Jazz and the valleys (other titles suggestions welcome)

As seems to be a theme of my weekends (and how I begin these entries), this was certainly a weekend of two halves.

I feel as though there have been a fair few theatre trips recently and this weekend was no different, although a new theatre for everyone. Whilst it was a bit of a pain to get to, our theatre this week was The Kiln, previously The Tricycle and out show this week was ‘Blues in the Night’. As ever we got there early to see if we could catch any of the cast on the way in and met Clive Rowe again who was once again such a laugh and a joy to see. The theatre itself is a great community centre, very welcoming and certainly felt like a centre of the community there. The play was a wonderfully vivid and bold revival, and was an operetta more than a play. Sharon D Clarke (remember her?) and Clive were the leads and as I had hoped were fantastic to say the least. It was a show full of new numbers to me, all jazz and blues, but certainly had be tapping along, and reminded me of jazz gigs with Peter. The tradition continued for the theatre visit, as we wandered to the nearest Pizza Express for a lovely meal, Mum, Dad, Kit and I before heading back our separate ways, having seen a very different show to what we would normally. I should perhaps mention that amongst the audience was none other than Kenneth Cranham. Whilst he’s not done Who, I couldn’t miss the chance to talk to him and ended up having such a wonderful change with him during the interval and a real laugh.

Having felt very cultured and with a good few songs stuck in my head Sunday was spent in the far sleepier Welsh valleys to meet Kitty’s grandparents. We went for a lovely pub lunch (another theme of my weekends it seems), before spending the afternoon chatting away. As it happens Kit’s grandpa was in Who many years ago (it never escapes me), but I thought better than to ask about it the first time I met him. After a very charming afternoon with them, I dropped Kit off at a premier in Cardiff for something a friend of hers had done. It was red carpets and posh frocks for all, not normally how a weekend ends, but she seemed to enjoy it.