Puerto Rico: Day 1

Stuart, Regenersaurus Rex, and I are on our way to Puerto Rico to help a close friend celebrate his 50th birthday.  First stop Miami though. 

Slight moan: American Airlines are rubbish. Shit food. Shit service. $29 for 2 hours WiFi (many airlines do it free these days). You have to pay extra for luggage (if you can find the right section of their shit web site / app to actually do it - we couldn’t). Moan over.

The Wind in the Willows @ Wyllyotts Theatre…

It was great fun watching Rat(ty), Mole(y), Badger, and Mr Toad take on the weasels and the stoats last night at the Wyllyotts Theatre in glitzy Potters Bar at the ELODS production of The Wind the Willows musical. 

Roger has a lovely singing voice and his comedic turn as Ratty was a scream. 

The hedgehogs’ song about road safety was a winner. 

Show must end Saturday! 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

An Evening with Pet Shop Boys…

On Monday night I went to the old Guardian offices in London’s glitzy Kings Cross to listen to the new Pet Shop Boys album in an early listening session and to hear and watch the boys be interviewed for an hour and a half about the album, their career, their inspirations, and their views pop music and the world in general.

It was fantastic – the album and the interview.

Listening to a new Pet Shop Boys album is like being introduced to new friends. Some you take to immediately, others you think you’re get to like when you spend more time with them. There are some bangers. There are some beautiful slow songs. There are some delightfully melodic insightful songs with a story behind them. 

The new album is quite orchestral, it is very much a Pet Shop Boys album in its sound and themes, and my only comment might be perhaps Chris leans rather more on the bossa-nova button then he has done late. 

The album is out on Friday - when you will have a chance to listen for yourselves.

 

Sticks Like Sh*t…

As the old saying goes ‘when you’ve got a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’

Well today my friends, nobody is safe from me and my Sticks Like Sh*t! Not even Twiggy. 😁

I love talking to Americans 🇺🇸…

Underdog: The Other Other Brontë @ Dorfman Theatre...

Last Friday night Stuart and I went to the Dorfman Theatre on London's glitzy South Bank to see Sarah Gordon's Underdog: The Other Other Brontë.

 

The play is a modern mashup of stand-up comedy and history play that pits a dislikeable version of Charlotte Brontë against her two sisters Emily and Anne.

 

Charlotte (Gemma Whelan) wants to be famous and so downplays no-nonsense Emily (Adele James) and all but kills Anne's (Rhiannon Clements) career - even preventing a reprint of Anne’s most popular novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

 

It's quick-witted and fun if some glaring modern-day lessons on masculinity and inequality seem rather tacked on.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

 

Wolves 0 - 2 Arsenal...

It was great watching the game last night with the gaygooners. But Wolverhampton though? What a place. Battered chips anyone? :-)

 

Luckily the Gunners were back to winning ways after what had otherwise been a fairly shaky week on the pitch. I say luckily, the game was actually pretty one-sided as Arsenal put their mid-week Champions League disappointment firmly in the past to beat Wolves at the Molineux and move back to the top of the Premier League.

 

Leandro Trossard slotted in a blinder of a strike just before half-time and Martin Ødegaard scored a second deep into extra time turning in from a tight angle after his initial cross had been blocked.

 

The result means Arsenal are now a point clear of Man City, with a better goal difference but having played a game more.

 

It's going to be a fun run-in to the end of the season. And by 'fun' I mean nerve-racking of course.

 

Onward and upward my friends.     

 

@Arsenal  

#COYG  

#WOLARS 

@gaygooners

 

 

London Tide @ Lyttelton Theatre…

It was a 42 minute dash from the moment my much-delayed KLM flight touched down at London City Airport to me sitting next to Stuart, G&T in hand, at the Lyttelton Theatre to watch Ben Power’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend, now a musical and renamed London Tide, aptly situated on London’s glitzy South Bank. 

So, was it worth the sprint? Ish. But only ish. 

National Theatre yup

Great cast yup

Dickens yup

Complex plotting yup

Boarish men yup

Self-sacrificing women yup

The odd murder yup

Heaps of melodrama yup

Music by PJ Harvey yup

Clever set design and staging yup

But… but…. The songs were dirge. The singing iffy. The production over-long and boring. A few fell asleep. 😴 

At three hours in, one of leads stands at the waters’ edge for what seems like an age contemplating suicide. 

I muttered, “jump” 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bayern Munich 1 - 0 Arsenal…

Great to watch the second leg of the Champions League Quarter Final in the Allianz Arena stadium with many of the gaygooners last night.   

Less good was our performance and the score.  

With so much at stake for both teams, it was perhaps understandable chances were in limited supply.   

The first half was almost boring - but the second half was a livelier affair.  Leon Goretzka heading against the post before Guerreiro's follow up was scrambled away by Raya, also via the post. 

But Kimmich's attacking header proved decisive and ensured Arsenal's wait to win the Champions League for the first time goes on.  

A very disappointing result to put it mildly. 

Back to the Premiership and hopefully winning ways again on Saturday.   

Onward and upward my friends.     

@Arsenal  

#COYG  

#BAYARS 

@gaygooners

Meetup in Munich…

Good @gaygooners got to meet some of the Bayern Munich @QueerpassBayern group last night before the @FCBayern v @Arsenal 2nd leg QF match tonight. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Thanks for organising @carljfearn 

May the best team win. And by best team I mean @Arsenal of course. 🔴⚪️⚽️

Bayern Bound…

Bayern! We are coming for you!

@Arsenal

@Regenersaurus

#BAYARS