Oppenheimer…

I finally got round to seeing Oppenheimer - at the Vue in London’s glitzy Angel. 

Christopher Nolan deserves every gilt-edged adjective for his brilliant take on J. Robert Oppenheimer (a flawless Cillian Murphy), the dark knight of the atomic age. It was beautiful, terrifying, transfixing, stunning, and (let’s not forget) long. 

Yes, it is as epic in length as it is epic in its achievement. It will explode into screen history. 

Oscars surely beckon. 

🎥 👏 👏

Guests from Oz…

Fab having David and Andrew from Oz staying with us for the week. 

They even asked, actually asked, to see the Emirates Stadium and Wenger statue. ❤️

We can all breathe easy now that Ulez has expanded. 😅

Trinity Reunion…

I left Trinity College, Cambridge 39 years ago. And have met up with few of my fellow college since then. Life, and few broken hearts, got in the way. 

Happily Sarah corrected this gross omission on my part by arranging a Cambridge Friends Late Summer lunch at her place in Winchester. 

All the old gang were there; Sarah, John, Stuart, Bernard, Caroline, Matt, Dave, and Helen. Plus everyone’s partners. 

Great food, great company, loads (and loads) to catch up on. 

I helped jog a few rusty memories with a few hundred photos I’d recently had digitised too. 

We laughed. A lot. 

It was utterly delightful and utterly overwhelming. I was quite overcome. 

As we walked away five hours later to get our train back to London I had to hold back the tears. 

Thank you Sarah. @foxworld 

Arsenal 2 - 2 Fulham...

 A late equaliser saw 10-man Fulham claim a 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium, after we had fought back from a goal down to get ourselves in front.

The topsy-turvy affair started when Andreas Pereira stunned the home crowd when he netted within the first minute, but a second-half fightback saw Bukayo Saka score from the spot, and two minutes later Eddie Nketiah tucked home a Fabio Vieira cross to turn the game on its head.

Calvin Bassey was then dismissed for the Cottagers, but they still managed to hit back through Joao Palhinha with just four minutes remaining.

Next to Normal @ Donmar Warehouse...

A rock musical about mental illness? Well, we weren't quite sure what we were letting ourselves in for as we took our seats last night at the Donmar Warehouse in London's glitzy West End - but we needn't have worried. It was corker. Great songs, a powerful story, big twists and courage, wit and empathy aplenty.

 

The setting starts with a suburban family's daily routine but soon expands the very scope of subject matter for musicals.

 

In this new production (and it's had a long and successful life on Broadway) directed by Michael Longhurst, we see Caissie Levy play the lead role of the mother Diana Goodman. Jamie Parker plays her husband Dan. And their children Gabe and Natalie are played by Jack Wolfe and Eleanor Worthington Cox. 

 

The singing is all top notch and the live five-piece band who hover above the action are excellent. 

 

I won't give any of the plot away but there are plenty of trigger warnings before you go in; someone fainted towards the end of the first act and had to be removed, and Stuart had lots of comments about how realistic some of the medical procedures were!

 

If you like your musicals to be different, challenging, full of life, funny and very rewarding - this is the show for you.

 

Going to the Dogs...

 For Stuart's 50th birthday we went to the dogs again at Coral Romford Greyhound Stadium.  Great fun. 

Supper with Famalam…

Thank you Dawn for treating us all to supper last night. It’s been a pleasure having Angus to stay this week. 

Fun in the park with my niece Charlotte and grandnephew Manning…

How to earn the love of a grandnephew. Bribery. Bringing up kids is easier than I thought. You just buy them stuff. 😂