Happy Australia Day
G'Day all. Missed having Australia day back home. Ended up at my work's (belated) Christmas party on Australia day at a Scandinavian bar in London. It was fun trying all different drinks from Finland (beer), Sweden (vodka drinking it via an ice luge), and Denmark (water!). Will have to break out the Tim Tams next week
Play School - for adults
We were lucky enough to see a pantomine on our wedding anniversary eve. It was Aladdin and the headline actor was Sir Ian McKellen (aka Gandalf and Magneto). Now, I've never seen a pantomine before so I was slightly mystified when people started booing and hissing at one of the evil lead characters until Tina explained that you are sposed to interact by booing, hissing, clapping and generally helping those on stage when given the appropriate cues. (For those with psych or design backgrounds, I could start digressing about schemas and scripts and how people who do not have the appropriate scripts will not understand what and how to behave, but I won't).
Basically, a pantomine is like Play School for adults and quite enjoyable once you grasp this concept. For some reason, I enjoyed it more than Tina. I guess that says something about my maturity/cultural levels since she likes the ballet, and I like Play School for adults.
Anyway, Sir Ian McKellen was playing Dame Twanky - the mother to Aladdin. As you expect for someone who has been in so many big name films, he is a really good actor - even when playing a woman. And to top it all off - they worked in the Gandalf line for Ian McKellen "one ring to rule them all". That was worth the ticket price...
