Love Is A Big Fat River In Flood
Well, lots of my friends are planning major life changes or milestones, but I fear that I continue to flow through the usual assortment of commitments and activities. This past weekend, this began with going to the RSC in Stratford Upon Avon to see Richard III on Friday night, which was enjoyable but unfortunately abbreviated, as the play was running long, but I had to get the 23:00 back to Oxford or be stranded. In general, though, I find the Oxford-Stratford run quite do-able of an evening, so I would encourage and support efforts of others living here to make it out there for plays and events. Saturday, I was going in to see the RSC in London run of Antony and Cleopatra with Patrick Stuart and Harriet Walter, which was absolutely fantastic, atmospheric, well acted and sexy, and also enlivened with running into bluedevi and other friends and acquaintances-not-on-lj at various points in the day.
I was also successful in stopping along Jermyn Street to get some new shirts and silk knots at Hawes & Curtis (Grey with red silk knots, Red with gold silk knots, and an extra pair of burgundy silk knots for my black shirt.) Jermyn Street is definitely the place for me to shop - what limited female clothing you do find there is just what I like - well made, tailored, conservative colours and quality fabrics, in just affordable to aspirational price range (for me, anyway). It does rather make me wish I had an attire conscious or tailoring obsessed male friend to go shopping with, as there are so many more options and accessories for men to ogle. The Landsdowne is nearby, I'll buy the first round, so how about it, guys?
Other shopping included setting up a pull bag at Gosh! since the local Oxford Comic Showcase is no more. I'm not buying a lot of comics these days (Fables, Crossing Midnight and Ultimate FF are my only monthlies at the moment), but it looks like this is realistically my only way to get them unless and until we get a local shop again. Also picked up various odds and ends, including something cute called Mouse Guard, and the beginning of a Sandman Mystery Theater miniseries. And them I'm back in London next week for Avenue Q and possibly Tom Stoppard's Rock'n' Roll - this is a theater fortnight for me.
On Sunday, I finally watched "Hogfather" while at the Lodge - why did no one tell me take Ian Richardson-as-voice-of-DEATH made a House of Cards reference! (Squee!) finished my Discword/Sandman Crossover, and completed and submitted my paper proposal for the Slash 2 conference at De Montfort University. And today, I've gotten word back that it's been accepted, so I'd better start pulling research material on the Articles of War and admiralty courts, in addition to brushing up on my Patrick O'Brian.
In a way, this means I was almost rather grateful to hear that OUMED Society had cancelled classes for this term, as it means I'm free of my teaching commitment on Mondays. Sadly, it seems the Society has imploded/disbanded for the near future, which means that there will be not much of anything on that front for a while. This is less good news for Oxford area bellydancers, but I know that there are classes available through Continuing Education and a few other local Community Centres - if I do my teaching foundation course with JWWAD as I've been planning staring in March, I might even see about trying to teach one - someday. Meantime, if any of my dance friends think they will be looking for classes, talk to me and I can probably hook you up with something.
Oh, and then there's the Institute of Fundraising course I've been considering pitching to work for the end of the year, and the National Trust Working Holiday (near Newcastle, for a May Day Event, no rhododendron, no ticks!) I've signed up for in May, and the sailing I want to do with tall ships, and my work trips to Exeter in March and York in April, and planning the next Trip'O'Doom, and well, this is why I can't get around to major changes, there are already too many medium size ones. Hope you're all being busy and happy as well.