A Winter’s Tale in July

What a quick turn around we have had. We set off home from Ullapool at about 6.45 on Tuesday; we had intended to leave at 6 p.m. but Flora was outdoors and didn’t come when called. The cats know the signs that we were about to set off because of the packing and housework that goes on before our departure. So we sat outside in the sunshine and eventually she came strolling up the path, miaowing at us enquiringly. Five minutes later we were all in the car (we knew that Tom was hiding behind the sofa in the living room) and made good speed; we arrived home before 11 p.m. 

Yesterday we unpacked our Ullapool stuff, packed for our Cotswolds holiday, did admin, laundry, James did gardening and I had lunch with Ally W and delivered the Ullapool information to Susan T. And this morning we set off at 9 a.m. to drive to Cirencester, via Stratford upon Avon. The journey went well with no hold ups and with listened to the “The Rest is History” podcast, continuing the series on Hannibal, enemy of Rome. It was very good. We also listened to music and chatted. After a couple of brief stops we arrived in Stratford by 3 p.m. and had a pleasant walk around the familiar town centre. The sky was grey but it was very warm and we had a cup of tea sitting outside a café opposite Shakespeare’s house. We had dinner at the lovely Rooftop Restaurant at the Swan Theatre. James’ glass of wine was delayed because they had run out of the one he had chosen; as a result they gave us all of our drinks for free! I was very impressed that the waitress gently reminded us that the play, A Winter’s Tale, was due to start at 7.15 p.m. - we had assumed that it would start at 7.30 so we hurried downstairs to the theatre just in time. 

I enjoyed the first half of the play much more than the second half. The first half was quite enthralling with tension building and lots of drama. There was of course Antigonus’ famous "Exit, pursued by a bear." However the second half lost its way a bit; Autolycus was so annoying, and then the reunions towards the end were summarised by one of the characters instead of being portrayed, perhaps to speed things up, but it made me feel as if I had missed a potentially good scene. And then the dragged out “statue” scene was just silly. I did enjoy myself though, and notably, I have now watched exactly eighteen of Shakespeare’s thirty-six plays, so I’m half way! 

We are now in a new (to us) tiny cottage in Cirencester, ready to go to RIAT tomorrow morning.