cameras at the ready and our walking boots on

and the award goes to...

2/1/2018

So in our very own little version of the New Year's honours list who made our 2017 Christmas/New Year?

Of course the easy answer would have to be family - we may be a small family, but our Christmas was both uniquely ours and fun from our now traditional home made chicken pie for Christmas dinner to a new tradition of adult Christmas Eve boxes (home made pyjamas - thanks to Minerva Crafts for supplying great fabrics - sorry Mum the colour came out of your red leggings!), snowball games with Navi the German Shepherd - catch is not one of her best attributes - and the joy of settling down at teatime to watch Doctor Who (when everyone else has gone elsewhere!)

A Christmas Eve Eve trip to the Lowry to watch the wonderful production of Elf. We had no idea what to expect of the show but it actually bought tears to my eyes with the most amazing ending - snow, starlight and Santa flying - magical and we're over 50!

Winter family walks, long lunches (afternoon naps!) and catching up with films and box sets all topped off with an almost perfect New Year's Eve spent in and around Manchester with our cameras . From Alan Turing in the morning, reflections in Canal Street, to a coffee stop and lots of photographing in the new amazing building that houses the Mackie Mayor food court (first of two places that day where I wish I had taken my camera into the toilets!) in Manchester's Northern Quarter (the best place for interesting photography in Manchester and one of several places where they filmed Captain America!). A brief stop to spend some Christmas money and then into the glorious Manchester Cathedral beautifully decorated for Christmas. Amazing views from a 10th floor room in the always excellent INNSIDE (most courteous and friendly staff followed by amazing breakfasts - chocolate yule log for breakfast on New Years Day though?!)
All we need now is a break from work to recover!

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Going Batty

8/10/2017

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It almost feels like we have had a personal connection to the development and continued transformation of the Bat Out of Hell Musical. Having our own theatre insider, we have been very privileged to share in the early days of a brand new musical from first rehearsals to world premiere. It has been a fascinating journey culminating in us taking a trip down to London in the summer to watch the London performance in its last week. Via our mole, who was one of the first people to see the Manchester performance whilst it was still in rehearsals, we have shared the journey of the show and been fascinated to discover what it takes to put on such a large scale production.

We first saw the show at the Opera House in Manchester during March 2017. Neither of us were over familiar with the music of Jim Steinman and Meatloaf, but by the time we left the auditorium we were both hooked. We have sat in the audience of many a musical production and enjoyed the performance, but never have we attended a theatrical show where the minute we left we couldn’t wait to see it again.

We now have all of the music (sadly it’s on 2 CD’s in show order - thanks Adam!) They have accompanied us on many a long journey during summer 2017 and we are now one of those annoying families who could probably loudly sing a long to the whole show!

The decision to attend the show in London was made for two reasons – one as it was in a much bigger venue and we were curious to see how this would impact the performance and secondly as we had heard that there had been some considerable changes.

We are very lucky to live within a 10 minute drive of the West Coast mainline so London is just a 2 hour, usually uneventful, train ride. Combined with the exceptionally good value tickets via our Two Together railcard it makes for a relatively cheap day out. We arrived late morning, took a leisurely lunch at our favourite American BBQ restaurant Bodeans, where we grabbed the last table (must remember next time to book!) and then attended the afternoon matinee.

The show did not disappoint, the sun shone, our food was delicious and it was good to spend time with our city living son. London in a day can be tiring but there’s always time for a train nap on the way home!

Viv