2012 in pictures

2012

We have gained a teenager, a puppy, seen puffins, been to Germany, France, London, seen wizards, fairies, monsters and football matches. All in all a very good year.

How much do cats and dogs know about Christmas - in photos

Look at my lovely hair clip

I wonder if the dog that lives over there has to suffer the indignity of reindeer antlers?

Small dogplus post = 

Mmm, that was a tasty fly

It's Behind You

It's Pantomime  time, and that means men dress as women, women dress as men people suffer the indignity of dressing up as cows, horses, donkeys and b list celebrities can not only find work but receive top billing in small towns up and down the country.

Yes folks, it a pantomime blog. Roll up roll up, no that's the circus, oh no it's not....oh yes it is. Whatever it is, it's behind you!

Friends won a couple of tickets in a raffle to see Jack and the Beanstalk (or should I say  Jack and t'beanstalk as we are in Derbyshire) at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. We joined their party to make a night of it.  

We arrive, we meet up, I break the display of plastic swords, tiaras, and snowflake fan things that were for sale. I was only trying to see if the sword lit up. I contemplated blaming a child, but instead took the responsible decision to move away and pretend it wasn't me.

We are seated down stairs in a nice block, I look around to admire the Pomegranate, it has a certain music hall atmosphere and appearance, very promising. On to the performance.  I was particularly excited as the fairy was to be played by Charlie Dimmock who I may have had a crush on when she was involved in the Ground Force gardening show...not sure if it was her bubbly flowing ginger hair, or her blatant lack of a bra that did it for me. I was curious if this was to be the case in a family pantomime, portraying a fairy called Organic. It was at least appropriate the pantomime story involved a large plant.

And there she was, stage left, introducing the evening, sporting enough foundation garments to support the crooked spire.

Anyway...

I was armed with throat sweets in the event all the shouting of 'its behind you' and 'oh no it isn't' got too much. It was an excellent performance all round, the dancing was great, the singing was actually fairly impressive and the jokes were what you expect for a family pantomime.

I was a little disappointed the principal boy was played by an actual boy, tradition there had gone out the window, such a shame, nothing like a bit of girl on girl action for an evening of family fun. I also only remember only one thigh slap, maybe a health and safety initiative, in action.  Only one thigh slap permitted per performance?

There was a rather surreal scene involving wallpapering, maybe a misunderstanding of the slap stick element by the script writers, it was however a skilful bit of comedy and went down well with the crowd. I loved some of the fabrics in the costumes, and the dame character's outfits got progressively more outlandish.

A good night was had, sore throats all round, no repercussions regarding the tampered with display (the sword was still lit up when we left) and us adults may have embarrassed the teens with our enthusiastic joining in. 

Butterbeer anyone?

We had a Hairy Otter experience once at an aquarium, but today was the Harry Potter real deal. The otters just swan around, admittedly they were very cute, but didn't hold our attention for three hours, unlike today's experience.

Bundled into the car once more, sandwiches, minced pies and fizzy pop in a plastic bag, and we were set for a magical day out. Apparently by the fifth time I'd sung the first few bars of the Harry Potter theme tune, it was getting a little annoying. Well I guess the family had a point, we were still only in Chesterfield. Was that going to deter me? Hmmm.

 

We arrive, we scoff at the car parking guys sunglasses, we scoff our sandwiches in the car park, secretly hoping everyone would eat enough not to have to pay for overpriced junk food in way too much packaging, we make our way to the door. We navigate the complicated ticketing system which we had apparently created ourselves by pre buying a ticket to help reduce queuing. We then join the end of the queue to get in, I'm sure the queue had grown 20 car loads longer in the time it took me to exchange my queue busting ticket for a ticket, queue singing the HP theme tune to lighten the mood. Thankfully there was the set for the cupboard beneath the stairs to distract from the queuing. Not the singing as was apparent from the received threats.

We are corralled into a room full of posters, we wait in this holding pen until there are the requisite number of Potterites present. We go into a cinema and watch a funny little film of the three main characters. Pretty cute. Then...the screen lifts and reveals the door of the great hall, very cool. We shuffle into the great hall, decked out for Christmas, listen to a talk and are let loose into the rest of the exhibition. 

It was all very impressive, and magically, no one got hungry and all I had to buy were four glasses of butterbeer. 

 

Never trust green

Bauhaus museum

This was an excellent choice for a visit for all of us. We  were hopeful of a visit to the Guggenheim and we were disappointed that it was 'between exhibitions' and was closed. On the day we were visiting, we ended up in the Gallerie Laffayette instead, not the sort of gallery I was hoping for it has to be said!

The Bauhaus Museum was our second choice, supported by Maisie who is keen on design. The audio tour was fascinating, talking about the different teachers' influence and ways of approaching design. It was fascinating to hear about the designers behind the tubular cantilevered chair which we take for granted today. Although a seemingly simple design, was achieved through a complicated series of experimentations and building on each other's ideas. We loved that Kandinsky was deeply distrustful of green, seeing it as a nothing colour. Also, the first tubular stools which were made for the student canteen were a little unstable, and students regularly toppled over, much to the amusement of others. The design morphed into a table, and the tubes for the stool legs altered and a upholstered seat replaced the wooden one. This design is available today.

After a delicious lunch at the cafe, off to kaDeWe. Europe's largest department store....gulp! Adults were looking forward to seeing the food hall, Maisie the cosmetics, of course. 

Time for a quick drive in a Trabant and back home