I can't quite believe how quickly this month has flown by! It feels like not so long ago we were enjoying the sunshine in the midst of summer and all of a sudden Christmas has arrived. During the couple of weeks I have been pretty busy preparing for the festivities so with that in mind I thought I'd share with you all what I've been up to.
Just over a week ago we visited our local theatre to see this year's Christmas pantomime which they have chosen to do a production of "Beauty and The Beast". I'm unsure whether pantomimes are performed worldwide or just here in the UK. For anyone who has not heard of a pantomime; here is a brief explanation. Basically, it is a re-enactment of a classic fairy-tale such as Cinderella or Jack and The Beanstalk the plot is usually filled with popular songs and jokes relevant to today's society. A pantomime also involves a lot of audience participation so being an audience member means you never know what to expect.
A few years ago our town's little theatre was closed due to the lack of funding to renovate and maintain the building. It was devastating to see the theatre close, it was the heart of the town and was sorely missed by each and everyone of us. Fortunately, enough money was raised to begin some of the much needed renovations and the theatre was eventually reopened to the public in December 2012! Everyone was delighted to see it open again and has been well supported by theatregoers ever since.
The pantomime is always held during the months of December-January and is most definitely the highlight of the year in the theatre's programme. I personally, had never seen "Beauty and the Beast" as a pantomime before and thoroughly enjoyed the show. The hilarious cast had every member of the audience in heaps of laughter-it was certainly a great start to the festive season!
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Last Monday my lovely friend and I visited our local Sainsbury's store to wrap Christmas presents for charity. We'd visited the week before and made a start on the wrapping. However, we soon realised that we wouldn't be able to work our way through the entire three trolleys full of gifts. We decided that we both would come in a second day to complete our duties as Santa's elves! So we did just that.
The gifts are donated to a range of different charities who give these gifts to people (children in particular) who would wake up to nothing on Christmas morning. I find it really devastating that unfortunately there are people out there who have nothing but it's so lovely to think that these gifts that are given to them will put a big smile on their faces.
My friend and I both enjoy wrapping presents so we had a good old time working our way through the gifts. It was a good way to improve on my present wrapping skills-although I think I still have a long way to go before I perfect that skill! There is of course no forgetting that it was also nice to have a good old chat whilst in the process of doing so!
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Over the week I've also enjoyed some Christmas festivities such as baking red velvet cupcakes to give to friends who visited us at different stages last week. I confess that I somehow managed to cover myself (and the kitchen) in icing sugar-yet again! It's all part of the fun of it though!
Apart from that Mum and I have enjoyed working our way through a selection of Christmas movies that were aired on television throughout the past few weeks. In my opinion we recon that the best ones are televised on Channel 5, they're proper feel good movies. Definitely worth checking them out if you have a few hours to spare and since it's Christmas you can't forget a mince pie or in my case a slice of chocolate yule log-mmmm!
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Finally, my week finished off with a visit to the theatre (in Glasgow this time) to see Saturday Night Fever the Musical. Saturday Night Fever was absolutely brilliant! You can't help but dancing in your seat and tapping your feet to those catchy tunes. You just can't help but love the Bee Gees' music!
I must admit whilst at any show I like to pay attention to the smaller details as strange as that may sound. I've had a couple of backstage tours in theatres which was so interesting as I had the opportunity to see what happens behind the scenes. I have such a fascination with the sets, the costumes, the orchestra etc. It's so interesting to learn about everything that goes into putting on these popular productions. I don't think I realised how much hard work and effort goes on behind the scenes to put on the flawless performances that we see on the stage.
The music was great too! In this particular production rather than having an actual orchestra members of the cast played the live music which was wonderful to watch. There was a keyboard player and drummer who played in an orchestra like tradition. But the rest of the music was performed by the cast on stage which in my opinion was an excellent idea. As I am currently learning to play bass guitar, I spent a lot of time during the show focusing on the bass players to see the techniques they use whilst playing as I pick up on the techniques that they use helping me to improve on my playing.
This will probably be my final post prior to Christmas so with that in mind I wish each and everyone of you out there a Very Merry Christmas!
Lots of Love, Peace and Best Wishes,
Robyn x
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