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Monday 17 October 2011

If you go down to the cemetery today...

Had a little visit to a cemetry in Nottingham today to get some atmospheric pictures as documentation of my costume for my one man show of A Christmas Carol. I was attempting to pose Victorian style amongst the gravestones (like you do) and had my camera setting on the self timer setting. I posed with a few gravestones and was crossing the main path when I saw a young woman coming in my direction. She looked friendly and had a Nikon camera with her so I asked her if she would be kind enough to take some pictures of me in my costume. Her name was Jenna and did a great job. Thanks Jenna!  She was in the graveyard to take some pictures of her own of graves of soldiers killed in the First World War. I hope that you remember my site name and enjoy seeing your work. :)





After this I went into the city and had some lunch at the Broadway cinema and hung around the backstreets of the Lace Market area and took some more photos before I went home.






 

Sunday 16 October 2011

No Nigel NO!

I found Nigel Slater (who I do like) had a new series on Channel Four and keenly picked up an episode on iplayer. This episode was about sausages. Image my horror when this imposter very very slightly resembling our dear Nigel appeared on my computer screen! Shock horror!

What has he done to himself in the latest series? Where has the naughty boyish floppy haired charm gone? Now he has a shorty haircut and a rough goatee and 'other guests' including Nigella who looked like she'd just died on the 'sausages' episode. Bring back bad boy Nigel!!! Please!!!
It's not OUR Nigel is it?
Added later: a picture of our Nige as we like to see him, slightly scruffy, slightly cheeky and great in Simple Suppers.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

They've named a posh burger after me and other oddities

I took my camera for a walk around Nottingham today and saw some interesting sights. For those who know me as Frenchyphil, I spotted a sign outside a posh burger bar where they had a special on named after me! I've never been 'Burger of the Month' before. So proud!


The contents are brioche bun, 100% Aberdeen Angus beef with Stilton, bacon, onion jam, salad and relish. Aberdeen sur Mer being that famous city in France where they produce Le Stilton of course.

Moving on, I witnessed a young woman in a blindfold being guided around the Lace Market area with her guide describing the things that passed in front of them whilst the 'blind' person wrote everything down on a big pad. I think they were fashion design students.


I found out that Delilah (award winning deli) have built an outside eating section and I was intrigued by a massive round of Dutch cheese in the window. My cheese loving friend Rebecca would love to have a sample of that I guess.




I had a coffee at the Bonnigton cafe (part of the Trent Uni campus) and a beer at the Broadway cinema and some Aberdeen Angus beef with red onion chutney 'Food on the Move' sandwiches from M&S as I walked the streets and back alleys of Nottingham and was amused by this opportunity to capture a guy eating on the street.


I was amazed to see that the Ostrich burger bar near Waterstones had changed hands once again and the new owners were gearing up to sell their burgers and mussels (?) Good luck on that one guys.


For some reason I seemed to have an obsession for photographing old doors today and equally distressed buildings around and about.




Finally I spotted a spaced out dog and a man whose face was melting in a car park near to the music venue, Rock City. Fun days!



Wednesday 5 October 2011

A Christmas Carol

Sorry I've not been around lately on this blog so much as normal. Truth is that I have been busy creating and sewing my costume for my German production of my one man show of A Christmas Carol in early December this year. I have also been writing and editing my script for the dramatic reading and adding in subtle pieces of the German language and additional descriptive passages from my original adaptation  I've worked from in the past. I've enjoyed it all and my days off work have been filled with buttons galore, sewing, tatting and dying objectives and creative imaginings to bring my costume to fruition to illustrate a storyteller cum Victorian character (certainly not trying to be Charles Dickens) telling the story in a new way but keeping faithful to the original.

the jacket for my show (so far)


The jacket of my costume has been dyed and embellished and distressed with the base being an old chef's coat that I wore when I worked at Cafe Coco Tang eighteen months ago and also wore in the Lace Market Theatre production of Festen as the drunken chef, Kim.


The top hat is authentic and embellished with brown lace and silk. The top hat came from Wild in Nottingham and the lace from Baklash - a vintage store also in Nottingham. The silk was something I had around the house and was formerly a cushion and now an embellishment meant to enhance a funereal scene early on in the show.

scenes from A Christmas Carol at the Lace Market Theatre

Scrooge in the LMT production - played by Roger Newman
As I'm working with all this material (text and fabric) I think back fondly on the times when my full stage production of the same story at the Lace Market Theatre, directed by Martin Berry, was also being echoed at the Jakobus Theatre (where I am about to perform my one man show this year) at the same time in their own theatrical version of the Dickens' novel.


Funny how these things come around and I'm really looking forward to telling all you readers of the great time I had socially and the theatrical success that I had in Karlsruhe with the show that I am currently putting together.

The German language aspects of the piece have been taken from a copy of another 'very true to the original' adaptation of the story published by CBJ Klassiker as I wanted what German I introduced into the script to be correct language-wise. I decided to keep things as simple as possible and added in the titles of the chapters, some small piece of dialogue with the merchants and the final line of Hope by Klein Tim, otherwise known as Tiny Tim. I am hoping that my audiences in Karlsruhe will appreciate all this effort and enjoy re-telling of Dickens' classic tale.