At the weekend, my mum, Kelly, my mum’s friend and her daughter went to see Matilda at Manchester Palace Theatre. We arrived before the matinee performance and had lunch out.
In Matilda the cast, mostly made up of children, were fantastic. The set was superb. The storyline followed that of the film. I’m not sure how closely it follows the book, as I’ve never read it.
The songs were good, but the show lacked any defining and memorable songs. Usually in a musical there is at least one catchy and memorable song. For example in Wicked you have defying gravity. In The Rocky Horror Show you have Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite. In Sister Act you have Take Me To Heaven and Fabulous, Baby!
Overall Matilda was an enjoyable show for children and adults alike. Here are some photos:
Reading Time: 3minutesMy mum, her friends and I went to see Shania Twain at Manchester Arena.
My mum and some of her friends had planned to see Shania Twain at the Manchester Arena last weekend. I offered to drive them there, pick them up afterwards and drive them home. I just wanted to make sure they all got home safe.
Then someone dropped out and I was kindly offered their ticket. I felt very fortunate and lucky.
Shania was spectacular. Shania walked through the crowd to the stage like a megastar. The audience sounded rapturous, hands were outstretched to meet hers and flash of smartphones was constant in her face.
Shania’s voice was perfect, her outfits lovely and her charisma shone for all to see. The chorography was reasonable and performed without mistake by backing dancers. The stage light show was fantastic, but the stage set and props were sparse.
Throughout the show Shania appeared to want to get close and personal with the twenty one thousand strong audience. She did this by inviting audience members to the stages in between songs, chatting with them and by allowing them to take selfies with her.
Shania spoke warmly to the audience, as if we were close friends. Here are some more photos from the gig:
The stage lighting was fantastic, although the set was very sparse.Another photo of the stage lighting.Shania (1) – Photo of video screen.Shania (2) – Photo of video screen.Shania (3) – Shania with a cowboy hat on. Photo of video screen.Shania (4) – Shania with a cowboy hat on. Photo of video screen.Shania (5) – I love this pose. Shania with a cowboy hat on. Photo of video screen.Shania (6) – Shania sat on a step. Photo of video screen.Shania (7) – Shania sat on a small stage at the back of the arena.As Shania sang You’re Still The One the audience lit up the arena with the torches on their phones.
Here are some collages of photos from the Harry Potter Studio Tour, click on any photo for full size image:
The Goblet of Fire Photos.
Forbidden Forest Photos.
Hogwarts Express Photos.
Props Photos.
Weasley Shop Props.
Knight Bus Photos.
Inside Privet Drive Photos.
Other Cool Stuff Photos.
Even though mum and I had been before, there were plenty of things we hadn’t seen on our last visit. I’ve only included photos things we didn’t see last time in this blog post. Things we didn’t see last time included: The Goblet of Fire, The Forbidden Forest, The Hogwarts Express and inside Privet Drive.
There were plenty of things that we saw last time. I was great to see that they had significantly increased the interactive activities for visitors.
It was brilliant to see that they are building an extension to include things from the new Fantastic Beasts films series (of which there will be 5 films).
Here’s one final photo of Mum with a Hedwig puppet. We took a similar photo last time, how many times do you have to do something before it becomes a tradition?
Mum with Hedwig Puppet.
The next day mum and I were released into the wild of London city centre. We saw the Houses of Parliament, the scaffolding-covered Big Ben, the High Courts and my favourite St. James Park.
St. James Park is a lovely park that is like a natural oasis within one of the world’s most busy cities. There’s a bit of a family story to St. James Park.
When my mum was a little girl, she lived in London with her mum and dad (my grandma and granddad). Every Sunday, while her mum was making the Sunday dinner, her dad would take her to watch the changing of the Guard and then into St. James Park to feed the ducks.
Here are some photo collages from photos I took in St. James Park:
St. James Park, London. Photo collage by me (1).
St. James Park, London. Photo collage by me (2).
Mum and I had a fantastic time and will no doubt do the trip again in a couple of years.
Today is my thirty second birthday. I’m not actually sat here writing this, it’s a scheduled post.
I’m Thirty Two Today!
My birthday plans include a well-earned break from work for a week.
Today I’m off to Newcastle to see castles with Simon. In fact we are probably already on our way as this post is published. There are two English Heritage castles nearby that we want to see, along with Newcastle Castle.
Later in the week, mum and I are off to re-visit Harry Potter Studio Tour. You can see photos from when first visited the Harry Potter Studio Tour in 2014 here.
So expect to see blog posts about the above soon. In the meantime have an awesome week.
