The Panto

I had heard about pantos (pantomimes) when I was in Japan and I thought they sounded ridiculous. Now I know they are but I really enjoyed putting on with the staff at school. We surprised the kids by secretly rehearsing it and they loved it. It was really a fabulous event and everyone was very pleased with themselves. Even when we were off stage watching the others we were killing ourselves laughing. The basic concept is that there are a bunch of cross dressing characters who but on a classic fairy tale. There is a lot of audience participation such as "He's behind you!" and "Oh yes I did!" "Oh No you didn't" and lots of ahhhhhhhs and boooooos. It is fun stuff and everyone in the audience knows how to participate already for some reason. We put on Cinderella. I got a really nice bunch of flowers from the cast for putting it on as well. I can’t find the pictures of this just yet but they will be amusing when I do.


XFM Winter Wonderland

After the play and post play drinks were over, Mel and I headed down to Brixton in south London for a concert. She had won tickets on the radio for the event which we both thought was really funny. We used to be the ones giving away the prizes. How the tables have turned! The show consisted of 5 acts: Ladyhawk, Ida Maria, White Lies, Iglu and Hartly, The Riffles, and the Kaiser Chiefs. I liked the last two the best. I get board at things like this sometimes because you have to stand the whole time and it had been a very long day. By the time the last group went on, I just really wanted to go to bed. It was held in the Brixton Academy.


Deer

I had my last day of university for this term on Thursday and I was very happy to be finished. It has been really stressful balance this course with work. The reading is really difficult and intense and my first assignment was really lack lustre. I have two papers to write over Christmas as well. I will be glad to have just one thing to focus on for a while. I like my lecturers and the other people on my course are all fun and interesting. I am enjoying it for the most part and it gives me a lot to think about. I love the city of Oxford as well. It is really nice just to walk around there. One crazy thing I saw in the market though was the butcher shop. There were about 10 deer carcasses hanging with the fur still on them. They looked like they had literally just been killed. I could believe it. It was an indoor market with quite narrow isles so I felt like I was much to close to them. I have never really wanted to be a vegetarian and I grew up on a farm but the sight of these deer was really off putting. I think they are for the many college Christmas dinners that are coming up. They often serve venison. I have signed up for my Christmas dinner at Kellogg but I don't think I will get a place. I feel a bit better about that know that I have seen our dinner in advance. I know how spectacular the regular dinners are there and I bet the Christmas one would be especially nice but I would feel bad about the deer I think.