"And it came to pass than in the midst of the month of Februarius did Susan the Dignified, Carol the Barking Mad, and 4-2 the Wholly Demented (but on her Best Behaviour) gird up their loins and make pilgrimage unto the sacred city of Birmingham..."

       The train trip up was ... 'interesting'... In between catching my coke as it attempted to dive off the table, pondering the Laws of Relativity as the countryside went by (or vice versa) and trying to prevent the infant in the next seat from eating the lid of my holographic pen, I came up with the plot for my response to the third challenge (It's called Artificial Intelligence? What's wrong with the real thing?...)
       Corporal Carol (my evil twin) and Mum pulled up in the car as I was exiting my taxi (and that was fun, for a start! My taxi driver didn't know where he was going, and stopped at the traffic lights at the Bull Ring to check his Birmingham A-Z... He did say that had I caught him at the beginning of the week he'd have known the address: he'd just had a hard week... Why do these things always happen to me?) Lunch, wine, chat and several bouts of hysterics later we headed into town in search of culture...

       The play was marvellous - the first J. B. Priestley I've seen (but it won't be the last...) Perfectly stilted and formal to start with, one-upmanship rife amongst the characters on the stage (as befitted the time period and the subject), it soon eased into a much more natural and believable style - became positively gripping, in fact. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it even without Lewis Collins (although he was the reason for the pilgrimage in the first place) - I just wouldn't have travelled quite so far to see it. But he was amazing. I had deliberately not read any reviews (more interesting - and fun - that way, and I always prefer to make up my own mind in any case) so really had no idea of what to expect...
       The cast are very good. And Lewis Collins is glorious - a fine actor with wonderful stage presence. He also seemed to be a kind and gentle man (as far as I could tell from meeting him, very briefly, after the performance.) And unassuming and quite adorable...
       So we did. Adore, I mean. In the bar, later, and from a little distance. With the notable exception of Carol, who slipped her leash, avoided Mum and managed to persuade him to accept a drink (after he'd refused several) and was smilingly termed a 'temptress' for her pains. ("Pains"? There was no pain involved! Sheer unadulterated pleasure, more like. But it should have been me - dammit! - but they wouldn't let me out of my seat. Ah well. Maybe when I'm famous...)
       Magical, quite magical. It's not every day you meet a legend.

       And the sausage? The following morning I broke with my usual habit and actually ate breakfast - three Irish sausages and a handful of mushrooms. They were delicious.

Hereinafter to be known as Mum... Back
Yes, I know I write them. But I don't force people to read them! Back
Big hands. Strong and capable looking - trustworthy... I like big hands. 6-9 has big hands, too... Back
Or someone who has been a personal icon for such a significant part of my life. Back
Bodie was eating sausages at the beginning of one of my favourite scenes from The Professionals - the defusing of the booby-trapped phone in The Purging of CI5... Back