My Weekend

On Friday I went to Brighton to see a fab production of The Fairy Queen, by Purcell.

Then I went home and made ladymoonray drink a lot of pink fizz, though not as much as I had myself.

On Saturday I mostly stayed in bed and read books. Got up in the late afternoon and went to Brighton. Stood on beach getting salty while ladymoonray and swisstone sought food. Stormy seas are wonderfully energising, though I don't think I'd have ventured closer to the creamy surf even if it had been hot and sunny ...

Then to the Old Market to see Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden telling The Odyssey. Storytelling is an art I don't always appreciate (often too slow, too passive, for me) but this was excellent, and gave -- via repetition of key phrases, 'owl-eyed Athene' etc, and acting-out and the use of a singing-bowl to mark interval and end -- some idea of the power of oral myth. Also, was reminded of the task that Odysseus has yet to fulfil at the end of the Odyssey: walking inland carrying an oar until passers-by mistake it for a winnowing-fan ...

So today's reading (punctuated by torrential rain: did I sleep through summer?) was Atwood's Penelopiad.

Now the sun has come out and the cats have stopped vomitting ...