unseen theatre company: the truth

It's been a year since we last returned to the Discworld with the Unseen Theatre Company, and this time it's back to Ankh-Morpork and the creature of the Disc's first newspaper with The Truth.

Hugh O'Connor, usually hidden behind the grinning skull of the anthropomorphic personification of Death in Unseen productions, steps up as William de Worde, the unlikely and, as is often the case in Pratchett's work, somewhat unwilling hero of the piece. I especially enjoyed his (some would say childish, I would say very funny) choices towards the end of the play, when he's coming up against the unstoppable force that is Sam Vines (played once again by Mike Shaw).

I did notice that they condensed a lot of the first part of the book down to essentially "man runs into dwarf in the middle of the street, accidentally creates first newspaper"... which is essentially accurate, but definitely one of those moments when a knowledge of the source material comes in handy. But while many of the details are condensed, the rest of the play remains fairly faithful to the original.

Stealing every scene they were in... in order of stealingness... were Danny Sag (last seen as the Patrician in Feet of Clay) was absolutely hilarious as Otto Chriek, the tea-totalling vampire photographer (sorry, iconographer) who joins the newspaper. Everything Sag does as Otto is fantastic and he's clearly very comfortable both with the accent and just with being present on stage as well.

Next up would be Aimee Ford as Gaspode, the "clearly that dog didn't just speak because dogs definitely can't talk" talking dog. Ford has been great in all her Unseen roles and she briefly reprices Corporal Nobby Nobbs, but her timing and attitude are perfect for Gaspode. Bonus shout-out to David Dyte as Foul Ole Ron for his accompanying cried of "Millennium Hand and Shrimp" and "Bugrit".

Last but by no means least are Nick Andrews and Paul Messenger as Mr Pin and Mr Tulip respectively. The characters have more than a little Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs DNA in them, and Andrews and Messenger play this up beautifully.

Natalie Haigh, Leighton James and Alycia Rabig (in dual roles taking over as Corporal Angua of the Watch, and Boddony the very blonde dwarf) fill out the staff of the newspaper, and do a great job.

The set is the more "complex" version from the last show with the two raised platforms and the doors and works fairly well here (although the doors really don't get a lot of use), I will say that there's perhaps a little too much removing and replacing of the main table and printing press towards the end of the show when things need to take place in other locations which slows things down a little.

Also, given that this was opening night, there were only a few stumbles with lines and the like which is totally understandable.

It's perhaps not the most... exciting or visual of all of Pratchett's work, but they've managed to make it into a decent night of theatre.

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photo sunday: grave words

My week has been a little all over the place... quite like the weather to be honest, which can't make it's mind up between heat, sunshine, clouds, rain and wind.

Returning to the idea of actually cooking food during the week was a little strange, but pretty successful, I mean nothing was overly complicated but everything was successful.

Fun times ensued on Sunday though when my ear decided to do it's semi biannual blocking thing, so for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I was basically deaf in one ear. I was also luckily enough to be able to sneak an appointment in at the ENT doctor on Thursday... but then on Wednesday it kind of unblocked itself in the middle of my game of DnD (which was weird).

But I still went along and was in and out within fifteen minutes, so at least I know my ears are not going to be a problem for a while again. Gross, but positive.

I also finally got around to doing my tax return this week... normally I try and knock it off around August, but for whatever reason I just never got around to it until the week before close off this time. And again, it took like five minutes to do, but at the same time for some reason one of my things had automatically been put in the wrong section, which freaked me out a little... but once I worked out what the issue was it was a simple fix. And I'm getting a good whack of money back... which is great, but that money then has to stretch until actual work happens again.

And, weirdly, without actually notifying anyone, the Powers That Be sent someone to come and paint the outside of all the window frames... I think this has been underway for a while. Well, the scaffolding has been up at the back for a few weeks now anyway, but it was only this week that anything actually really seemed to start happening. Again, good, but I ended up having to clean all the kitchen benches again because the dust and whatnot went everywhere when he removed the old paint. I'm assuming they're going to do the front of the block as well (it would be super weird if they were only doing the back part that nobody really sees), but I never thought to ask the painter.

I also went through the first process of Ma's 2018 calendar... interestingly because we really haven't gone anywhere or done anything for any number of reasons in the recent past, I used the shots from the Wonderwalls street art in Port Adelaide. I still need to give it a final once over to make sure it's all 100% correct, and go and get some more printer paper from Officeworks (I was thinking about doing that today, but I could always do it on Monday afternoon too). And then it's printing time.

Saturday was a big day... well, maybe not big exactly, but long.

We started with the usual supermarket shenanigans, which were both usual and average.

Then we headed off to IKEA since Ma hasn't been in almost a year, and I haven't been since the rental inspection before this most recent one. And they had their Christmas stuff out.

Now, we really don't need more wrapping paper... but they had really cute wrapping paper... we bought a bunch of wrapping paper. And a bunch of other things, some of which are useful and helpful, some of which can only be explained by the mind control gas they pump through the ventilation. We also recycled over a year's worth of batteries, which was definitely a thing.

After that we swung around to Arndale to try and make some kind of start on Christmas shopping... and didn't really get anywhere great, but we did stop and have a Boost Juice and sit down and talk about who and what and where regarding presents for people. We possibly would have given up there had it been a normal day, but we had more time to fill, so we ended up heading into the city, to actually start buying presents. And by presents I mean little bits and pieces that will add up to a present's worth eventually.

But it's still a start.

By that point, having walked all the way around IKEA, all the way around Arndale and from one end of the Mall to the other, we were pretty exhausted, so we headed back to my place. We also had a play to go and see, so we killed some time here, then went and had dinner at the Seven Stars in the city, just down the street from The Bakehouse.

And, very, very weirdly, we sat next to a woman who turned out to be someone I worked in the same office with (but not actually with, if memory serves), about... 15 years ago. And she remembered me. As soon as I actually paid attention to her I recognised the face and voice, but honestly I couldn't tell you a single thing beyond that. She seemed to remember me fairly well though and said nice things... or she didn't remember me at all and was just saying generic nice things. Either is equally possible and likely.

By the time I got home I couldn't even be bothered doing anything, so crashed out and went to bed (well, played around on my phone until Ma messaged me to say she was home safe... then I crashed).

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photo saturday: sydney mornings

This week was primarily concerned with cleaning and my rental inspection.

Thankfully I was able to split the cleaning across three days, doubly helpful because I started feeling a little flu-y and gross on Sunday night. Thankfully a dose of cold and flu tablets had me back to mostly feeling like a human being again by about Wednesday.

Like I said, I split the cleaning across three days... general tidying on Sunday, kitchen/stove and Monday and floors/bathroom on Tuesday... mostly because I was out of the house during the day on Wednesday, but it worked out pretty well.

Even thought the weather wasn't especially helpful, being way too warm for this early in October. But it did mean that the floors dried pretty damn quickly on Tuesday, so that was a plus.

Unfortunately the heat also meant that even though I'd made quiche to last me all week, I really just wasn't in the mood on Tuesday or Wednesday. I also made the largest quiche I've ever made, using the roasting pan I bought for last Christmas and a full half dozen eggs.

This week I've decided to go back to people food... or at least try actually cooking during the week, which will be something of a novelty.

Going back to earlier this week, when Thursday rolled around I moved my chiro appointment from Friday afternoon to Thursday morning so that I could be out of the house during the inspection, then headed down to Marion and ended up going to the movies. It was a good way to kill the time, which I'm sure I could have done just by wandering aimlessly, but at least this way I actually had something keeping my attention.

I've said it a number of times before, but the best thing about having to do a totally bonkers cleaning job for a rental inspection is that once the inspection is done, you come home to a totally clean and tidy house and you don't have to worry about it even a little. So nice.

Today wasn't really much of anything... we did the supermarket thing, came back, I tidied up my fridge (because that's the one bit I didn't need to do for the inspection), put everything away and then we headed into town. With no real destination in mind to be honest. And really we just wandered up and down the Mall a bit and then pretty much called it a day.

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movies: kingsman - the golden cirlce

I'm not completely sure how I feel about Kingsman: The Golden Circle. It's the sequel to 2015's Kingman: The Secret Service, which I loved.

And it's a good sequel, it hits a lot of the right beats, but it just doesn't seem as... cohesive somehow.

Also, it needs about 150% more Channing Tatum, even if we do get to see him in some very well stuffed underwear, he's essentially hardly in the movie at all. I was very much looking forward to seeing him and Taron Egerton suited up and taking on the bad guys.

One of the things I do love is that they brought characters you wouldn't necessarily expect back for this movie. Specifically Hanna Alström as the Danish princess, now Eggsy's girlfriend (which is a great way to twist the trope that she was just the "do it in the asshole" girl from the last movie). But also Edward Holcroft who played one of the failed Kingman recruits in the last movie, and who is actually really great as the villain's prime henchman in this one. If anything, he also suffers from the "not enough screentime" problem as Tatum.

I will say... and mild spoilers incoming... that bringing back Sophie Cookson for two scenes before getting rid of her for the remainder of the movie was a complete waste. I mean maybe she wasn't available for the whole movie, but it was disappointing the she wasn't better utilised.

And also in the mild spoiler territory, while Pedro Pascal does fine as the American agent they do team Eggsy up with, the movie couldn't signpost his eventual reveal (well, in broad strokes anyway, not in the specific details) any more than it did... if for no other reason that he's not in any of the posters.

To be perfectly honest though... while it was sweet that they brought Colin Firth back (again, not really hiding the fact, since he's on the posters and did press for the movie), but I kind of wish they hadn't. His return kind of crashes into the middle of the movie and grinds it to a halt for a bit, and there really isn't anything that he does that... just to pluck an idea out of absolutely nowhere... Tatum couldn't have done instead and equally well. Don't get me wrong, Firth is good, especially when he's playing the... again, spoilers... amnesiac version of Harry, there's a completely different expression in his eyes, he's clearly a totally different person... I just wonder if we needed any version of Harry.

Rounding out the cast are Halle Berry and Julianne Moore... Berry is great, but just seems to be completely underused (although in the cast of both her a Tatum, if the rumours of a third Kingsman movie and a possible Statesman spin off movie are true, they would both have much larger roles to play in both of those, I'm sure. But Moore is chewing the scenery in much the same way that Sam Jackson did in the first movie... but in a much weirder Stepford sociopath kind of way.

I will say that the technology feels a little more fantastical this time around... the first one it was more of a stretch that the tech could do what it was doing... this time around they've kind of gone over that hill and just kept on going. Which isn't to say that there's anything wrong with that, it just requires a little more suspension of disbelief.

Speaking of which, while the payoff(s) (there is technically more than one payoff) for the joke is okay, I probably could have done without all the Elton John sequences. Yes, they dragged poor Elton into this. And all of those scenes with him just feel weird. I don't know if it's because he feels like a little bit of a caricature of himself now anyway, or what, but I could have survived without him.

Again the costume design and production design in the movie are good, but not quite as strong as the first one (almost... but it's not quite as lush thing time around).

Like I said at the start, while it still feels like it's taking the spy movie genre and ramping everything up as far as they'll go, it doesn't feel quite polished this time around. It's still fun, with some genuine laughs, it's just not as good.

And as an aside, I'm also wondering if this is going to be the start of a trend of "villainous American presidents" on screen.

yani's rating: 3 whiskey bottles out of 5 

photo saturday: feathered friends

One day I would very much like to be able to make a lasagna that holds it's shape when cut and sits on the plate as a sweet little cube of meat and pasta and cheese.

I have yet to achieve this.

Which isn't to say the lasagna I made wasn't good... although possibly it contained a little too much cheese, given that there were at least four different kinds of cheese in it... it was just a little sloppy.

Otherwise it was a fairly average week.

DnD continues as usual... although the game on Wednesday was a little more emotionally fraught than usual. Long story, mostly only really relevant to the people who were playing, but myself and one other player got turned into werewolves, I went a little bit chaotic evil and the party ended up in-fighting. I actually came home on Wednesday night and kind of crashed mentally and emotionally. It was basically like I'd been running on adrenaline for several hours and when that stopped I just fell down a proverbial hole.

Yeah I know, I need either some therapy or to leave the house for something other than role playing games.

Speaking of leaving the house, I also had my haircut this week... which got moved from Thursday night to Friday day because of DnD. And it was the first time I had to go up to Tink's new house.

I will say that going up the freeway was only mostly nervewracking, especially as the speed limit is 100km and my car didn't seem to manage much above about 85km. So that was great. Actually coming back down the hill was a lot less traumatising to be honest.

And Tink's new place is... well, if you've ever watched an episode of Grand Designs where they're making one of those sleek, long, modern houses with gigantic windows and tall ceilings and whatnot... you're about 75% of the way to knowing how I felt when I rocked up.

It's really gorgeous though, and even if you can't see all the way down to the city, the place is surrounded by trees and it's all quite lovely. I can't say that I'd want something either that huge or in that location to be honest, but Tink seems happy with it, so that's the main thing.

The haircut itself was pretty standard, although this was just a toner session, not a colour session, but I did end up with quite silvery hair, which is awesome. For the time being I'm happy with still going up the hill, but I did make the next couple of appointments during the day, since I don't think I'm quite ready to drive up there after dark yet.

I also got a message about my next rental inspection, which is fine, although it would have been nicer if it had been on Wednesday instead of Thursday, so now I need to clear out of the house two days in a row. Also, it means that I need to spend all day Tuesday cleaning things up... although I'll probably split things between Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at this stage.

Fun times.

Today was the latest session in the "Let's do all the stuff we haven't been able to do for almost 12 months" greatest hits tour we've been on for the last few weeks.

It started with the usual shopping stuff. I decided (after getting to the supermarket) that quiche may be the best version of dinner I can make this week. It's going to be warmer, so I'll be able to have it either hot or cold, so that's good, although I'm not completely sure how many days worth I'll be able to get out of it... we'll see what happens.

After shopping and unpacking and all that stuff, we decided to head up to West Lakes, since a) we haven't been in a while and b) they had places we wanted to look at.

It was mostly just a general wander around, but it wasn't too bad and we picked up a few bits and pieces. And had some lunch, during which I remembered why I wasn't all that bothered about the place I bought lunch from, but it had been a while, so I'd forgotten.

So that's about it really.

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photo saturday: water day

One of the many downsides to not working is that a) you never remember that public holidays are coming up and b) they don't really mean anything to you when they do arrive.

This was how I greeted the public holiday at the beginning of this week.

Oh, I also made soup again this week, although this was the least interesting and most lackluster version I've managed in a while. I also think that it's coming to the end of soup season, which may also mean that I need to return to making actual food on a daily basis instead, which is... less advantageous.

Anyway, back to the public holiday. Because Monday is usually DnD night, but the place we usually do it was closed, we ended up doing it during the day. And basically most of the day. Well, 11am until about 4pm... and I only really got my ass into gear at about 10am, so basically most of the day.

I was surprised by the sheer number of people taking up space in town though. What the hell are you all doing, go home and be not here or something. I ended up having to park further away than I would have liked, but still made it there in time.

The rest of the week was more or less the same as usual (although the stretch between DnD on Monday and DnD on Wednesday seemed much longer for some reason, given it was only a few hours difference.

Otherwise, blah blah blah, same old same old.

Today was... well I can't really say atypical given that "typical" has been given a radical makeover in the last year, but Ma had her haircut scheduled for today, so I went shopping on my own. Which also meant that I really didn't get my shit together in a timely fashion, but still made it home and unpacked everything before Ma arrived.

Also, as a possible transition between soup and real food, I'm attempting to make lasagna this week. I say attempt because I'm somewhat winging it unless there's a useful recipe on the side of the noodle boxes, but we'll see what happens.

When Ma arrived, we headed into the city, primarily to drop some old books off at Oxfam. Now, I'd thought about that earlier this week and something in the back of my brain whispered something about their annual book sale, but I never got around to looking it up, essentially figuring "what are the odds", both that Ma would remember to bring her books down and that this weekend would actually be the booksale.

Yes, this weekend was the booksale.

On the upside, we were still able to drop the books off, and we dropped off a lot more than we bought, so it was a net win for both of us. We also noticed that the place that used to be Flinders Street Markets still has a market going on on a Saturday, so since we were so close, we stopped in briefly for a look.

Much the same as before to be honest, although maybe a little less packed. But definitely the same flavour.

From there we found a new carpark closer to the Mall... or tried to, we ended up having park in the same place I parked on Monday. So slightly more of a walk.

We had a bit of a wander, Ma bought some stuff and we called it a day. Nothing incredibly exciting, but better than the alternatives.

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