. . . more a Christmas production, The Borrowers at Keswick's famous Theatre by the Lake is quite a clever version of the popular children's book. It's hard to portray characters who are small enough to live under the floorboards on the same stage as others who are full-sized "human beans" but they did a passable job of creating the illusion of different sizes by using a variety of techniques including our favourite - the miniature puppet versions of the Borrowers, whose little arms moved, and who seemed able to walk around the stage. We never quite figured out how they did that.
The kids loved it, and that's the main thing. Some of the adults, though, found the seats too small and too close together - Steve and I were both very glad to get up and walk about in the interval - me, because the seat was too high for my short legs, and Steve because there wasn't enough space for his longer ones. I seem to remember the seats downstairs in the stalls being a lot more comfortable - something to remember if you're planning to book there.
KESWICK SHOPS CLOSED AGAIN
Once again, though, Keswick missed a trick by not opening up for business on a bank holiday when a lot of potential customers were wandering the streets looking for something to do. I'd hoped to grab an espresso in one of the excellent coffee shops that have sprung up in recent years, but they were all shut. The few cafés that were open were doing a roaring trade, funnily enough, and the only other shops open were the outdoor gear shops, which, I suspect, never close at all, as of course there is a constant demand for yet more fleece jackets.
INTERNET DODGERS
The obvious questions are, (a) why would anyone want to dodge the internet and (b) assuming such people do exist, why do they need a café in which to do it? Oh, and is that somewhat pissed-off looking Santa one of said Internet Dodgers? At least they've got a satellite dish, so while they're studiously avoiding the internet they can amuse themselves with sky TV.
EVEN CHRIS IS AT IT NOW
Hmmm. Even Chris has now started a blog, and plans to write something every day! I can't believe he'll keep it up: well, I didn't manage it, did I? The minute life started getting busy, and things worth writing about started happening, I ceased to have time to write them down, and the blog got forgotten.
However . . . let's see which of us drops out first, eh?
CHRISTMAS DAY
This is Smokey Joe, my in-laws' new young lurcher. She's a nice wee dog, and seems - so far - well behaved.
Pretty decent Christmas. Nothing awful happened, despite having 8 people (with a 60-year age gap between the youngest and the oldest) and 2 dogs present, as well as 2 more dogs and 2 cats absent (i.e., left at our house while we had Christmas dinner elsewhere). Even finding the poor cats had been left outside in the rain all afternoon didn't cause any particular trouble. They just came inside on our return, licked themselves dry and settled down for the evening. Everyone got at least some presents they were really happy with, nobody was sick, nobody fell out with anyone else, and even my flat tyre was only a little bit soft and worked fine once we found a garage with a working air machine.
We are now looking forward to a family trip to see The Borrowers at Keswick tomorrow afternoon.
. . . more a Christmas production, The Borrowers at Keswick's famous Theatre by the Lake is quite a clever version of the popular children's book. It's hard to portray characters who are small enough to live under the floorboards on the same stage as others who are full-sized "human beans" but they did a passable job of creating the illusion of different sizes by using a variety of techniques including our favourite - the miniature puppet versions of the Borrowers, whose little arms moved, and who seemed able to walk around the stage. We never quite figured out how they did that.