We walked along to Ally and Cat’s flat in the morning for a delicious breakfast of coffee and pastries. It was very sunny but also quite windy - perhaps the edge of the Storm Amy that was bringing down trees in Scotland last night. We decided to go for a boat trip at Canary Wharf, something that Ally and Cat have done before but they were happy to do again. So we booked a self drive boat, which was very comfy with a wee table in the centre where we could put the drinks and snacks that we brought. It was good fun navigating around the waterways and looking up at the buildings towering above us. There were a few swans swimming about, some cormorants, and one very unlucky pigeon who had somehow flown into the water and couldn’t get out. The poor wee thing was desperately swimming, using its wings to try to lift itself up. Our hero Ally directed James (who was driving the boat at the time) to turn and pursue it. Of course the pigeon became even more agitated trying to get away from us. The safety boat appeared and we managed to trap the pigeon in the space between the two boats, whereupon Ally lifted it out of the water using an oar, and deposited it into the safety boat. The man in the safety boat took it to the shore and put it into a quiet corner on the wharf to rest. When we finished our boat trip we went to see it and put some pieces of cookie beside it; it didn’t look in great shape but it was sitting up and watching us, so I hope it survived. I am very proud of Ally for giving that wee pigeon a chance.
We made our way to Swiss Cottage where we had a pre-theatre meal in a delightful Lebanese Restaurant called Arabesque. Then we went just round the corner to Hampstead Theatre to see Titus Andronicus. This was of course part of my quest to see all of Shakespeare’s plays performed live; this was my 22nd out of a total of 38 plays. Ally and Cat had good-naturedly agreed to join us. I was a bit concerned about it; Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare’s least loved plays because of its huge amount of graphic violence, and I didn’t want Ally and Cat to feel that they had wasted their Saturday evening on a load of rubbish, even though I knew that they wouldn’t complain. I needn’t have worried; the play was much better than any of us expected. It was indeed very bloody but the plot was robust, the actors were excellent, and the director had cleverly played up the gory bits so that they seemed so over the top as to be almost surreal. We all enjoyed it and had a good chat about it on the way back to Canary Wharf on the Jubilee Line.
We made our way to Swiss Cottage where we had a pre-theatre meal in a delightful Lebanese Restaurant called Arabesque. Then we went just round the corner to Hampstead Theatre to see Titus Andronicus. This was of course part of my quest to see all of Shakespeare’s plays performed live; this was my 22nd out of a total of 38 plays. Ally and Cat had good-naturedly agreed to join us. I was a bit concerned about it; Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare’s least loved plays because of its huge amount of graphic violence, and I didn’t want Ally and Cat to feel that they had wasted their Saturday evening on a load of rubbish, even though I knew that they wouldn’t complain. I needn’t have worried; the play was much better than any of us expected. It was indeed very bloody but the plot was robust, the actors were excellent, and the director had cleverly played up the gory bits so that they seemed so over the top as to be almost surreal. We all enjoyed it and had a good chat about it on the way back to Canary Wharf on the Jubilee Line.
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