Sith Lord in Search of an Author

A couple of weeks ago, Mrs SS7 and I undertook one of our regular trips to the Chichester Festival Theatre. The production was and adaptation of Pirandello's "Six Characters in search of an Author" and starred Ian McDiarmid amongst others.

There followed one of the most intriguing and fascinating theatrical experiences of my life. I'm not going to attempt a plot summary (this is why wikipedia was invented) but it was one of those expereinces that leaves you wondering for days afterwards.

The critics loved it too; The Telegraph said

"Like Goold's Macbeth, which went on to triumph in the West End and on Broadway, I suspect this brilliantly inventive show has a long dramatic life ahead of it."

Go see it.

SS7

Increased Congestion?

Last February, Tony Blair wrote to me (and 1.7m other folks) explaining that action on congestion was necessary as

"Congestion is predicted to increase by 25% by 2015. This is being driven by economic prosperity. There are 6 million more vehicles on the road now than in 1997, and predictions are that this trend will continue."

Meanwhile, the Department For Transport published figures stating that traffic for the first quarter of 2008 had fallen 2% based on the same period last year in response to large increases in the price of fuel.........

Somehow I can't see the price of fuel coming down significantly, has this altered the Govt's planning assumptions around road charging I wonder?

SS7

Heritage

Porsche should hang it's head in shame. At this year's Le Mans 24hours race, scene of many race victories since 1970, Porsche were beaten by Ferrari (who were placed 1-2-3-4) in the GT2 category, and only won the 'small' prototype class (LMP2) against fragile garagistes and essentially amateur teams. The best LMP2 Porsche, run by a customer team, just made it into the top 10.

Its probably their worst Le Mans since the 50's; I wonder how many of their new customers in the East realise Porsche once had a glorious racing heritage?

Meanwhile, in city news, Porsche's CEO, Wendy Weidekind, is having to scape by on a total 2007 package of $89m.

SS7

"But Father's day is different..."

Last Sunday morning dawned. After the previous evening's festivities I was betwixt hangover and headache, but I dragged myself up to make the drinks, get the boys dressed and fed, get an update from the Le Mans 24hr race on the PC, feed the cat, and sort out four lots of two wheeled transport for Kirk.

At this point (10.15am) a voice piped up; “Isn’t it father’s day?”, at which point a card was hurriedly produced along with a small slab of chocolate.

Compare and contrast with Mother’s day, which involved, for Mrs SS7, multiple cards, breakfast in bed, flowers, expensive handmade choccy’s and lunch provided. When challenged on this point Mrs SS7 made the comment above.

Bloody Hallmark.

Funny Girl

I got dragged along to a production of Funny Girl at the CFT on Saturday. Generally musicals are all rather too metrosexual for this old petrolhead, but this was captivating, largely due to a simply magnetic performance from Samantha Spiro (even though one kept expecting La Streisand to appear at any moment).

http://www.cft.org.uk/cft-productions_details.asp?pid=173

SS7
PS The Telepgraph loved it too: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/10/btfunnygirl110.xml

Decked

After a long weekend the deck is mostly finish, and we celebrated (that and the arrival of decent weather) by having the first barby of the year!

Black & White II

Some pics taken at the Bay Estate after washing the car. The dias on the beach in the back-ground is the estate's millenium memorial> Its a sun-dial, with distances to various cities - Le Havre is 88 miles to the south west. The house is one of the few modernist houses in the area. Unhappily, the current owners have ruined it when they 'restored' it, the curved Crittal windows have been replaced by God-awful cheap UVPC rubbish.

An hour later, at low water, we picked up two WW2 era bullets, probably Lee Enfield .303 rounds left by the Canadians who trained in the area in 1944.

SS7