Murders, Madness, Revenge and Whatnot

The highlight of yesterday's trip to Stratford was a visit to the town's newest tea house/coffee shop: To Bean or Not to Bean.

Thank you, thank you very much, I'm here all week. Try the veal.

The raison d'roadtrip was to see David Tennant and Patrick Stewart in the Royal Shakespeare Company's newest mounting of Hamlet. It doesn't open until Tuesday so by all accounts reviews aren't appropriate.

That said ('cause I'm always appropriate), it was a good production (first act better than second) and said stars did what they needed to do without blowing the roof off the theatre.

The big surprise of the night was Oliver Ford Davies' Polonius. The night completely belonged to him and his brilliantly hysterical performance of a dithering old man (although the giggly girls who tittered every time Tennant pulled a face or made a funny voice ... none of which he hasn't made as the Doctor ... may beg to differ).

Today was a perfect rainy day. A bit of a lie-in (didn't get home from Bardsville until almost 2am) and then most all of the sofa, watching a collection of the past few months' Sky+ed episodes of The Closer and doing the NY Times Sunday crossword. Life be good.

Tomorrow is more theatre (Harper Regan at the National) and then up to Edinburgh on Thursday for a long weekend of the Festival with assorted friends who'll represent 4 cities, 3 countries and 2 continents.

Yeah, you can call me yogurt ... I'm just a big tub of culture.