The halo effect

With The sparkling silver hat and the lights, my phone was always on a hiding to nothing. It's better than anything I took inside the theatre at least.

Trip to Bristol on a Friday night, that's doable. Right? K has never driven to Bristol on a Friday night before. I have. Several times. So I was less than convinced by the claimed 1:40 journey time. And that was before the state of the traffic earlier in the day. Last Friday in August. Carnage on any major road near us. It wasn't looking promising when K got home at 4;30 even with a politely late start time of 8pm.

So I went old school. I've finally won the argument to have an atlas in the car in addition to the sat nav. I don't especially like sat navs or the ensuing arguments when I'm meant to know exactly which way we should head in case of detours whilst moving at speed and failing to pick up a data signal. My internal compass and English geography is pretty good but not that good!

This time though the sat nav was left for emergencies only and we wove a stunning scenic route via Andover, Marlborough and Chippenham. What glorious countryside, remarkably little traffic, only one minor 30 second spat ("I'm staying on the A4", "Well then you'll end up in Bath!"), we arrived in Bristol relaxed and happy an hour before the show with plenty of time to catch up with friends over pre-show drinks.

Tonight was the start of the Bristol Festival of Puppetry curated by K's tutor from Summer School so an early mini reunion for those who'd managed to get tickets. It wasn't something I'd normally have even glanced at but it was a truly magnificent evening in a stunning venue (the Tobacco Factory) followed by cabaret in the bar afterwards.

The highlight was a full height wolf puppet doing puppetry for Goldilocks and the three bears. The joke won't translate into text unfortunately but suffice to say the audience were howling. I felt quite ill and it was a valuable lesson in just how far you can push a singly joke on stage.

A fantastic night and a gre at reminder to broaden those horizons. With more theatre options than money (or time), it's scarily easy to stick behind your theatrical prejudices. K hates musicals but three, yes three, of his favorite shows in the last few years have fallen with that genre. I don't remind him of that often!

Vx