one of the last there, and caught the train home with Phil. He’s a nice man, works in the office (the ratio of women to men is always monstrous in this job), but he said he did meet his partner through work! He lives in Dagenham which is nearly at the end of the District Line, so we had a good 45 minute chat.
It was funny because I was talking about work, and my British grandparents, and watching Chelsea and living in the East end, and Phil was just mildly amused because everything I was saying was so British – says he! Ha I had to laugh at that because I’ve only been here 7 months although everything has become so normal. Even the attitudes I display to Jasmine about the tube she just laughs and says ‘you sound like a Londoner’.
I was walking to work in Notting Hill on Friday night and this man stops me, of course I have to take my ear phones out otherwise some person is just gesturing wildly at me, and he asks if Earl’s Court is nearby. I sort of just laughed and said ‘no, not at all. You have to go down to Notting Hill Tube station and catch the District Line down to Earl’s Court, should just take you ten minutes or so’ to which he was very grateful and walked off knowing where he was off to.
It sort of put me off step, thinking how strange this knowledge is in my head. Ah well, it just proves that sometimes I think too much! And thus you have too much to read. So I’ll let you enjoy and finish this before Christmas Eve. Ciao
Oh, and if you want to see our place, I filmed this a couple of weeks ago but have had trouble putting it up within the blog, so you’ll have to click on this link to see it!
Tags: Travel
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