Saturday 8 August 2009

Day 7, The savoynet meal.

While I had fun going round the shops with Grandma and Grandad (and Auntie Roxanne who arrived today,) Mummy and Daddy were rehearsing some of the act 2 Grand Duke stuff. The bit that they, (well Mummy at least) enjoyed most was doing the dance number that is near the end of the show. They said it is going to be really funny and great fun.

Tonight nobody went to the show, but instead Grandma and Grandad had a night off while Mummy and Daddy took me to the Savoynet meal. We met up outside the Opera house for the savoynet photo before going to the Kwei Lin chinese restaurant to eat. I had my own packed lunch to eat, but I still tried lots of Mummy and Daddy's food and had a great time. (Especially as I got loads of cuddles from people and got made a real fuss of!) Just after we did 'Hail Poetry' I fell asleep, which was a shame as we then went to see the Pot Luck Patience. Though then again, I am kind of glad I missed the dialogue!

Big cuddles
Robert. x

Day 6, A pig by the dustbins!

Another rehearsal day for Mummy and Daddy.

Before they had to leave Mummy took me outside to have a look around and we found Sybil the pig rooting around in the bin bags beside our cottage. I don't think the farm owner was very happy about this, but I thought it was really funny and it made me laugh when she stuck her snout right into a hole in the binbag and started pushing it around and grunting.
Mummy and Daddy's rehearsal went really well and, as I had been uch a good boy for my grandparents (we spent the day at the play area in the Pavillion gardens) I was allowed to meet up with Mummy and Daddy at their rehearsal at lunchtime. It was great as I got made a real fuss of and I even went to listen to a bit of the music rehearsal after lunch. Everyone sounded really great and I really didn't want to leave and wish I could go and see the actual show but....maybe I will be allowed to watch another bit of rehearsal one day!

This evening I spent time with Mummy playing and going to see the animals while Daddy and my Grandparents went to see Iolanthe. Daddy says that while it was a good show, he wishes he'd seen the show the adjudicator saw, as that was even better, with hardly a fault. Daddy couldn't see the queen in the audience, but they played the national anthem so she must have been there.

Sicky dribble

Robert x

Thursday 6 August 2009

Day 5, The first rehearsal.

Today was Mummy and Daddy's first Grand Duke rehearsal so they had to leave me with Grandma and Grandad shortly after I'd had my breakfast. I was ok, but I was sad to see them go, especially Mummy as I am used to being with her all day and it was strange her not being there. (I am more used to being without daddy as he has to go to work.)
Grandma, Grandad and I started the day by looking at all the animals around the farm. I made friends with a couple of sheep called 'Mint' and 'Jelly' who were really sweet and kept coming up for a fuss. I also saw the cat, some horses, Basil the dog and Sybil the pig who I think is very funny. We then went to the Pavillion Gardens to watch the children playing and to feed the ducks and go on the swings, which is one of my favourite things to do.

When it was time to meet Mummy and Daddy after their rehearsal we waited outside for them. When they finally got out I was so pleased to see them and gave them a really big smile and they picked me up for a cuddle. Then I told them all about what I had done during the day and they told me about their rehearsal. They say I'm not allowed to give away anything on here, but they said that their rehearsal was really fun and they got loads of stuff done and think it will be a fun show.

After about 2 hours with them, Mummy and Daddy had to leave me again to go and see Pirates. They thought it was a good show and well cast. Their friend Laura was playing Ruth and they said that she was very funny in the role and did it well, though they said that they could tell that she is really a sop, especially having heard her sing Ida in the Pot Luck the other day. They also got Grandma and Grandad to 'spot the mistake' in the programme where they had accidentaly printed the musical numbers from Mikado instead! Oopsy!!
As I had finally got to sleep by the time they got out of the show (I had been having teeth trouble and so was very grizzly) they also went to the after show cabaret which they said was of a very high standard, and they particularly like a song called 'book report' about writing books reports for the book 'Peter Rabbit'. They have said that they will have to find a You Tube video of this piece as they think I will like it too. There was a bit of a drama when someone got taken ill and the cabaret had to be stopped for a while, but as far as we know the person is ok now.

That will do for now I think.

Squeesy hugs

Robert x

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Day 4, A wet day

Well today was the last day before Mummy and Daddy start rehearsals for Grand Duke and so we were going to go out somewhere

but.............. It was raining! :( So we started off by going over to Grandma and Grandad's cottage for breakfast and then

spent the morning there playing and seeing the farm cat. When I started to get restless, Mummy and Daddy took me for a walk

into Buxton. We went into the museum for a look around and I was fascinated by one of the halls that had artwork by a lady

called Sue Platt. I don't think Mummy and Daddy were quite so impressed though as they are not big modern art fans! (They

seemed to like the stuff and thought it was nice but they didn't find it nearly as fasinating as I did.) I also liked looking round the rest of the museum and putting on a Roman helmet that Mummy found in the dressing up bag. (Mummy also dressed up in some of the clothes and I thought she looked very funny!)
This evening, before the show, Mummy and Daddy took me to meet loads of their Savoynet friends outside 'The Clubhouse'. Needless to say I got made a great fuss of by everyone and I am looking forward to seeing lots more of them during the festival, especially on the days when I am allowed to go to a bit of the rehearsals. I was most pleased however to final meet 'Uncle' Ori who I have heard so much about and 'spoken' to via facebook chat but never actually met til tonight. (Though it did give me a bit of a shock when I was happily sitting on my 'hippie seat' on Mummy's hip and she suddenly shrieked and started running madly towards someone - but I forgave her!) My Grandparents then took me home while Mummy and Daddy went to see the shows in the Opera house.

The first show was 'Trial by Jury' that was done by an 'Australian company' that only seemed to actually have 5 or 6 Australians in it as the rest were people Mummy and Daddy knew who were definatly not from Australia! They said the show was quite good, although it was not the best Trial they have seen and they noticed a few wrong words and were rather confused by a 'drunk' character that didn't seem to add anything to the plot and didn't even sing! They also said that the angelena was much older than they had expected or ever seen before.It was not a problem, but just gave some lines a compleatly different meaning than usual.
The second show was Cox And Box, which Mummy and Daddy thought was excellent!! It was, apparently, rather a traditional production, but very well acted and sung by all. Mummy was particularly pleased that they did the marching starting with the correct foot, unlike the fairies in Charles Court's Iolanthe a couple of days ago. Speaking of Charles Court, they did the third show which was The Zoo. There was no chorus in that production, just the main cast, but Mummy and Daddy said it worked very well like that and was an extreamly good show. (Though Mummy has now got the 'four tarts and a couple of pears' song in her head!!)

Well tomorrow Mummy and Daddy start rehearsals so I suppose I had better let them get some sleep now!

Snuggle puffs

Robert x

Monday 3 August 2009

Day 3, My first trip to The Paxton.

This morning Daddy had to go and get a couple of tyres changed on his car so I spent the morning with Mummy, first at the cottage and then in town where Daddy met us for lunch before meeting up with my Grandparents for an icecream. (They let me have a bit and also a bit of the cone! Yummy yum!) After that, Mummy Daddy and I went to The Paxton to see Ian Belsey's concert. Unfortunatly, as I was very tired, I was asleep for the first couple of songs or so, but I woke up just in time to hear a really funny song about a couple of saussages. I really liked that song and it made me and Mummy laugh. Louise Crane and Nick Sales also sang and we also got to meet Sooty - YEY. I loved the Pearl Fishers' duet too, it was beautiful and one of Mummy and Daddy's favourites too! It was such a good concert I really wanted to sing along although Mummy said that I was only allowed to sing along when she was - so I joined in the last chorus of 'The Hippopotamus song' and also tried to join in with the last song (or Encore as they called it,) but Mummy was not too happy about that! I met Ian afterwards and 'told him how much I enjoyed myself' and he was pleased I liked it and didn't seem to mind my singing. (Maybe we can do a duet one day when I am a bit older?)

Tonight I stayed in the cottage with Daddy while Mummy and the Grandparents went to see Mikado. Mummy said that it was a good production, although she found a lot of the music rather slow (She knew that the opening chorus was definatly slow as she says she could have played the difficult flute bit at that speeed and knows she can't quite play it full speed,) and thought that the Katisha needed a much better stage presence as she was 'easy to miss' at times. She liked the Ko-Ko (her friend Gareth) and thought he was really good, though wished that he had been allowed to sing Tit Willow 'straight' as she thinks he would have done it beautifully (not that he didn't anyway but...) and it would have worked better. She said there were some good touches and different bits like a trombone being played by Nanki-Poo instead of the first 'Oh ni biki backy wacky' bit, (The bit that used to make me jump when I was a tiny baby and at Mummy and Daddy's rehearsals!) and good modernised bit's in Little List and My object all sublime. On the whole Mummy agreed with the adjudicator David Turner's comments, although she was dissappointed that he did not do his usual thing and comment on the shoes as she said as she knew he was adjudicating she especially took note of the shoes which were very good and all the men and women had the same.
Because I had gone to sleep and then woken up and wouldn't go back to sleep, Daddy decided to take me to the festival club where Mummy, Daddy and I started by joining in the singing of Mikado Choruses. I then had a bit of a play in the play area (which is great as it has lots of things for me to chew and bash and a little table that I can hold onto to stand up) while we listened to the caberet by St Andrew's Uni. After that Mummy and Daddy took me to meet some of their friends and then we headed back to the cottage and went to bed. (Mummy says I'm such a 'dirty stop-out' as it was 1.30am before we got back, but I don't mind!)

All in all a good day.

Sticky handed hugs.

Robert

Sunday 2 August 2009

Day 2, Tv, trains and trying new foods!

Well after keeping Mummy and Daddy up half the night last night I thought I had better behave myself today!!

Grandma and Grandad Hall popped round this morning to look after me for a bit while Mummy had a bit more sleep and Daddy had a shower. They took me for a little walk around the farm where we saw pigs, horses, chickens, cats and dogs - It was great!!
When Mummy finally woke up we had a little play in the cottage and then went out to the local pub for sunday lunch. I tried lots of yummy bits of Mummy and Daddy's food, pork, mash potato, carrot and broccoli. When they had finished dinner they let me have a bit of a crawl around as the pub wasn't very full. I really badly wanted to explore behind the bar and kept trying really hard to get there but my meany parents kept stopping me from getting there! (Spoil sports!) I also made friends with another little boy who was also having a crawl around at the same time.

In the afternoon Grandma and Grandad went to see Iolanthe at the opera house and Mummy and Daddy took me to see the Grand Duke principal's rehearsal that was put on especially for some reason or other which I don't quite understand! When we got there everyone immediatly started making a fuss of me which was great and then I had to go and sit nicely at the side with Mummy and Daddy and watch what was going on. It was really interesting and seemed a lot of fun and everyone was really good. While we were there some funny people turned up with cameras and things including a large grey fluffy thing on a stick (which Mummy and Daddy said was a microphone, whatever that is) and I was given orders to be on my best behaviour while these people plus someone called 'Simon Butteriss', who Mummy and Daddy seemed to know, were there. (I don't know why this was, but I was happy to do as I was told especially as I kept being given loads of my tomato corn snacks and Jane even gave me a really yummy biscuit!) Once these strange people had left I started to get a bit restless so we left the rehearsal and went for a ride on the train in the Pavillion gardens which was great fun as I love riding on them.

Mummy and Daddy went to the show and festival club tonight while I stayed with Grandma and Grandad. They said that the show was quite good, but felt that the balance was not always very good between the orchestra and singers as the orchestra was often far too loud. They also thought that the men were far better than the women, pointing out that the women's chorus (if that is the right word) was overpowered by one person whose voice really didn't blend in with the others.
They were really laughing about what happened in the festival club, especially the 'university challenge competition. First they said that one team wasn't even a uni team but a team from the pro Pinafore and that also, both teams should have been disqualified immediatly anyway (whatever that means) as they both had savoynetters in and the rules clearly stated that savoynetters were only allowed to do the savoynet round of the quiz! They also told me that it was really funny as Ian Smith couldn't work or turn off the buzzers properly and also kept getting confused about the questions and that Neil kept getting the scoring mixed up! Ha ha! (Forgot to say that before this, during the singing of Iolanthe stuff, Mummy and Sarah V went up with the men to sing 'The Peers' Chorus' as is tradition with them!) Then there was the Charles Court Cabaret which they enjoyed (Mummy especially liked the clarinet piece because the man kept taking his clarinet apart as the piece went on ending with just the mouthpiece - she is going to try it when she gets home, though says she is no where near good enough to play the actual piece,) although they said that it did go on a bit too long, although they forgave them the last song as it was 'The Hippopotamus Song' which is great and I'm jelous I wasn't there to hear it!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow as apparently Ian Belsey is really looking forward to seeing me at his concert.

Yoghurty kisses xx

Robert

Saturday 1 August 2009

The first day in Buxton.

Well, after a 3 1/2 hour journey to Buxton (during which Mummy and I mostly slept - Daddy couldn't beause he was driving), we arrived in Buxton. We were about an hour early to get into our cottage so Mummy and Daddy took me for a little walk (in the rain) around by the pavilion.
It took about 5 minutes for them to meet the first person they knew and they kept on seeing different friends all the while we were on our walk and even at the cafe where we had a sandwich. I didn't mind though as it meant I was being made a big fuss of!

The cottage we are staying at is really nice with lots of room for me to crawl around and explore. It is on a farm/riding stables so there are plenty of animals for me to look at including a pig called Sybill who I said hello to.

Last night I had loads of fun with my Grandma and Grandad Hall (who are staying in the cottage nextdoor), listening to cds, crawling, playing and generally showing off, while Mummy and Daddy went to see ODL's Sorceror and also went to the Pot Luck Ida in the festival club.

Mummy and Daddy tell me that the show was very good, but that I must not say too much on here in case some people who are going to see it next time are reading this. They have told me that I can say that it was very funny, slightly x rated and included a bit of another Sullivan song. Also, they say that the image of Ian Belsey 'Headbanging' and doing his 'Funky dancing' will haunt them for life!! They say that the Pot Luck was also very good, but they felt it was spoilt by the fact that they also did the speaking as well as the singing as it made it go on too long. (Although it did mean that Mummy got to take the part of Ada with 3 seconds notice!)

Snogs and Snuggles

Robert x